No itâs not. Itâs simply taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, it isnât qualified by whether or not theyâre perceived to have deserved their misfortune, although that might make a situation funnier.
As usual, it boils down to different people finding different things funny. âFunnyâ isnât really quantifiable, except in certain circumstances when itâs judged by the number of viewers voting on it; itâs impossible to explain why a given joke is funny to someone who doesnât understand why others find it funny, and Iâve pointed out before on the joke thread that a particular joke which was innocuous to me but another poster stated flatly that it wasnât funny, scored as funniest of the week when voted for by people enjoying that kind of humour. So on one level, thatâs quantifiable. In the case of this clip, it came from a comedy feed with hundreds of similar videos and scored particularly highly, so it isnât inherently unamusing. Personally, of course I sympathise with the girl who got knocked off her bike, and obviously I would hope she wasnât badly injured. What makes the clip funny is the sheer misfortune of her subsequently somehow landing headfirst in a narrow drain and disappearing from sight. Show me someone whoâs never in their lives laughed at a comedy pratfall and Iâll show you someone with no sense of humour at all.
Er no, the German definition translates most closely to:
ââSchadenfreude is the positive feeling about another personâs misfortune, either because you dislike them, because you believe they deserve it, or because you see them as a rival. For example, **after a waiter has treated you very rudely, you may secretly enjoy seeing him trip and drop his serving trayââ.
Yes folks find different things funny (no shit sherlock), but that is not the issue here. Its a simple question of whether is appropriate to a laugh at what looks like quite a horrific accident. I am sure there are some folks who laughed at a documentary I saw on net flix that showed explicit footage of a Nazi soldiers executing civilians where the victim fell into the mass grave before being shot⌠the fact someone might find that funny does not âqualifyâ that as appropriate no matter how âmanyâ do.
There is no nuance involved. The meaning of the loanword Schadenfreude, when used in an English-speaking conversation, simply means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.
Itâs clearly defined in the OED and Cambridge dictionaries. Fowllydd added an additional meaning which doesnât exist in order to support his distaste for the video, and you are defending that disingenuity for the same reason.
Nothing disingenuous in what I wrote. I merely stated my understanding of the term. I fail to see how that is dishonest. My distaste for the video that you posted has nothing whatsoever to do with my understanding of what exactly schadenfreude means.
Well, Iâll stick by the true meaning - as with many German words, there is no complete translation and so they tend to be simplified for the simpler mindsâŚ
I bow to your superior knowledge, and will immediately inform the Oxford English and the Cambridge dictionaries of their error. In their defence, they can at least spell the word correctly.
TBF it may have been me that was disingenuous in not recognising Cobâs obvious dislike for the vid when calling me out as sanctimonious for disliking it⌠confusing hey, but as everything I posted became invalid with the mis-spelling of schardenfreude (sic) and my not understanding its ârealâ meaning due to having to ignore its nuances - it IS a simpler translation along with Zeitgeist and Realpolitik - because the nuances donât translate perfectly (and helps me be passive aggressive)
