The Happy Endings Foundation

THEF are a group of parents in the UK who have decided that books with unhappy endings are bad for children.

Their motto is - "Sad books are bad books".

Their aims -
To eradicate sad thoughts from all literature
To make people smile a little more often
To encourage authors to write more uplifting books for children
To highlight the dangers of reading sad books
To unite parents of a similar thinking and create a force with which to be reckoned
To protect the next generation of readers.
And, above all, to ensure the longevity of HAPPY ENDINGS (that means "to make sure happy endings are around for a long time")

They have written to libraries demanding that unhappy books are withdrawn. Yesterday they held a bad book burning.

The Happy Endings Foundation
If you visit don't forget to look at the Gerbil Webcam.

From my personal viewpoint they are a failure - they don't make me happy.

This is a publicity spoof by the Lemony Snicket people

Oh, good. The world is so mixed-up, I'd probably believe this one.

That's marvelous! Have you read their "disclaimer"?

Most characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, dead, or half dead, is purely coincidental. None of the non-fictitious people, places or things named in this website were harmed during the creation of the site. We're not sure if the Loch Ness monster is fictitious or non-fictitious, you decide. We would like to state that some of the books recommended on this site are very good reads, particularly Winnie-the-Pooh. However, we would NOT recommend monster hunting at Loch Ness as a happy day out because a) it rains a lot in north Scotland and b) as previously stated, we don't know if there is actually a monster to hunt. However, if you like logs then Loch Ness is a fine place to go log hunting.

What is great about it is that it actually became a real news story -
Daily Mail Unhappy
note - The Daily Mail does not possess a sense of humour.

I loved the testimonial -
"THEF really helped me. I was caught in a trap
of reading books that, although very
entertaining, left my life tainted with
unhappiness and complicated emotions."

> 5

The Daily Mail does not possess a sense of humour.

Nor, apparently, do its readers, considering the comments that were left! It doesn't appear that anyone recognized this as satire.

That's the scary world we live in: although this does have the ring of probable satire just from the description in the first post, it doesn't seem inconceivable that someone could start such a campaign for real. (Lots of people believe media violence encourages violent acts; sadness and depression look as though they could be easily fitted into a similar framework...)

I was about to wonder what would be made of Aristotle on tragedy's cathartic effects.

>6 lilithcat: - The Daily Mail as a newspaper is beyond satire. I'm only surprised they didn't blame immigrants. They blame a lot on immigrants, and delinquents, and.....well, everyone who isn't white middle-class English. Although I suppose they will have to remove all other content from the paper in order to concentrate on the Diana inquiry.

This is hilarious.

Seriously, people have the right to protect their kids, but they run the risk of turning the kids into wussies who can't take real life. Happy endings ... ha.

#5: I really wanted to post a comment under that news article saying something to the extent of, "You idiots, you're supposed to be laughing!"

But then I thought, it would really be a shame to deny them of their fiery indignation.

I'm assuming the spoof site is in response to this: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&catego....

Or, is the *entire* thing a put on (not just the website.)

that is such shit.
why don't we just catapult them into the world of old disney cartoons and let them enjoy the happiness.
besides, if all you read as a kid is happy shit,you sure as hell ain't gonna be ready for the real world.

> 12

It's a joke.

IS that a joke.
if not, let's hurry up and catapult those THEF freaks to the hundred acre woods and cintinue reading our sad and wonderful books

IS that a joke.
Yes.

if not
But it is. Just sayin'. There's no use in getting one's dander up if it's not even true. Life's too short. :)

"GERTRUDE GERBIL," is that maybe a reference to gertrude stein?

Who decided that misery is profound but happiness is not?

It is an odd assumption in a country which is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness.

>16 STOCeallaigh:
I would love to see the Stein Webcam. I imagine a great grizzly man guzzling beer from a mug labelled 'Gertrude.' Way more entertaining possibilities than those posed by a gerbil of the same name...

#17 - I think it was Jesus.

>16 STOCeallaigh:

Knowing that the site is a promotion for A Series of Unfortunate Events, and knowing Daniel Handler, AKA Lemony Snicket, had a great love for including as many literary references as he possibly could in that series, I think you may be on to something.

I just revisited this thread and was so intrigued (and in need of some less-serious, although not necessarily happy reading), that I am now downloading the e-book of The Bad Beginning.

Yes, I am sitting in the local public library, with my laptop connected to their wi-fi, exchanging comments online with strangers* all over the world, while I copy an electronic book to my computer.

Across the room is an old grandfather's clock I remember being in the library when I was a child--the old, vaguely Victorian-ish house that was the local branch until they built this modern thing in the 1970s, and renovated it a few years ago. And I cannot help thinking how much libraries, books and reading have changed....

* By "strangers" I mean people I have not met IRL (In Real Life). I do not mean to imply you are any stranger than I am; indeed, that is unlikely.

Thanks for the giggle, karen!