philosophy-3
Explanation
The Joke
Two characters discuss whether philosophy teaches us truth or is just a sort of conversational game. One character describes her earnest philosophical journey: she tried reading Socrates but found his virtue-based approach too preachy; she moved to the Stoics like Marcus Aurelius but found Stoicism was lowering her overall happiness; she tried reading Kant but found his rules too rigid; she tried Camus and existentialism but found it too bleak. Each major school of philosophy is tried and found wanting for practical, personal reasons.
When asked what this long intellectual quest ultimately led her to, she reveals: "Mostly I sit and watch cartoons all day." The grand philosophical journey, through all the great thinkers of Western philosophy, has led her right back to doing nothing intellectually demanding at all.
The Humor
The humor comes from the enormous contrast between the highbrow intellectual pursuit and the mundane conclusion. The character has genuinely engaged with Socrates, the Stoics, Kant, and Camus -- a survey of some of the most important philosophical traditions in Western thought -- and her considered, philosophically-informed conclusion is to watch cartoons. This is funny because it parodies the way people sometimes use philosophy as a journey of self-discovery only to end up exactly where they started, and it also pokes fun at the idea that deep engagement with philosophy should lead to some profound life change. There is also a self-referential layer, since the reader is themselves reading a cartoon (SMBC) that frequently deals with philosophical topics.
References
The comic references several major figures and schools in Western philosophy: Socrates (ancient Greek virtue ethics), Marcus Aurelius (Roman Stoicism), Immanuel Kant (deontological ethics and categorical imperatives), and Albert Camus (absurdism and existentialism).