I have always been interested in the concept of Schadenfreude. Theodor Adorno (kind of an ironic last name for the subject) describes it as “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.”
After reading the Pit thread on the Michael Jackson jokes (posted on the day of his death) I could not sleep due to laughter. I brought most of the jokes to the bar with me tonight and we all exchanged more. We all criticized the news for showing nothing about other important subjects like, oh, I don’t know, Iran, North Korea, Unemployment, and that South Carolina governor who is surely praising MJ’s name for his perfectly timed death. (The flipping news only has MJ updates!)
Over the years, I think that the whole Schadenfreude thing is really the only link-- at least the largest link that keeps us together.
Even little ol’ Locrian only gets his TV news from Comedy Central. My favorite sitcoms are Simpsons and South Park, both animated and loaded with Schadenfreude. I love to make fun of others, especially the idiots on “Tosh.0” who fall off tables while singing and people who puke on themselves. I don’t mind being an asshole when it suits me.
But I am certainly not the only one who’s like this.
I really think that Schadenfreude is the most likely and level playing ground us humans (who invent everything from religion to iPhones) have in common.
What do y’all think?
And the most popular MJ joke at my bar was provided by Projammer with the one about recycling MJ into Legos. Number two was **wunderkammer ** with the one about the plastic bag.
Great ones, Guys/Girls!
I’ve thought about this too, and I agree with your basic point. But I think it goes deeper. Just look at the shows we watch. CSI, Law and Order, ER, House, Cops, etc. Think about it: We get get joy, in some sense, from hearing stories about people being brutally murdered, getting violently ill, and running from the police. We’re a weird species.
I think it’s a function of how an individual’s life happens to be going at that moment. If life sucks for you, you want it to suck for everyone else too, cause it’s only fair. But you know that at the moment your life sucks that it doesn’t also suck for everyone else; for many people, life is going quite well. To compensate for that, you take an inordinate amount of joy when you learn of specific instances of life sucking for other people.
On the other hand, if life is going well for you, I think most people are magnanimous enough not to expect that life only go well for themself. You can smile and say “Good for him!” when you find out some schmuck and his stupid family just won the lottery.
Oh, I’m a sick L&O fan. It’s great to watch some philanderer get theirs with McCoy, but even with Jack, there are some cases you wonder why he cares so much.
Another good point someone brought up to me was how much pleasure humans get when they get to judge a person SOLEY on ONE event in their life, especially in a courtroom. McCoy and others will guide you to only think that way. “This man, (who ran a charity for children, made some bets to make more money for the kids, was threatened to be ratted out by an informant) KILLED another innocent man!” The guy is charged with 2nd Degree murder, meaning he’s getting 25 to life. Meaning the charity for the kids goes away, meaning the jerk who wanted to ruin it all anyway gets ‘justice’ AFTER he’s dead?? Can we do five years based on the circumstances? Nope. No matter what else he does, he’s a murderer! Only punishment available is 25 to life?
If the guy gets a “not guilty” from the jury, he’ll be known as the guy who got away with murder. That’s it.
Your worst event suddenly defines EVERYTHING about you. Even away from the TV, it seems like we’re only judged how good we are by what people who have never met you think.
Maybe Schadenfreude is really about the temporary power we feel when can poke fun.
Exactly. They would order the soup with drinks, and later when I take their dinner order, they ask me if the beans are vegetarian. I’d say, yes they are, but the soup wasn’t.
Their eyes became bigger than dinner plates. I would only laugh because they would say, “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME??” Well, all I could say was, “Why didn’t you tell me you were vegetarian a few minutes ago? I would’ve suggested the black bean soup.” The little place I worked at was famous for the corn soup, and this person looooooved it. One woman was horrified and told my manager that it was unfair to call it corn soup when it had chicken stock. Manager said the same thing: “Let us know you’re vegetarian.”
Another tip for ALL vegetarians: NEVER order fried ice cream. Why? The ice cream is rolled into balls and coated with cinnamon crumbs then quickly dunked in the deep fryer with tongs. The same deep fryer with the same oil that produced 400 chicken wings, deep fried beef chimichangas, beef empanadas, etc. So the vegetarian ice cream is lightly coated with cinnamon-chicken-beef crumbs now.
