I think Larry was Larry the Lamb who was to become Shani Wallis television sidekick, instead of becoming lunch with mint sauce.

Depends on which Larry you are talking about. I'm pretty sure Larry King is pretty happy, but as far as Larry Craig goes, maybe not so much.

Don't know the dude...

Apparently he was very happy....but the phrase comes from "Happy as a larrikin" ( a wild child).

Larry was a bird because he was happy as a lark!

"As happy as Larry" Meaning: Very happy. Origin Larry - certainly the best known character in the world of similes. Most likely to be an Australian or New Zealand expression. The earliest printed reference currently known is from the New Zealand writer G. L. Meredith, dating from around 1875: "We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats". Almost all the other early citations are from Australia or New Zealand. For example, this from Tom Collins (the pen name of the popular Australian writer Joseph Furphy), in Barrier Truth, 1903: "Now that the adventure was drawing to an end, I found a peace of mind that all the old fogies on the river couldn't disturb. I was as happy as Larry." There are two commonly repeated contenders for the derivation. One is that it refers to the Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847 - 1917). Foley was a successful boxer who never lost a fight. He retired at 32 and collected a purse of £1,000 for his final fight. So, we can expect that he was known to be happy with his lot in the 1870s - just when the phrase is first cited. The alternative explanation is that it relates to the Cornish and later Australian/New Zealand slang term 'larrikin', meaning a rough type or hooligan, i.e. one predisposed to larking about. 'Larrikin' would have been a term that Meredith would have known. The earliest citation of that is also from New Zealand and also around the time of the first citation, in H. W. Harper's Letters from New Zealand, 1868: "We are beset with larrikins, who lurk about in the darkness and deliver every sort of attack on the walls and roof with stones and sticks." http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/40850.html The phrase happy as Larry seems to have originated as either Australian or New Zealand slang sometime before 1875. This date is earlier than that given in most dictionaries, but H W Orsman, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of New Zealand English, has traced it to a New Zealand writer named G L Meredith, who wrote in about 1875: “We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats”. Unlike other odd phrases — the Australian happy as a boxing kangaroo in fog time and the New Zealand happy as a sick eel on a sandspit come to mind — it was meant positively: extremely happy or content. There’s a suggestion that it comes from the name of the nineteenth-century Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847-1917), though why he was especially happy nobody now seems able to say. Perhaps he won a lot of contests? (He was certainly one of those who originated gloved boxing rather than bare-knuckle fighting in Australia and his name is still remembered there.) But this origin is far from certain and the early New Zealand reference renders it less so, without ruling it out altogether. Dr Orsman’s suggestion is that it is more likely to come from an English dialect source, larrie, joking, jesting, a practical joke. Another possible link is with the Australian and New Zealand term larrikin for a street rowdy or young urban hooligan, recorded from the late 1860s but known especially in both countries from the 1880s onwards in reference to a specific subculture. Like other groups before and since, the larrikins had their own dress style, in their case very neat and rather severe. The word may well have come from English dialect larrikin for a mischievous youth, once common in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, which itself is closely related to larrie. Either of these sources could afterwards have been reinforced through a supposed connection with Larry Foley. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lar1.htm "Happy as Larry" is a British-Australian catch phrase that simply means "extremely happy" or "very pleased with the way things are going." The Rural-American equivalent of "happy as Larry" (although my rendition will be a bit sanitized for family consumption) would be "happy as a pig in mud." Since "happy as Larry" is a phrase native to the Commonwealth, it's not surprising that you've heard it largely from English friends. And since "Chicken Run" (a currently popular film starring animated clay chickens in a sort of avian parody of "Stalag 17") was directed by the Brits responsible for the "Wallace and Gromit" movies, use of the phrase in its screenplay is no surprise either. Unfortunately, there is a conspicuous lack of verifiable information about "happy as Larry." The phrase seems to have originated in Australia around the end of the 19th century, and first appeared in print (as far as we know so far) in 1905. The leading theory is that "happy as Larry" originally referred to the Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847-1917), but no one seems to know if, when or why boxer Larry would have been happy enough to inspire a popular saying of such remarkable longevity. http://www.word-detective.com/081100.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976951800/pageturners0c be as happy as Larry (or a sandboy) - British & Australian, American; to be very happy and to have no worries. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/happy+as+Larry