"Happiness is . . ."

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>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.

I think one might say the snowclone is more generally "Happiness is
X" where X = some thing which causes great happiness / some favorite
thing. I think the Schulz book included various sentences with this
formula, of which the title example had "warm" while others did not
(but I haven't reviewed the book).

This "Happiness is X" formula occurred _very_ sparsely before the
Schulz book, judging from a review of the usual archives. However,
"The/my/his/etc. idea/ideal/height of happiness is X" occurred more frequently.

This novel "Happiness is X" formula immediately appeared as various
jokes and imitations, some with "warm" and some without. To me it
would seem likely that the version with "warm pussy" was one of the
first of these satires rather than predating the "warm puppy"
version. It is surely implausible that the "pussy" version was widely
known when the Schulz book was written. [Of course I don't deny that
highly implausible things happen sometimes.]

-- Doug Wilson


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