Schadenfreude

[timote316]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:33am

I have a bit of schadenfreude for you. Just my luck.

The other day, it was pouring outside. For my last class, I would have to walk across campus and back, something I had already done twice. So, I figured I'd just skip. It wasn't worth catching a cold. I'm on my way home, on the highway, when all of a sudden the car in front of me swerves into the other lane to avoid something in the road. I immediately look to my right, but there is a row of traffic, so I can't move over. Whatever it is, I am going to have to hit it. Next thing I know, I am on the median, leaning to one side. I get out of my minivan (yes, I drive a minivan. Well, drove...), and see the front drivers side tire is destroyed. There is red liquid leaking from the front. I look back at the road, and discover I hit fire hoses. FIRE HOSES. Were there any fire trucks around? No. Obviously, I'm very angry at this point.

After making a few calls, I take a step back and re-evaluate the situation. To avoid the rain, I skip class to go home early. Now, I'm sitting on the side of the highway, tire destroyed and my van bleeding in the rain. The traffic is all avoiding the hoses, and there is one other car ahead off the road, but he's already changing his tire. So, no injuries. To top it all off, its pouring outside. Then, all of a sudden, a song came to mind: "Schadenfreude". This is a very funny situation. How many people can say they got into a car accident with a fire hose, causing a highway backup that was about a couple of miles by the time the tow truck got there? So, I started laughing. I can't tell you how many odd looks I got from drivers passing me.

So, if you are having a bad day, look at it from the other side. It very well could change the outlook of the situation.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 2:05pm

Unrelated but interesting: I just found this thread, and Schadenfeude came on.

[vbplayer]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 3:34pm

This is even funnier.................what is Schadenfeude?

[timote316]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 3:41pm

Happiness at the misfortune of others

[Jwei123]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 3:42pm

It's german for "Happiness at the misfortune of others"



(...happiness at the misfortune of others? that is german!)

[Thenardier]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 3:55pm

I love this song.

Great story Timote...


I have one, not like yours.

One day (pouring, icy) I was walking to class and right outside the building. Now, the building has huge glass doors and, like verything on the campus, is on hill. It's at the bottom of the hill. Anyway, I was walking to it and this gril was in front of me. About 5 meters from the door, she slid and slid right into the doors, smacking her head, before fallling over. It was hilarious. So I went inside the building (after she got up and looked around). As I was walking up the stairs, all slippery, laughing, I slipped and fell UP the stairs as this girl was coming down. I was laughing so hard and the girl gave me an odd look....so I pushed her off the staircase from the 5th floor....JK about that last part...

[Jon]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 4:33pm

Obviously, vbplayer is unfamiliar with AVENUE Q, and needs to be educated!

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 7:29pm

schadenfreude SHAHD-n-froy-duh, noun:
A malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others.

The historian Peter Gay -- who felt Schadenfreude as a Jewish child in Nazi-era Berlin, watching the Germans lose coveted gold medals in the 1936 Olympics -- has said that it "can be one of the great joys of life."
--Edward Rothstein, "Missing the Fun of a Minor Sin." New York Times, February 5, 2000

Often the people Pi met in Mendocino wanted to hear these terrible stories, the personal disasters, or they quoted them back to her from what they'd read, with a certain glitter in their eyes -- giving Pi the chance to wonder again as she once had in a Wittgenstein seminar why there wasn't a word in English for Schadenfreude, that very human pleasure taken in other people's misery.
--Sylvia Brownrigg, The Metaphysical Touch

If self-replicating e-commerce baby tycoons get on your nerves, it's schadenfreude time. It's true that the Nasdaq rebounded after its staggering loss Tuesday. Nonetheless, what AP described as "the most volatile day ever for U.S. stocks" left a distinctly bearish aftertaste.
--"Market Motion Sickness." The Industry Standard's Media Grok, April 5, 2000

I just love getting to post that from time to time....

[BjornFugleman2]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 10:31am

I like this thread, but I can't think of a personal story, so I'll say

actresses whose boob falls out

affairs spouses find out about

not having any paper in the stall when you go #2

schadenfreude....