Schadenfreude

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The Three Stooges' comedy trademark was exaggerated slapstick routines where a performer's apparent pain created enjoyment and laughter among their audience.

Schadenfreude (IPA: [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏ̯də] Audio (German) (help·info)) is malicious pleasure taken from observing the misery of another. The word referring to this emotion has been borrowed from German by the English language^[1] and is sometimes also used as a loanword by other languages.

Philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno defined schadenfreude as “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.”^[2]

Spelling, etymology, and English equivalents

In German, Schadenfreude is capitalized, as are all nouns. When used as a loanword in English, however, it is not, unless the origin of the word is meant to be emphasized. The corresponding German adjective is schadenfroh. The word derives from Schaden (damage, harm) and Freude (joy); Schaden derives from the Middle High German schade, from the Old High German scado. Freude comes from the Middle High German vreude, from the Old High German frewida, from froh, (happy). A distinction exists between "secret schadenfreude" (a private feeling) and "open schadenfreude" (Hohn, a German word roughly translated as "scorn") which is outright public derision.

Little-used English words synonymous with schadenfreude have been derived from the Greek word ἐπιχαιρεκακία.^[3][4] Nathan Bailey's 18th-century Universal Etymological English Dictionary, for example, contains an entry for epicharikaky that gives its etymology as a compound of epi (upon), chaira (joy), and kakon (evil).^[5][6] A popular modern collection of rare words, however, gives its spelling as "epicaricacy." ^[7]

A more common English expression with a similar meaning is 'Roman holiday', a metaphor taken from the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" by George Gordon, Lord Byron, where a gladiator in Ancient Rome expects to be "butcher'd to make a Roman holiday" while the audience would take pleasure from watching his suffering. The term suggests debauchery and disorder in addition to sadistic enjoyment.^[8]

Another phrase with a meaning similar to Schadenfreude is "morose delectation" ("delectatio morosa" in Latin), meaning "the habit of dwelling with enjoyment on evil thoughts".^[9] The medieval church taught morose delectation as a sin.^[10][11] French writer Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) maintained that the appeal of sadism is morose delectation.^[12][13]

The term "schadenfreude" is often mentioned in connection with the Internet slang terms, "lulz" and "FAIL." These terms have slightly different meanings, however. The interjection "FAIL" is used to express and share public derision.^[14] A recent NY Times article defines "Lulz" as how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” "'lulz" means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium. ^[15] Thus both "lulz" and 'FAIL" refer to active efforts to cause or enhance the unhappiness of other people. Dictionaries define "schadenfreude," however, as a pleasurable emotion resulting from the misfortune of others, with no implication that this emotion is publicly expressed or actively sought. [1] [2] [3]

The Buddhist concept of mudita, "sympathetic joy" or "happiness in another's good fortune," is cited as an example of the opposite of schadenfreude.^[16][17] Alternatively envy, unhappiness in another's good fortune, could be considered the counterpart of schadenfreude. Completing the quartet is "unhappiness at another's misfortune", which may be termed pity or compassion.

Literary and philosophical analysis

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle used the term epikhairekakia (alternatively epikairekakia; ἐπιχαιρεκακία in Greek) as part of a triad of terms, in which epikhairekakia stands as the opposite of phthonos, and nemesis occupies the mean. Nemesis is "a painful response to another's undeserved good fortune," while phthonos is "a painful response to any good fortune," deserved or not. The epikhairekakos person actually takes pleasure in another's ill fortune.^[18][19]

During the 17th century, Robert Burton wrote in his work The Anatomy of Melancholy, "Out of these two [the concupiscible and irascible powers] arise those mixed affections and passions of anger, which is a desire of revenge; hatred, which is inveterate anger; zeal, which is offended with him who hurts that he loves; and ἐπιχαιρεκακία, a compound affection of joy and hate, when we rejoice at other men's mischief, and are grieved at their prosperity; pride, self-love, emulation, envy, shame, &c., of which elsewhere."^[20]

Scientific studies

A New York Times article in 2002 cited a number of scientific studies of schadenfreude, which it defined as "delighting in others' misfortune." Many such studies are based on social comparison theory, the idea that when people around us have bad luck, we look better to ourselves. Other researchers have found that people with low self-esteem are more likely to feel schadenfreude than are people who have high self-esteem.^[21]

