stoicism
Explanation
The Joke
A Stoic philosopher, standing before a Greek temple, declares that hedonists are wrong to give in to momentary pleasure, saying it is not the true path to happiness. He explains that as a Stoic, he sometimes denies himself a desire purely to prove to himself that it means nothing to him -- and that this self-denial is itself the pleasure of the Stoic. A modern-looking man points out the contradiction: this is still hedonism, just with the general category of "pleasure" replaced by the specific pleasure of smugness from self-denial. The Stoic insists he could go without smugness if he chose to, and the man replies, "I choose not to."
The Humor
The comic identifies a classic philosophical paradox within Stoicism: if you take pleasure in your own self-denial, then your asceticism is just another form of hedonism. The Stoic is essentially a connoisseur of smugness rather than of wine or food -- he has simply found a more rarefied pleasure to indulge in. When confronted with this, his defense ("I could go without smugness if I chose to") only reinforces the point, because the very act of choosing not to give up smugness is itself an indulgence. The final line, "I choose not to," is the perfect comedic admission that he prefers being smug about his virtue to actually practicing it consistently.
References
- Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. Stoics advocated virtue, reason, and self-control as paths to happiness, and taught that one should be indifferent to pleasure and pain.
- Hedonism is the philosophical position that pleasure is the highest good. The Epicureans were the most famous ancient proponents, and they were frequent philosophical rivals of the Stoics.