Life, 1924-09-25 · page 10 of 37
Life — September 25, 1924 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece by Don Herald critiques what he calls "happiness" culture—the era's proliferation of magazine articles and expert advice claiming everyone *should* be happy. The cartoon's title, "The Happychondriacs," puns on "hypochondriacs" (people obsessed with illness). Herald argues that constant messaging about happiness actually makes people *miserable* by suggesting contentment is a problem requiring expert solutions. He notes politicians, auctioneers, and dinner speakers all peddle happiness advice, creating what he calls "cuckoo-cola" mass culture designed to distract from genuine discontent. The accompanying illustration shows domestic chaos—an airplane crash in the backyard—yet the caption suggests absurd optimism about such disasters, embodying Herald's point about forced cheerfulness despite real problems.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LP E, = 0 O 2 LE ; farm, mM vorld The Happychondriacs A Plea for More Unhappiness By Don Herold IX almost every magazine and news- paper you pick up these days you will find something written by a high salaried ecstasy expert to cheer you up and put pep into you and tell you how to be happy. The writers of these articles secm to be making a success of their work, because the world never was so full of happy people as it is to- day. It is almost impossible to get away from them. A man said to me the other day: “There is a sort of restlessness in the air. People everywhere are filled with discontent. Have you noticed it?” “No,” I replied. “People are hap- pier to-day than they ever were. There is a universal murmur of contentment. Satisfaction is in the air. Have you noticed it?” “No,” he answered. Having thus convinced him that we are becoming a nation of contented cows, I asked him what he thought we could do about it. he replied. However, I, on my own hook, pro- pose to try to do something to stem this rising tide of happiness. I know the odds are all against me, because Frank Crane and Eddie Guest and the Amer- ican Magazine, to say nothing of thousands of whoop-em-up organiza- tions, have already got millions of people all shot full of cuckoo-cola and it will take me a long time to drag all these millions back down into the slough of despond where they belong. Look about you and see what an alarming proportion of the population is happy. And isn’t it obvious, after you have given the matter intensive thought for a couple of weeks, that happy people make the most undesir- able citizens and cause all our trouble? If this country goes to the dogs it will be the fault of the people in it who are enjoying themselves thoroughly. All politicians are happy. All ora- tors are happy, and all auctioneers. train callers, raconteurs, and after- dinner speakers. All the people who come to your house and make long visits are of the happy type; all noisy soup eaters and noisy coffee drinkers are happy. All the boring, all the shov- ing, and the crowding, and preaching. and reforming, and all the so-called entertaining, are done by happy people. If there anything wrong going on in business or -in art, you can usually find a happy person at the bottom of it So that is why I am going to put my shoulder to the wheel and do what I can to bring about a return of old fashioned constructive unhappiness. What we want is fewer people feeling good about themselves. Recipe for a Modern Novel NE (1) dozen assorted red lights One (1) set “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde.” Seven (7) Grade-A complexes. Three (3) nudes. Four (4) cases (pathological) Two (2) cases (gin). One (1) man of affairs. Two (2) ladies of same. Eleven (11) sneers. Nine (9) liqueurs. Mix ingredients and whip to frothy paste; serve half-baked. J.K. M Next! "NO 0 is ever satisfied,” complained the up-to-date barber gloomily “Take my last customer—she wanted a permanent bob and a boyish wave.” “MOTHER! MOTHER! AN AEROPLANE HAS JUST FELL IN THE BACKYARD!” “NO, EDWARD. AN AEROPLANE HAS fallen.” comicbooks.com