One recent (2006) experiment suggests that men, but not women, enjoy seeing "bad" people suffer. The study was designed to measure empathy, by watching which brain centers are stimulated when subjects inside an MRI observe someone having a painful experience. Researchers expected that the brain's empathy center would show more stimulation when those seen as "good" got an electric shock than they would if the shock was given to someone the subject had reason to consider bad. This was indeed the case, but for male subjects the brain's pleasure centers also lit up when someone else got a shock that the male thought was well-deserved.^[22]

In popular culture

The word Schadenfreude became increasingly known in popular culture from the end of the 20th century. In 1991, during The Simpsons episode "When Flanders Failed", Lisa asks Homer if he's ever heard of schadenfreude after he expresses delight that Ned Flanders' business is failing. Defining it for him, she says, "It's a German term for "shameful joy", taking pleasure in the suffering of others."^[23] By 2000, the word was used without explanation during a Malcolm in the Middle (TV series) episode "High School Play": after Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) abandons the Krelboynes to play the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and has forgotten all of his lines, Krelboyne Lloyd (Evan Matthew Cohen) comments, "Normally, I would enjoy the schadenfreude, but this is just sad."

In an episode of Two and a Half Men, the character Rose explains the German origin and meaning of schadenfreude to Charlie Harper. Later she confesses to feeling glaukenstucken, which she describes as guilt over having felt schadenfreude; when Charlie expresses surprise that the Germans have a word for that as well, she admits that they don't, but she's hoping that glaukenstucken catches on. In a 2003 episode of The West Wing, White House Press Secretary C. J. Cregg (Allison Janney) uses the term "schadenfreude" and then has to explain it. Cregg notes that after an important member of the White House staff, a friend of hers, made a big political mistake, Washington insiders will be enjoying schadenfreude. When an assistant asks the definition of the word, Cregg responds, "Schadenfreude: taking joy in the suffering of others. You know, the whole rationale behind the House of Representatives"^[24]

In the 2004 Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q the song "Schadenfreude" parodies the language instruction songs of Sesame Street. [4] The song sung by characters Gary Coleman and Nicky, describes schadenfreude as "German for 'happiness at the misfortune of others'." In the song, schadenfreude is also described as "making me feel glad that I'm not you" and "people taking pleasure in your pain."^[25][26] A 2005 episode of the television drama Boston Legal carries the term as its title. In the episode attorney Alan Shore describes this condition to a jury in order to describe the only way they could possibly attain a guilty verdict against his client. In the 2006 Hellblazer graphic novel The Red Right Hand, it is revealed that schadenfreude has saved the world. ^[27]

Neologisms were coined from the word as early as 1993, when Lincoln Caplan, in his book "Skadden: Power, Money, and the Rise of a Legal Empire," ^[28]used the term "Skaddenfreude" to describe the delight that competitors of the Skadden law firm took in its troubles of the early 1990s. By 2007, the word was sufficiently well-established that neologisms were being coined from it. The legal blog AboveTheLaw.com coined the term "Skaddenfreude" (a portmanteau, combining the term "schadenfreude" with the name of prominent New York-based law firm Skadden Arps) as a label for the events surrounding the largely unanticipated decision by many of the nation's top-tier law firms to raise associate pay in 2007.^{[citation needed]} Another portmanteau is "Spitzenfreude," coined by The Economist to refer to the fall of Eliot Spitzer.^[29]

The first two Edgar and Ellen books mention "schadenfreude" as being the word carved into the stone arch over the front door of these nefarious twins' dilapidated home. The Teacher's Guide to the first novel, Rare Beasts, lists "schadenfreude" as one of the vocabulary words along with the word's pronunciation.^[30]

In 2008, Lyons Press published a humorous book on the phenomenon: "Shadenfreude, Baby" by author Laura Lee.^[31] Science Fiction author John Scalzi developed what he calls the Schadenfreude Pie, to be enjoyed while "reveling in the horrible misfortunes of others." The recipe can be found on his blog, Whatever. ^[32]

See also

• Envy
• Spite (sentiment)
• Crab mentality
• Bullying
• Cyber-bullying
• Sadism
• Slapstick

References

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