Painful Fails

[Bullgrit]

I just started to watch a video called, "Biggest Fails of 2013." The video was posted on a humor site, wo I assumed it would show funny fails.

The first fail was a girl lying on a beach, getting a "sexy" photo taken, and then a wave came up and washed her over. She got up out of the water laughing. It made me laugh.

The second fail of the video was a snowboarder falling from 15+ feet and hitting a metal railing right in the center of his back. Then he lay on the ground crying out in pain as his two friends ran up to him. It looked like it might have broken his back. That fall possibly could have paralyzed him for the rest of his life. It shocked me.

I stopped the video at that point. Holy crap! Why do people think other people's injuries, (even serious/grievous injuries), are funny?

Sure, sometimes a minor fall can be funny. AFV has survived 20 years on groin hits. But I saw an interview with the show's host many years ago where it was explained that they don't show anyone getting seriously injured even though they get plenty of such videos.

On the Internet, though, there are plenty of supposedly "funny" videos and photos of people getting seriously hurt, and their friends or the Internet commenters laughing at the injury. What is this aspect of humanity that finds pain and suffering hilarious?

Bullgrit

 

[messy]

What is this aspect of humanity that finds pain and suffering hilarious?

here's the name for it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

as for the reason, i have no idea. maybe people are just mean.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For the record, Bullgrit, you NEVER want to see the official video for Unsane's "Scrape": its all skateboarding accidents, spliced together, until the final seconds when one guy lands a difficult trick.

 

[Joker]

here's the name for it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

as for the reason, i have no idea. maybe people are just mean.

[German accent] If only there was a word to describe the joy I feel at your misfortune. [ German accent]

As for the video. Yeah, I laugh at people hurting themselves. Especially when they bring it on themselves. As long as they don't suffer anything debilitating or die in the process I'm fine with chuckling at their misfortune.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

It's very much like the punchline in a joke. The lead up to the punchline heads in a certain direction (the girl in your example throws a sexy look to the observer or maybe rises like a mermaid from the water), and then the expectation is broken.

If everything turns out fine, the "joke" works like in your first example. If, on the other hand, something bad happens as a result, the "joke" turns into exploitation of someone's misfortune.

 

[Scorpio616]

Sports injuries are funny because the hubris of the performer is repaid with the injury their very body was warning them about. Just like a nature lover who oversteps their bounds and becomes animal chow, it is funny because the person should have known better. Just because something is 99.99% safe, if you keep doing it, you'll find out why it is not 100% safe.

 

[Zombie_Babies]

[German accent] If only there was a word to describe the joy I feel at your misfortune. [ German accent]

As for the video. Yeah, I laugh at people hurting themselves. Especially when they bring it on themselves. As long as they don't suffer anything debilitating or die in the process I'm fine with chuckling at their misfortune.

Yup. If they know it's something that can happen it makes it ok to laugh when it does.

 

[tomBitonti]

Don't think that this is Schadenfreude: There is a difference between being pleased by another's misfortune, and finding a possibly grievous accident funny.

The humor seems related to Slapstick, although, the degree of potential harm seems to be much higher.

Some of this is training: See, for example, numerous cartoons (many classics, such as Bugs or The Roadrunner, but also newer ones, such as Ren and Stimpy, or South Park), or movies such as Home Alone.

Eventually (perhaps), one reaches through and finds empathy, and realizes that what is shown is pretty horrible.

TomB

 

[Zombie_Babies]

I dunno. I mean, I see some skateboarder trash his junk on a rail or snap his ankle after he jumped from 20' up or whatever and it amuses me. Seeing Cory Hill or Anderson Silva snap their legs in the octagon didn't. When I see a football player get hurt I don't laugh (except for that one time that dood from Michican State got run right into a Gatorade cooler - that was funny). Maybe it's cuz I put more value on fighting or football than I do skateboarding, I dunno.

 

[tomBitonti]

A player running into a water cooler does evince a smile. I think I've seen a player run into the goal post one way or another, and found it amusing.

On the other hand, seeing what skateboarders and stunt cyclists do makes me wince even when they are fine. I have to believe there are a lot of injuries to both groups, some very severe. I just don't know how either group manages. Maybe, I wince because I'm well past the age of bouncing back quickly from an accident.

Thx!

TomB