"Happiness is . . ."

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/18/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> When I first encountered the caption/book-title "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy"
> in the early 1960s, I assumed that the usually-decorous Charles Schulz was
> parodying--therefore bawdily alluding to--the expression "happiness is a warm
> pussy," which I was familiar with. When the Beatles' "White Album" appeared
> in 1968, with the song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun," I didn't know which older
> expression was the prototype (maybe both).

The song title was taken from an article John Lennon had seen in the
May 1968 issue of _American Rifleman_: "Happiness is a Warm Gun" by
Warren W. Herlihy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290123995642
http://www.tias.com/cgi-bin/google.fcgi/itemKey=1923108268

I had assumed the _American Rifleman_ article was simply playing on
the title of the Peanuts collection, but I wasn't aware there might
have been another more indecorous source for the "Happiness is a warm
X" snowclone.


--Ben Zimmer

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