Happiness is a an Episode of Family Guy

December 23, 2008, New York City:

Happiness is a an Episode of Family Guy

For the last twenty years I have been one of those freaks who makes it a point not to watch television.

However, as there are always exceptions to the rule in my world, especially when you’re the one making up the rules and you happen to rule your world.

So, from time to time I have let myself enjoy a show or two.

Toward the end of my marriage my ex and I spent the last year we were together watching every episode of all six seasons of Six Feet Under on DVD.

My latest TV fix is 30 Rock. I recently saw the first 7 episodes one night with my ex via Netflix on demand and found it to be hilarious, especially since it stars my hero, Alec Baldwin.

And, there was a time where I often broke down and watched Family Guy on youtube. Comically-genius, irreverent and occasionally shocking when pitted against today’s PC-standards, the show is a must see for anyone who needs a dose of good-old fashioned laughter.

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I recently began reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert and he proposes that there is no such thing as "happiness," that it is a state of mind that is too hard to define and that it is merely an inascertainable emotional state-of-being.

Moreover, Gilbert writes that happiness is so wholly subjective that there is no way to derive a universal formula or secret for satisfaction.

In one example he purports that if you were talking with an alien from outer space at a bar that you could not successfully describe what happiness was.

I completely disagree.

I think that if you simply smiled or laughed that people from all over the world (if not the universe), from practically every culture at various points in human history would understand what you meant by happiness.

Now, we all may not laugh or smile at the same things, but I think for the most part the vast majority of the human race laughs or smiles because they feel happy.

And so, since I recently was re-introduced to Family Guy via my kids who introduced me to hulu.com this weekend, if you happen to need something funny to cheer you up today, I highly recommend watching one of the “most popular” episodes of Family Guy on hulu.com.

Click HERE to watch.