History Webcomic / ExistentialComics

* CantArgueWithElves: You most certainly can when you are Foucault, Chomsky and Fanon. Chomsky, in a parody of his usual style of criticizing America's foreign policy, cites a poll (conducted [[VerbalTic by Sindar no less]]) showing that, in the eyes of Hobbits, Dwarves, Humans, Trolls and Orcs, the greatest threat to the peace of Middle-Earth was the elves.

* StrawCharacter: While many comics make fun of all philosophers pretty much equally, when Corey feels strongly about a topic he makes it clear that only an idiot or a reprobate could possibly disagree with him. Capitalism versus communism is a frequent example (he seems to support anarcho-communist ideas that have rarely been tested), as well as the value of philosophy (anyone who is unimpressed with it as a field is an entitled moron who just want rich white guys to be in charge of everything forever - and never mind that Corey has some pretty snarky things to say about various philosophers and about philosophy in general himself, that being a large part of what the comic is usually about). Characters (usually real philosophers) who hold such views exist only to appear and be shot down, mostly while being made to look like idiots/horrible.

* TheEeyore: Kirkegaard and Schopenhauer both consider life to be inherently awful.

** Daniel Dennett is the only New Atheist from ''Sam Harris: Powerful Philosopher'' who occasionally turns up in some other comics and is presented as an actual philosopher (which he is), whose philosophical opinions are given any amount of respect-as opposed to Dawkins, Hitchens, and especially Harris, who are all mocked as incompetents. Indeed, the text accompanying the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' parody aligns pretty closely with Dennett's view of compatibilism.

* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: The issue of how much (if any) free will people have, plus what it even means, is discussed in detail with "[[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/70 A Dialogue On Compatibilism]]". Cory later argues that in fact the compatibilist view makes more sense and is ''less'' counter-intuitive, contrary to many claims, using ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' (and {{time travel}} in general) [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/278 as an example]].

** A number of his comics parody utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham, who founded the philosophy, specifically) by taking it to an extreme (Bentham's view has been frequently criticized for its unpleasant implications of this kind).

* {{Nerd}}: The [[StrawVulcan Logical Positivists of the Vienna Circle]] are dorky [[EvenNerdsHaveStandards even by the standards of philosophers]].

* GambitPileup: "Existential Hour" has Creator/AlbertCamus only speaking in vague quotes in his interview with Creator/JeanPaulSartre because he knows that Sartre is just going to do something ridiculous in the name of radical freedom. Sartre then reveals that he isn't ''going'' to do radical freedom, but that he already turned off the cameras before the interview. Camus replies that he noticed the cameras were off and he turned them back on.

** Jean-Paul Sartre shouting "Radical Freedom!" and doing things completely at random.

** Socrates being an obnoxious jerk who starts philosophical debates out of nowhere.

* BadassBeard: There are a ''lot'' of impressive facial hairs on display, but the most badass ones are probably [[RebelLeader Karl Marx's]] and [[RatedMForManly Aristotle's]]. [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/148 One comic]] on the Young Hegelians was all about this.

* StrawmanFallacy: Subverted in [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/182 this comic]], where at first Creator/JacquesDerrida's philosophy is claimed to deny rationality, then the author explains in the notes that it didn't actually. It's expanded with [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/185 another comic]].

* {{Troll}}: {{Creator/Socrates}} is depicted as this, even barging in on other people and showering them with questions when they aren't in a conversation with him to start. The author notes this may have helped to get him killed, as his veiled insults toward the judges at his trial were not the best strategy for saving himself (presuming he didn't want to be martyred). Zeno of Elea mostly cites his famous paradoxes as excuses for his misbehavior.