“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream” (or “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy ice cream”) is a popular saying that has been printed on posters. The saying is of unknown authorship and has been cited in print since at least 2007, but became popular on blogs since 2010.
Frequent endings include “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that’s kind of the same thing” and “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream, and I’m not ready to live in a world where there’s a difference” and “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that’s close enough, right?”
“If money can’t buy happiness, explain pizza” is a related saying.
Topix Forums—Local News (Omaha, NE)
lori
Sep 2, 2007
(...)
29-You can’t buy HAPPINESS but you can buy ICE CREAM… that’s close enough right?
arewein
you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream…
March 19, 2010
If I Were…
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010
You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice-cream and that’s kind of the same thing.
Mishtown
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010
They say that money can’t buy happiness. But money can buy ice cream, and I’m not ready to live in a world where there’s a difference.
So ordinary life
4/27/2011
You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that’s kind of the same thing
Sourabh Upalekar
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2012
“YOU CAN’T BUY HAPPINESS, BUT YOU CAN BUY ICE CREAM… AND THAT’S KIND OF THE SAME THING!!” :D
this & that
September 2, 2012
The Scoop on Ice Cream
Summer may be over but there’s still plenty of time left for ice cream season. As a recently popular bumper sticker proclaims, “you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream. And that’s kind of the same thing.”
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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