Existential Comics: Philosophy Jokes That Are Also a Philosophy Course

Existential Comics is a webcomic in which the entire history of Western philosophy is treated as a cast of recurring characters who all know each other and mostly cannot stand each other. Kant refuses to lie to a murderer at the door. Diogenes lives in a barrel and heckles. Nietzsche shouts. Marx has opinions about Disney princesses. It is genuinely funny, and then you scroll down and find an explanation that turns out to be a better introduction to the topic than most textbook chapters.

What is Existential Comics?

It is a one-person project by Corey Mohler, running since 2013 and now approaching a thousand strips. Updates are roughly weekly, which over a decade adds up to something closer to an encyclopedia than a comic.

The premise is simple and enormously productive: take a philosopher’s actual position, take it completely seriously, and then place the person holding it in a normal human situation. Kant’s categorical imperative is a joke generator. So is Zeno’s inability to finish anything, Berkeley’s idealism, Camus’s shrug, and any attempt to get a room full of analytic philosophers to agree on what a bar tab is.

Underneath most comics sits a paragraph or two of straight prose explaining the idea being ribbed. This is the part that makes the site an education rather than an in-joke. The explanations are conversational and unpatronizing: they assume you are smart and that nobody has ever explained compatibilism to you, both of which are usually true.

The archive is organized by more than date. Comics fall into recognizable formats, including short serious “existential comics” that are closer to fable than gag strip, philosophical dialogues, and the “Philosophy News Network” bits that report on the discipline as if it were breaking news. There is also a long tail of straightforwardly terrible philosophy jokes, and the site cheerfully labels them as such.

The politics are not hidden. Mohler is a leftist and the comic is warmest toward Marx and the Cynics and coldest toward anyone defending existing arrangements. If you go in expecting a neutral survey you will be surprised; if you go in expecting a point of view you will have a good time either way.

What can you do with Existential Comics?

• Read the latest strip. The homepage is the newest comic, with its explanation directly beneath it.
• Sort the archive by philosopher. Pick a name and read every appearance in order. It is a strange but effective way to get a feel for one thinker’s whole shape.
• Sort by topic or popularity. Topic gives you a themed reading list on ethics, free will, or logic. Popularity gives you the greatest hits, which is the fastest way in.
• Use the explanations as a reading list. They name the arguments and the people, which makes them excellent search terms for going deeper.
• Follow the dialogues. The longer Socratic-style strips on happiness, morality and freedom work as standalone essays.
• Browse the recommended links. The sidebar points to philosophy podcasts and other webcomics, and the picks are good.
• Support it if you use it. Patreon and Ko-Fi links sit under every comic, which is how a free decade-long archive stays free.

Tips to get the most out of it

Always read the text under the comic. This is the single most common mistake. The strip is the hook; the paragraph beneath it is the actual content, and skipping it turns a philosophy site into a joke site.

Start with the popular sort, not the beginning. Ten years of archive is intimidating from strip one. The most-read comics are popular because they land without context.

Pick a philosopher you already half-know. Reading everything tagged with Nietzsche or Kant in one sitting builds a real mental model of that person’s commitments, because the jokes only work if the position is rendered accurately.

Treat it as a map, not a destination. When an explanation makes you curious, that is the site working correctly. Take the name to a podcast, a lecture, or a primary text.

Do not expect impartiality. The comic argues as well as explains. Reading it against something with a different slant is more useful than reading it as gospel.

Send strips to people. Half the value of this site is that it is the only philosophy content most of your friends will voluntarily open.

If you like Existential Comics, also try…

• xkcd 1975: Right Click: another webcomic that hides an absurd amount of work inside one panel.
• Arts & Letters Daily: a daily feed of essays and criticism for when the comic makes you want the long version.
• The Evolution of Trust: an interactive explainer that turns game theory and cooperation into something you play.
• Futility Closet: puzzles, paradoxes and historical oddities in the same curious register.

More things that teach you something while pretending not to in Learning & Education, with the sillier end of the spectrum over in Entertainment & Fun.