Laughing at people's misfortune

fakearms123

I just realised how much i laugh at other people's misfortunes last night, sitting down getting ready to watch knocked up in the cinema and there was this guy walking up the aisle with popcorn and he tripped and fell, he fell like the dead carcass of a walrus onto the steps and it was brilliant! I burst my sh*t laughing, i could hear a voice behind me shouting "Alright!.......gay!" and "he fell, what a nutbar!", then the film was firstly hilarious but it was also a constant laughter at other people's misfortune.
And back in school was the playground for all of this. I remember the slagging lads would get for falling or getting sh*t on by a bird or getting hit with a shoe or something. A poor guy from my school got all three of these in a row, it was some spectacle, first off he's standing there eating his sandwich which gets kicked out of his hand before he gets hit in the head by a mandarin from the other side of the yard, he trips on the step and falls on the ground and then a bird sh*ts on his shoulder! He was a fat kid at the time. Is this laughter unpreventable? We know there is a huge difference from being the victim and the observer but even though we know their pain we still laugh, why is this? And have you witnessed anything such as this recently or in school?

Pompey Magnus

The story with the fat kid sounded hilarious, I'd have burst myself laughing as well. The cinema story could happen to anyone so that isn't very funny (unless the bloke was fat: Fat + falling = funny).

patrickc

fakearms123 wrote:

mangarine

hit with what??

Slow Motion

fakearms123 wrote:

A poor guy from my school got all three of these in a row, it was some spectacle, first off he's standing there eating his sandwich which gets kicked out of his hand before he gets hit in the head by a mangarine from the other side of the yard, he trips on the step and falls on the ground and then a bird sh*ts on his shoulder! He was a fat kid at the time. Is this laughter unpreventable? We know there is a huge difference from being the victim and the observer but even though we know their pain we still laugh, why is this? And have you witnessed anything such as this recently or in school?

No ! I don't find watching instances of bullying particularly amusing and I never did !

Niamho!

i think its only natural to laugh. My sister is the WORST person for that.

the main one that sticks out in my mind was the sh*telink one night, a bloke got on with a Backpack. Twisted. started goin up the stairs.....right as the bus took off. fell right back and every bit of loose change fell out of his pocket rolling all over the bus. i was in Knots. it wasn't so much the fall it was the little pathetic noise he made while he was falling. So funny.
then he asked the Driver (77 to tallaght) did it go near Sandyford, when the driver said no he got off near Cork street. the poor Fooker.

Niamho!

patrickc2006 wrote:

hit with what??

I thought that too i think he ment Mandarine. ??

fakearms123

well the lad in the cinema was very overweight, hence the dead walrus, he didnt so much fall as he did slide haha and i was suppose to say mandarin, not margarine, dont know where that came from!

Duckjob

Sometimes events happen with such perfect comedy timing that you can't help but laugh.

I remember many moons ago walking in town seeing a guy disembarking off one of the old buses with the handrail at the door. He swung himself around the handrail off the bus straight into a lamppost. His arms and legs went forward to either side and with his cheek pressed against the pole he slid down crumpled to the ground. You couldn't haven't scripted it to be funnier ......

patrickc

Niamho! wrote:

I thought that too i think he ment Mandarine. ??

because fakearms was laughing at other's misfortunes I just thought I'd point out his misfortunate spelling mistake!

layke

It's these sort of things in the Irish culture that makes me sorry i'm part of it.

Look there are times when it's funny but quite honestly if someone had a their lunch kicked out of their hand and a mandarin thrown at them I would have been less then impressed. I never liked bullying.

The falling and bird poop did give me a smile though, but what bothers me is the peoples loud and insulting 'I dont care' comments. The poor guy probably felt so embarressed and there were a few there who had to rub it in.

axer

My girlfriend is the same. She laughs when a 6 year trips and falls over. I think it is to do with coping strategies that you use. Do you laugh when it happens to you or just when it happens to others?

Plug

Niamho! wrote:

I thought that too i think he ment Mandarine. ??

Or margerine?

Back on topic though I always laugh at peoples misfortunes except people getting killed.

Niamho!

if anything like that happens to me i P*ss myself laughin at myself. even if im on my own and providing im not crying in pain. It can be very embarrassing but I'm human.
Think about all those "You've been Framed" and all that.... most of that is people having accidents. not always funny though.

AlmightyCushion

axer wrote:

Do you laugh when it happens to you or just when it happens to others?

