Patch Adams believed that laughter cured everything. Sometimes life takes us by surprise with its ironic humor, as if inviting us to laugh at human contradictions, perhaps hoping that by laughing at ourselves we will learn what it is to live.
Aquiles Nazoa (1920 – 1976), a Venezuelan humorist, defined humor as: “a way of making people think without them realizing that they are thinking”.
Different disciplines have tried to address the complexity of the human condition, and in this task, humor has been able to take advantage of the human capacity to laugh and has managed to interpret reality by highlighting the comic, absurd and ridiculous side of things.
In Overheard Conversations we have selected 21 comics about the ironies of life and human contradictions.
Overheard Conversations collects real animal stories with human problems in a social satire webcomic.
Human Nature | C-Section Comics
Cognitive Dissonance: Why do we tend to say one thing and do another? In the webcomic “Human Nature“, C-Section Comics explores the difficulty of human beings to see their own condition objectively.
Yes But
Yes But is a fun collection of human contradictions. In this funny comic by Gudim Anton it is inevitable to ask: how true is the adage, ‘If you love something, let it go’?
The failure of Philosophical Idealism | Overheard Conversations
“The failure of Philosophical Idealism” is a funny webcomic by Overheard Conversations that tells a story in which utopia meets harsh reality.
The Void | War and Peas
War and peas is a fun webcomic that is not afraid to be scathing. The void explores the human capacity to define the order of their priorities, even if sometimes the order of their priorities turns against them.
Rewriting Extinction | Dino and Comics
The following funny comic strip is a contribution of Dinos and Comics to the Rewriting Extinction project, an interesting initiative that encourages awareness of those human problems that jeopardize their future.
Oppression | Sinfest
Oppression is an allegorical perfume in which Sinfest uses irony to represent the hypocrisy of contemporary society.
Shortcut | Raph Comic
Raph Comic portrays in Shortcut with a great sense of humor one of life’s greatest ironies: “kids want to become adults faster and adults want to become kids again“.
Dmitri Piankok
Many times our dreams or our parents’ expectations are not met. Dmitri Piankok imagines this misfortune in a very funny way.
Gudim Anton
Gudim Anton is a human irony detector. Enjoy this amusing sequence of human contradictions.
Freedom | Bonus Context
We are great philosophers to opine on the condition of others and blind to judge our own circumstances. Bonus Context represents this absurdity in Freedom.
Unicorn | Bonus Context
Have you ever heard the saying “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig”? Bonus Context rethinks it in Unicorn with his peculiar humorous style.
Zen Bunny | Comic Of The Apes
Sometimes, harsh reality can be harsh in the face of the exercise of trying to cope with existence, in Zen Bunny, Comic Of The Apes pits reality against subjectivity.
Van Life | Anemone Lost
What yesterday was considered failure tomorrow may take the form of progress. Van Life is a funny comic by Anemone Lost that captures the irony in the paradigm shifts that accompany generational change.
How I Sleep | Anemone Lost
Byung-Chul Han considers that we live in “The Burnout Society”, a scenario in which self-demand has turned us into anxious and exhausted individuals. The Anemone Lost comic How I Sleep can be considered a portrait of this contemporary condition.
The Philosophy of Love | Overheard Conversations
“The Philosophy of Love” is an ironic webcomic by Overheard Conversations that reminds us “never to underestimate your opponent“.
Society | Alec’s Comics
In the funny comic “Society”, Alec’s Comics imagines what happens when free will is challenged by the imposition of institutions that lack the public’s trust.
Mike Organisciak
“Kids don’t do what you say. They do what they see” is the central idea of this ironic comic by Mike Organisciak.
Jim Benton
Jim Benton, in just 2 panels depicts how contradictory and complicated our lives can be. How can we hold firm to our goals in the face of the inclement vagaries of reality?
Penguin Enemy | The Perry Bible Fellowship (PBF)
PBF comics has created Penguin Enemy. Does this sound familiar? A group of individuals argue indefinitely about the problems that affect them, while the problems remain unsolved.
