Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,684
edits
Happiness Is Mandatory: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (5 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"[[The Computer Is Your Friend]]. The Computer wants you to be happy. [[Trope Namer|Happiness is mandatory]]. Failure to be happy is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution."''
|''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]''}}
An [[Dystopia|oppressive regime]] [[Dystopian Edict|requires]] its citizens to [[Stepford Smiler|"be]] [[Happiness in Slavery|happy"]]. Of course, this doesn't ''actually'' make them happy; it only gives them one more thing to fear, since beating your subjects for an ''emotional state'' is more likely to reinforce their negative emotions.
Line 15 ⟶ 16:
{{examples}}
* In the ''[[Fables]]'' spinoff comic
▲== Comics ==
▲* In the Fables spinoff comic "Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love" Cinderella's fairy godmother decides she'd conquer a world, and force people to act happy until they became happy.
* Played with in a [[The Wizard of Id]] strip. The King is showing a visiting noble around, and the noble asks a peasant how things are for him, and gets the reply, "I can't complain." The noble says that's nice and asks why, and is told, "It's forbidden."▼
* In one [[Mickey Mouse Comic Universe|Mickey Mouse]] story, Mickey and Goofy meet a deranged monarch who has taken this [[Up to Eleven]]. He explains that he has no unhappy subjects, because if they are unhappy they are imprisoned. ''Then'', to demonstrate, he asks a random peasant whether he is happy. The peasant grins maniacally and seemingly sincerely and says that he is happy... and the king promptly orders him thrown into jail.
{{quote|'''Mickey:''' But he ''was'' happy!
'''King:''' Yes, but he is sad ''now'' - and [[Morton's Fork|I aim to prevent crime before it happens!]] }}
== Film ==
* In ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'' during Ming's wedding scene, a ship flies over head with a banner reading "ALL CITIZENS SHALL MAKE MERRY," followed by another one with "...ON PAIN OF DEATH."
* In ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', the Other Mother becomes dissatisfied with the Other Wybie's tendancy to not smile, so she sews his smile in place.▼
== Literature ==
Line 32 ⟶ 30:
** Distributing affordable drugs in large quantities makes it a borderline case with [[Government Drug Enforcement]].
* ''[[It's a Good Life]]''
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four
* In ''[[Slave World]]'', this is used as an addition to [[Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul]]: The slaves are biochemically altered for certain kinds of happiness, and they get punished if they try to resist the effect.
* Inverted in [[Mr. Men]]/Little Miss story ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (not the movie about the infant beauty contest), the titular character visits Miseryland, where the inhabitants are kept miserable simply because of a sign stating the laws: "No smiling, no laughing, no chuckling. Giggling forbidden by order of the king." Naturally, Miss Sunshine is able to turn the kingdom around by simply changing the wording of the sign.
* In
* In ''[[The Giver]]'', it's more like "Quiet Contentment is Mandatory", since excess emotion is discouraged in the dystopian society.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', this is the the entire point of the [[Doctor Who/Recap/S25/E02 The Happiness Patrol|Happiness Patrol]].
* The fairy-tale kingdom of Happy Valley from ''[[
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' TOS episode "It's a Good Life", based on the Jerome Bixby short story. A mutant 6-year-old child with incredible powers requires that everyone be happy around him. Anyone who isn't gets "sent to the cornfield".
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' has "Lawgiver Day", wherein, as described by poor Professor Bobo, "all are ordered to make merry and be light of heart, under pain of horrible lingering death."
== Music ==
Line 52 ⟶ 48:
* "The Straight Razor Cabaret" by [[Voltaire (musician)|Voltaire]] is about a macabre vaudeville show whose master of ceremonies mutilates the faces of anyone he thinks isn't enjoying his show enough.
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s 2014 CD ''Mandatory Fun'' mocks this concept with Soviet-style imagery and a stern-faced Al in military garb.
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* Played with in a ''[[The Wizard of Id]]'' strip. The King is showing a visiting noble around, and the noble asks a peasant how things are for him, and gets the reply, "I can't complain." The noble says that's nice and asks why, and is told, "It's forbidden."
