happiness-2
Original: happiness-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Patient (lying on a therapist's couch): Doc, I keep feeling happiness. Happiness about the state of the world and my place within it.
Doctor (an older woman with glasses, holding a tablet): And when did these hallucinations start?
Panel 2:
Patient: I was just sitting on a bench at the park, and I can hear the wind. You know, wind in the cypresses and pines and poplars and it just waves over me. Happiness, in big warm pink-orange pulses.
Panel 3:
Doctor: Is it affecting your lifestyle?
Patient: I'm thinking of visiting a lake and just watching the lake.
Panel 4:
Doctor: I'm gonna prescribe you 5 8-hour doses of work in customer service per week.
Panel 5:
Doctor: Try to make sure your boss is demanding but never specifies what they want.
Patient (now sitting up, smiling, holding the prescription): Thanks, Doc.
Votey:
Close-up of the patient's face, eyes wide with distress: Oh god it's happening again!
Patient (lying on a therapist's couch): Doc, I keep feeling happiness. Happiness about the state of the world and my place within it.
Doctor (an older woman with glasses, holding a tablet): And when did these hallucinations start?
Panel 2:
Patient: I was just sitting on a bench at the park, and I can hear the wind. You know, wind in the cypresses and pines and poplars and it just waves over me. Happiness, in big warm pink-orange pulses.
Panel 3:
Doctor: Is it affecting your lifestyle?
Patient: I'm thinking of visiting a lake and just watching the lake.
Panel 4:
Doctor: I'm gonna prescribe you 5 8-hour doses of work in customer service per week.
Panel 5:
Doctor: Try to make sure your boss is demanding but never specifies what they want.
Patient (now sitting up, smiling, holding the prescription): Thanks, Doc.
Votey:
Close-up of the patient's face, eyes wide with distress: Oh god it's happening again!
Alt text
A five-panel comic in a psychiatrist's office. A man lies on a couch telling his doctor, an older woman with glasses holding a tablet, "Doc, I keep feeling happiness. Happiness about the state of the world and my place within it." She replies, "And when did these hallucinations start?" He describes sitting on a park bench hearing wind in the cypresses, pines, and poplars washing over him as "happiness, in big warm pink-orange pulses." She asks, "Is it affecting your lifestyle?" and he says he's thinking of visiting a lake and just watching the lake. The doctor's prescription: "I'm gonna prescribe you 5 8-hour doses of work in customer service per week. Try to make sure your boss is demanding but never specifies what they want." The now-cheerful man says "Thanks, Doc." The joke treats contentment as a disorder cured by miserable work. Votey: a close-up of the man's face, wide-eyed and panicked, exclaiming "Oh god it's happening again!" — implying the happiness has returned despite the treatment.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.