by Robert Luciani
31. January 2011
I picked up this Times Bestseller at an airport pocket-book store while waiting for a connecting flight. Normally I stay away from shelves with a “bestseller” sign since they only contain banal things like stories about teenage vampires falling in love or never-before-told secrets on how to get rich fast / be happy / loose weight. This book however, had a title which was hard for me to resist. I was skeptical at first because on the cover it stood “understanding philosophy through jokes”, which made me wonder how much philosophy such a small book could contain. I picked it up, flipped to a page in the middle, and started laughing at the jokes. As I paid for the orange paperback I thought, “One bestseller can’t hurt…”
This amusing book explains the most famous ideas in philosophy using comical anecdotes, and one thing it does very well is transition from philosophy to humor in a seamless and unstrained manner. In fact, philosophy seems to lend itself perfectly to humor since the subjects it often discusses are meant to flip reality, define morals, and single out (often uncomfortable) truths of life. Here are some short gags.
Empiricism, or what data can we trust:
Morty comes home to find his wife and his best-friend, Lou, together in bed.
Just as Morty is about to open his mouth, Lou jumps out of the bed and says,
“Before you say anything, old pal, what are you going to believe, me or your eyes?”
Heidegger’s existentialist anxiety:
A customer in a restaurant asks, “How do you prepare your chickens?”
The cook answers, “Oh, nothing special really. We just tell them they’re gonna die”
Subscribe