== Tabletop Games ==
Line 57 ⟶ 56:
** Inverted in [[Commie Land|Alpha State]], where ''morbid depression'' is mandatory.
* One of the many facets of the 2056 juncture from ''[[Feng Shui]]''.
* One of ''[[Ravenloft]]''{{'}}s lesser domains was home to a king who had no sense of humor, who'd clumsily tried to simulate one by requiring all citizens to laugh with every sentence they spoke. As he couldn't tell a real laugh from a forced one, this resulted in people who weren't particularly happy or amused saying "ha ha ha" after each statement.
== Video Games ==
* In the video game ''[[Floyd]]'' (also known as ''The Feeble Files''), the Omnibrain demands happiness. Solving one of the early puzzles in the game gets an innocent civilian executed on the spot for being unhappy.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'': [[Ironic Nickname|Grelod the Kind]] has quite a way with [[Orphanage of Fear|children]].
{{quote|'''Grelod:''' Constance!
'''[[Beleaguered Assistant|Constance]]:''' Yes Grelod?
'''Grelod:''' Hroar's crying is keeping me up at night. I'll give you one chance to talk the tears out of him, or he's getting the belt. }}
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' contains a [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Trope Namer]], ''[[Paranoia]]''. The [[Golem|Arcane Constructs]] patrolling Silvermoon will occasionally say "Happiness is mandatory, citizen", as part of the theme being built around the Blood Elves (mostly during ''Burning Crusade'') that, while everything is beautiful and perfect on the surface, if you look a little deeper things aren't so nice.
Line 71 ⟶ 69:
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' has Donald stating that the [[Cool Airship|Gummi Ship]] only functions when the pilots are "Smiling". This could've been a [[Blatant Lies|Blatant Lie]] to snap [[The Hero|Sora]] out of an incoming [[Heroic BSOD]], and we rarely see the pilots inside the ship, so who knows? The manga leaves no room for doubt, though: You HAVE to be smiling when aboard the damn thing.
== Web Comics ==
* In the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' arc "758449", Riff finds himself in an alternate dimension city-state which enforces perpetual happiness with knockout drug injections at the slightest hint of discontent.
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]] ''has [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2363#comic its fun with this.]
== Web Original ==
* This is an official policy on [[TV Tropes]].
* After making an unpopular Let's Play video, the [[The Nostalgia Critic|Nostalgia Critic]] ''has'' to act positive during his review of ''[[James and the Giant Peach]]'', partly because of this trope and partly because [[I Just Want to Be Loved]]. If he complains about something in the movie, the fans start [[Dramatic Gun Cock|pointing their guns at him]] until he goes back to praising it.
* Similarly, in [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'s review of the
== Western Animation ==
* In a ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]]'' "Treehouse of Horror" story, Homer's time traveling creates a dystopian present in which Ned Flanders rules the world and requires everyone to be happy all the time. Those who don't comply are given a "re-Neducation" culminating in a lobotomy.
** Another example from ''
* In ''[[The Fairly Oddparents]]'', Timmy's time traveling caused his father to turn into a power hungry dictator whose main rule is 'Be Happy Or Else'.
▲* In ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', the Other Mother becomes dissatisfied with the Other Wybie's tendancy to not smile, so she sews his smile in place.
== Real Life ==
Line 99 ⟶ 92:
** He claimed that if you're seen not having fun, you get abducted by the staff "and then it's ''into the Goofy suit.''"
* This is not an uncommon vicious cycle in psychologically abusive situations, where the abuser uses the pain they inflict as an excuse to lash out again. The abuser may perceive their victim's misery as ingratitude, or they may simply be enraged by the evidence of their own actions.
* The early days of the service industry saw a lot of companies making this trope a major policy. Happy staff tend to make customers feel more at ease even if the system is inefficient, so directors would mandate that employees [[Stepford Smiler|smile and show as much courtesy as possible regardless of personal problems or mental state]]. Experts eventually realized that ''genuinely'' happy staff made customers ''happier'' but there are still some older firms that haven't received the memo.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Sociology Tropes]]
[[Category:Happiness Tropes]]
[[Category:Help Help This Index Is Being Repressed]]
[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
| |||