heliocentric's Journal: schadenfreude hypocrite

I work with a bunch of interesting people who are by in large of a similar mindset and share similar views. They also lead mostly sheltered lives. I am disjoint from this type of thinking and living, but whatever, as long as the work gets done.

Well, they delight in having an educational "word of the day" on their white board. Sometimes a real word, sometimes a silly word, sometimes a word that they made up to fit a certain circumstance.

One day they couldn't think of a word to use, so I put "schadenfreude" up on the board, but no one knew what it was. To me, that makes it a perfect word of the day.

Well, I couldn't be more wrong, since the word means taking delight at the pain of another; this did not sit well with this group. All found it deplorable and it was quickly erased.

Well, the other day they were all giggling about this one story. It seems the one person remembered this story that was apparently told by a previous co-worker who spouse was either an ER doctor or an ER nurse. The group seemed to be sharing the story with others in an attempt to find who originally told the story, and also to share the hilarity with others.

The story involved someone with a cue ball (or some other billiards ball perhaps) up their rectum, and at least one other person with a bar of soap in their vaginal cavity. One person suggested that this was a good reason for soap-on-a-rope.

No one was sure who told the story originally, but everyone seemed to agree that it was HILARIOUS.

Because of this, my second ever suggestion for the word of the day was "hypocrite." This concept fell mostly on deaf ears, but it seemed to get a few people to look at themselves and the situation and blush.

But, that word only describes them. I think we need a new word to describe taking delight in the misery of someone realizing they are a hypocrite due to their own schadenfreude.

Schadenhypocritefreude?

Schadynpofreudicrite?

german is definitely the language you want.

[Some Woman]

They probably even already have a word for that concept. :^)

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

Though oddly, they do lack some words as well. There is no word in German for "serendipity", for example. (In fact the very idea behind it seems to be lost on them. OFF KORS eversink heppens mit great plans! Nossink is coincidence! Eins zwei drei, eins zwei drei!)

Thus I've always said that there is a hidden message in the fact the Germans invented Schadenfreude, but are unable to describe serendipity. And I feel a bit of Schadenfreude as a result. :-)

The word we're looking for, by the way, would be some

There must be a German word

[Alioth]

The Germans must be able to construct a compound word for a schadenfreude hypocrite.

I'm also quite puzzled why they found schadenfreude such a bad word of the day to erase it - I thought everyone realised their own sense of schadenfreude, after all we've all experienced it and most of the sick jokes we tell come from it. It's hardly as if you wrote "fuck" as the word of the day!

Perhaps their consciences got the better of them and the word made them feel guilty for ever having feelings of schadenfreude. But

Re:

[heliocentric]

I think I described it oringally as the "misfortune of others" but either way you see why I was half offended at their insisting that it be taken down. Personally, I'd rather be aware of something I dislike rather than hide from it - I think it makes me stronger and at least it makes me sure of who I am.

And, I think that schadenfreude can even be extended to cheering when your sports team wins. Surely there's someone who is sad about the loss of their team. In fact, the one co-worker was just telling a s

schadenfreude (sp?!) is teh awesomenessist

[mekkab]

"builder" next door tears down part of the fence between my property and his. I yell at him about it, but these are old properties, not sure where, when or if anything was filed with the county, so ownership won't be easy to prove, and despite not one, but TWO boundary surveys done in the past TWO years NO ONE has the metal markers anymore (even though they were verified at the time) and no one shows the fence on a boundary survey. Litigation would be ... expensive.

So when the big rains come and bring SIN

mann gegen mann

[banky]

German does not make you sound any smarter.

Invoke de ja vu

[Degrees]

Invoke de ja vu by posting the word again. Remark how much you like the word. And then when (whomever) erases it, remark how that was particularly ... um ... what word are you looking for?....