intrinsic

A four-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: A small boy stands beside his seated, bespectacled, mustached dad in an armchair and asks, "Dad, can money buy happiness or is it about intrinsic things?" Dad replies, "Oh, let me see." Panel 2: Dad says, "Imagine there are a bunch of needles in your body. Would removing the needles buy happiness?" The boy answers, "Sure." Panel 3: Close-up of Dad's wide-eyed face, agitated, against a yellow background, shouting, "See how stupid you sound? How dare you! Needles have NOTHING TO DO WITH HAPPINESS! What about your intrinsic FEEEEELINGS!?" Panel 4: The boy stands looking up at his calm dad and flatly states, "I am now intrinsically sad." The joke: the dad twists a sincere philosophical question into a guilt-trip that just makes his kid miserable. Votey (bonus panel): An empty room with a sketchy drawing of the dad's face, and offscreen text reading, "WAIT TILL YOU GROW UP!"