Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

flourishing

2023-05-16 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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flourishing
Votey panel for flourishing
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Explanation

The comic takes on the philosophical concept of "human flourishing" (eudaimonia). A student asks a professor about the term, and the professor explains that "flourishing comes from the ancient Greek concept of eudaimonia, which translates to 'human flourishing' - basically what's been approved by philosophers."

The professor then provides a test: "If you can start a sentence with 'every human being should...' and finish it without anyone making a straight face, it's human flourishing. Love, compassion, beauty, truth, the good."

The student pushes back: "You seem to reject these ideas." The professor reveals: "Isn't everyone's idea of flourishing getting a blow job from Dracula?" The student is taken aback, and the final panel reveals this is "called a Fellatio Eudaimonia."

The joke satirizes academic philosophy's attempt to define universal human flourishing. Weinersmith is poking fun at how philosophers try to establish objective standards for the good life while actual human desires are far messier, more idiosyncratic, and more absurd than any philosophical framework can accommodate. The highbrow Greek terminology colliding with a crude punchline is classic SMBC - using the juxtaposition of academic language and lowbrow humor to highlight the gap between philosophical ideals and human reality.

View History (1) Original Comic