Michel Foucault - Existential Comics

A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

The Life and Philosophy of Michel Foucault

Caption: "Foucault at school. "

Teacher: "Recess isn't for another half hour, Foucault, right now you have to study."
Child Foucault: "This school is nothing but a prison!"

Child Foucault: "Don't you see all see? The teachers use disciplinary techniques to create docile bodies to integrate us into global capitalism! "

Teacher: "Okay but recess still isn't until 10:00."

Caption: "Foucault at the hospital."

Receptionist: "Sit in the waiting room until the doctor calls you."
Young Foucault: "Waiting room? More like the prison room!"

Young Foucault: "The very architecture of this hospital is a monument to the surveillance and disciplinary society that it represents!"
Receptionist: "Okay but...it's just that the doctor is busy with another patient right now..."

Caption: "Foucault at the prison."

Foucault: "Prisons are integrated into a complex disciplinary network that-"
Prison Guard: "Hey! If you don't shut up I'll put you in the hole for a week."

Foucault: "The whole punishment paradigm-"
Prison Guard, grabbing him: "I WARNED YOU!"

Foucault, locked in solitary confinement: "Hmm, it turns out this may be somewhat different than schools and hospitals."

"Prison, it totally sucks man, even worse than I thought." - Michel Foucault, probably, if he ever experienced prison life first hand.

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/352

Foucault Builds a School

It turns out the real prison is having to be the guy who runs the prison.

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/343

Jeremy Bentham Designs a Prison

Jeremy Bentham: "You see, in a civilized society, the purpose of prison should not be punishment, but rehabilitation."
Foucault: "That sounds good."

Bentham: "When the prisoners first enter the prison, all of their old habits will need to be wiped away."
Foucault: "Smart, how do we do that?"

Bentham: "Well, we put them in solitary confinement! This allows them to quietly reflect on their thoughts and clear their minds."
Foucault: "Okay...how long does that last?"

Bentham: "Oh, i'd say no more than one or two years. You don't want them to still have left over criminal thoughts!"
Foucault: "Uh..."

Bentham: "And then when they join the rest of the prisoners, they will still have individual cells, so they can't converse with the other criminals. All the cells will be a arranged in a circle, with clear walls so someone standing in the center of the prison could always see what everyone was doing, at all times."

Bentham: "And in the center, a tower whose eye can gaze into each cell, but into which they cannot see. They will never know if the gaze of the tower is upon them."

Bentham: "The all seeing, all knowing gaze of the tower watches over them, ensuring at all times that the moral code of the warden is followed. None will dare misbehave for even a moment, knowing that the watchful eye of the law could always be upon them!"

Foucault: "Right...i don't know, doesn't it seem a little....supervillainy?"

Bentham: "What?! Why? What is supervillainy about that?"
Foucault: "uh...everything?"

Bentham: "Is it supervillainy to try to create a world with the greatest happiness for the greatest number?"

Bentham: "It is “supervillainy” to try to reform prisoners so they can return to society? Is it supervillainy try to educate them?"

Bentham: "Is it supervillainy to create an elaborate system of all encompassing surveillance and control that stamps out all dissent in order to creating a perfect world? A world with no ugliness, no pain, no vice, a world where all are forced to be happy!"

Bentham: "Okay, i did hear myself getting a bit supervillainy in that last one, but i still think overall it's a good idea."

"But you don't understand, they will be happy in the end to be subjugated completely to my will."

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/303

The Game of Life

Foucault's Editor: "could you maybe try to state your point a little more clearly and concisely?" Foucault: "clear writing is one island of the carceral archipelago; binding, punishing, surveillance at all times the mind of the writer, forcing his thoughts to break down into so called scientific modes of grammar, that confine creativity and restrict freedom into contained and approved modes of expression." Editor: "...what?" Foucault: "In other words, no, I won't."

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/249

The Postmodernists

that part about the lyres is totally true btw

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/224

The Council of Elrond

On second thought, maybe I'll just use the ring real quick to put down this communist revolution. In fact, maybe I should work with Sauron to stamp out communism everywhere...

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/175

France's Next Great Philosopher

The good looking guy won.

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/167

The Bar Fight

Not shown: Camus triumphantly rebelling against the absurd by picking up a woman at the bar.

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/146

The French Play Monopoly

Most people don't realize this, but according to the official rules if you play with the top hat you can't go to jail.

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/135

World Cup Philosophy: Germany vs France

For best results, the commentator should be read in the voice of Michael Palin

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/35

Dungeons & Dragons & Philosophers

About half the time spent on this comic was spent on figuring out how exactly Simone de Beauvoir's hair works, and it still ended up looking terrible. I make no apologies for Derrida's hair, however, for no artist alive can capture that glorious mane.

Permanent Link to this Comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/23