If people could just stop paying attention to Kim Kardashian / I would be so happy
A Craig would be so happy post.
Waiting for the shop to open, you tell yourself that if the one-in-four sarcastic message would just arrive with a tone marker on it, the whole group chat would calm down. It wouldn't. You still want the font. A phone call from a number you don't know, in the middle of dinner, for the third time this week. You think that if the telemarketers could simply stop, you would be a calmer person. You answer anyway, in case it's the doctor. The thought arrives at a modest scale: a work toilet that doesn't smell of anything, a date who turns up, a feed without one particular famous family in it. Just one small thing out of the long list, and life would be sorted. Then there is the brighter, cheaper version: the apples are on offer, so the pay cut is survivable. The wish is always tiny and always sincere, and it's always sitting on top of a much larger problem that nobody is going to fix. **Why it caught on:** the picture is Craig Tucker, a character from the animated series South Park, shown looking upwards with a hopeful, wide-eyed expression, holding a red folder, with a "Go Cows!" sign behind him. People captioned it with a modest wish on the top line and "I would be so happy" on the bottom, and it spread because the wish is always small, specific and a little bit doomed, which is exactly how everyday irritation feels.