Happy Camper...?

Question

Why do they call it that? Are campers happy or something?

Answer 1

As for "happy camper" (meaning a person who is pleased or contented), I too have found it annoying since it first appeared in the early 1980s. The underlying reference, of course, is to a child at summer camp, a venue in which happiness and "team spirit" are stressed yet, especially for neophytes, notoriously elusive. So it's probably significant that "happy camper" is most frequently used in the sarcastic negative form "not a happy camper." Probably the most vivid account of childhood camp-angst remains Allan Sherman's 1963 hit song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh," which begins "Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, here I am at Camp Granada" and includes such lines as "All the counselors hate the waiters and the lake has alligators. ... You remember Jeffrey Hardy? They're about to organize a searching party." No wonder I refused to go to summer camp.

Answer 2

I'm a Psycosocial Camper... I guess campers are happy for the bears

Answer 3

Ahhh... happy camping. I do this couple times a year. Have a cabin ( deer hunt shack in reality). Happy camping is many things to many people but with the group I am with it generally means: plenty of T.P., a working indoor flush toilet, lotsa cold beer,dvd player with movies you haven't seen, my excellent camp cooking for 8, a successful hunt for the beginners, no copperheads or bobcats,and camaraderie of "the boys". Also include an anxiously awaiting wife when I get home. She's calling to me in her sweetest voice saying" Take those clothes off in the garage, I can smell you from here."

Answer 4

I don't know... but come to think of it... "Happy Camper" sounds like something to do with gay people. Ha.

Answer 5

Its some yuppy statement that I refuse to use.