epicurean
Explanation
This comic satirizes people who casually identify with ancient philosophical schools without having studied them.
A person declares: "I follow the philosophy of Epicurus, which is the philosophy of being at peace with what you have." Another person immediately objects: "No it's not!" and challenges: "Have you actually read this stuff? Epicureans had theories of happiness, but they also had crazy stuff!" The challenger explains that Epicureans "thought the gods were passive because we can detect the films they emit with their bodies -- they thought eyes came into existence before sight did."
"Every ancient school of thought did this?" the first person asks. The challenger confirms: "Stoics, Cynics, Epicureans all had unworkable systems of logic and stupid pre-scientific beliefs, and whole incorrect cosmologies, and modern people don't care!"
The challenger concludes: "They just want to read a standard self-help manual, but supposedly founded in ancient philosophy so you don't have to feel shame." The self-proclaimed Epicurean responds: "As an Epicurean, I am at peace with not having read the primary literature of my philosophy." The other person screams: "AAAAAA!"
The humor targets the modern trend of adopting labels like "Epicurean" or "Stoic" based on simplified, self-help-style summaries while ignoring the actual historical content of these philosophies -- which included bizarre proto-scientific theories, strange cosmological beliefs, and logical systems that do not hold up to modern scrutiny. The final punchline is perfectly circular: the self-proclaimed Epicurean uses the pop version of Epicureanism (being at peace with what you have) as a justification for not reading actual Epicurean texts, which is exactly the kind of shallow appropriation the critic was complaining about. The screaming reaction captures the frustration of anyone who has studied philosophy and encountered this phenomenon.