free-will-2
Explanation
The Joke
Two people are having a philosophical debate about free will. One asks, "Do you believe in free will?" The other responds emphatically: "No! Will is my servant and he will never be granted freedom!" This is a deliberate misunderstanding of the philosophical concept of "free will" -- interpreting it as the question of whether a person named Will should be set free from servitude, rather than the deep metaphysical question about whether human choices are predetermined.
The first person then says "That seems... harsh." But the servant-owner doubles down: "Nothing is random. All is predetermined." This second statement is a return to the actual philosophical position of determinism (the view that free will does not exist because all events are causally determined), but it now carries a darkly comic double meaning -- the person is using a legitimate philosophical argument to justify keeping another human being in slavery, as if Will's enslavement was simply fate.
The Humor
The joke works through a pun on "free will" that connects two very different meanings, then brilliantly merges them. The philosophical position of hard determinism ("nothing is random, all is predetermined") is recontextualized as a justification for slavery, which is both absurd and darkly funny. The final panel, which appears to show the enslaved Will in chains, drives home how a seemingly abstract philosophical debate can take on horrifying real-world implications when applied literally. It is a classic SMBC move of taking a philosophical concept and following its logic to an uncomfortable extreme.