happiness-5
Explanation
This comic features a conversation between two people about what it takes to be happy. One person lists desires: wanting to be rich, famous, and powerful. The other responds that those things won't bring happiness -- money will never be enough to satisfy, fame brings scrutiny, power corrupts, and none guarantee contentedness. The first person then asks about more "virtuous" alternatives like knowledge, wisdom, and moral purpose, but the other explains these also have downsides: the predisposition to seek happiness through moral purpose may itself require a kind of luck. The final panel shows the first person concluding: "I think you want us to be sad," and the advisor responds from the shadows, suggesting people fundamentally lack what they need for happiness.
The humor mechanism is an escalating philosophical trap. Each time the questioner proposes a path to happiness, the responder dismantles it, creating an inescapable cycle. The comic satirizes both the self-help industry's promises and the philosophical tradition (particularly Stoic and Buddhist thought) that claims inner virtues lead to happiness -- by pointing out that even the capacity for contentment may be a matter of temperamental luck rather than choice. The joke is that thorough philosophical analysis of happiness inevitably leads to despair, making the very pursuit of understanding happiness self-defeating.
This is the fifth in SMBC's "happiness" series, and it reflects Weinersmith's recurring interest in the gap between philosophical ideals and psychological reality.