Do Worry, Be Unhappy: On Sara Ahmed’s Lecture, “Unhappy Queer”
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When I was a kid and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” came on the radio on my way to school, I would always, without exception, cringe. Maybe I’m just a killjoy at heart, but I always reasoned that if I “ain’t got no place to lay my head,” I should probably worry. It wasn’t the “feel-good” boom-boppin’ a cappella that really, as my grandpa says, “got my goat”; it was the assumptions built into his reasoning, namely, that “when you worry, your face will frown, and that will bring everybody down.”
As if by saying, “Be happy,” McFerrin were able to erase all causes of unhappiness from the world, this ’90s hit says much more than meets the ear. Happiness appears as something to be adjudicated by others. McFerrin tells the listener to be “like good little children” and not to worry, assigning happiness like a project, with as many conditions as a preschool show-and-tell. Gold stars for extra smiles!
