From Gilgamesh

The river rises, flows over its banks
and carries us all away, like mayflies
floating downstream: they stare at the sun,
then all at once there is nothing.

to The Sopranos

Melfii: Sounds to me like Anthony junior may have stumbled onto existentialism.
Tony: Fuckin’ internet!
Melfi: No, no, no. It’s a European philosophy.

Anthony Gottlieb returned students at New York’s New School to the good old days when philosophy was about the world – and it was meaningless.

And then there’s my favorite old existential philosopher joke:

Professor to inquiring student, “Are you talking about nothing as nothing or nothing as something?”

And:

Ah, youth! Ah, meaningful despair!

AJA