Happiness Machine from Leo Koppel on Vimeo.

This cartoon reminds me of a poem I studied in high school:

Solitude (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain

In essence both of these works deal with the fact that you are only appealing to others while you are happy (because it is a thing of worth)!!!
I think the idea that a smile has value and worth is very interesting as that would classify it as a commodity with very little stretching of the imagination; this would mean that a smile is trade-able and is in sort some form of currency that is necessary to get the things we want out of life.