I laugh when it happens to me as well. One day I was getting on to the dart and the doors closed really fast as I was going through them and I let out a stupid noise before nearly pissing myself with laughter. There was some guy on the dart though that was trying to hold in the laughter (doing a terrible job of it as well I might add) and I just thought, what's the point.

fakearms123

it was a mandarin orange! we're swerving away from the point of this thread here, he could of been hit in the head by a homeless guy, it doesnt matter what he was hit by

axer

AlmightyCushion wrote:

I laugh when it happens to me as well. One day I was getting on to the dart and the doors closed really fast as I was going through them and I let out a stupid noise before nearly pissing myself with laughter. There was some guy on the dart though that was trying to hold in the laughter (doing a terrible job of it as well I might add) and I just thought, what's the point.

Aye, then its more than likely just the coping strategy you developed as a kid. Some people get stressed, some cry, some get angry - you laugh. It may have been passed on by your parents. Do they laugh at things like you do?

Hagar

Isn't that why other people have misfortunes?
We laugh at theirs, they laugh at ours, everyone is happy, or sad, or both.

r3nu4l

Slow Motion wrote:

No ! I don't find watching instances of bullying particularly amusing and I never did !

Quoted for truth!

I do however love watching those videos on youtube where people attempt insanely stupid stunts and end up getting hurt. Terrible I know but I feel that these people are future candidates for the Darwin awards and therefore deserve encouragement to help raise the IQ of the planet and remove 'stupidity' genes from the gene pool

These people somehow deserve the misfortune, victims of bullying do not!

Rovi

Mel Brooks on the difference between Tragedy and Comedy:
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."

Terry

layke wrote:

It's these sort of things in the Irish culture that makes me sorry i'm part of it.

Name a bully-free country.

mickoneill30

Nah I don't laugh at peoples misfortunes. I've had enough happen to me to cop on that it's not nice to be on the receiving end.
I used to work in a bar. What's the rule that says people have to clap if drop a couple of bottles or glasses that make a huge clatter. I've never understood it. Always made me think the guys that clapped were a4ses.

jackdaw

fakearms123 wrote:

I just realised how much i laugh at other people's misfortunes last night, sitting down getting ready to watch knocked up in the cinema and there was this guy walking up the aisle with popcorn and he tripped and fell, he fell like the dead carcass of a walrus onto the steps and it was brilliant! I burst my sh*t laughing, i could hear a voice behind me shouting "Alright!.......gay!" and "he fell, what a nutbar!", then the film was firstly hilarious but it was also a constant laughter at other people's misfortune.
And back in school was the playground for all of this. I remember the slagging lads would get for falling or getting sh*t on by a bird or getting hit with a shoe or something. A poor guy from my school got all three of these in a row, it was some spectacle, first off he's standing there eating his sandwich which gets kicked out of his hand before he gets hit in the head by a mandarin from the other side of the yard, he trips on the step and falls on the ground and then a bird sh*ts on his shoulder! He was a fat kid at the time. Is this laughter unpreventable? We know there is a huge difference from being the victim and the observer but even though we know their pain we still laugh, why is this? And have you witnessed anything such as this recently or in school?

.......

smilingatyou

not sure if this should be posted, ah well!,
you know the traffic ads are really graphic and brutal and the new one where the girl is pinned to the wall.
the first time i saw that add when they are pinned together i couldn't help thinking 'together forever'

laughing at peoples misfortune is a coping mecanism but that does not mean that you can't find it genuinely funny. birdshiv, always funny as it has a random factor

The Bollox

mickoneill30 wrote:

Nah I don't laugh at peoples misfortunes. I've had enough happen to me to cop on that it's not nice to be on the receiving end.
I used to work in a bar. What's the rule that says people have to clap if drop a couple of bottles or glasses that make a huge clatter. I've never understood it. Always made me think the guys that clapped were a4ses.

I also work in a bar. I never understood the clapping thing either. I learned thought that the worst thing you can do is get pissed off, I just laugh along

chakotha

There is a slapstick comedy in this kind of thing that cracks me up too. When somebody just suddenly comes a cropper out of the blue as they are going about their business ha ha! Happens to us all. The indignity of it!

I don't think it is funny when it is instigated by another person though.

Duggy747

r3nu4l wrote:

I do however love watching those videos on youtube where people attempt insanely stupid stunts and end up getting hurt.

I hear that, Renegade!! If you're THAT stupid then you deserve a good laughing at.

I've laughed at other's misfortune plenty of times, reasonably well justified laughs too but it's the funniest when it's random and not instigated by anyone. Just Life giving you a random kicking for a laugh. Like watching somebody skin a joint and nearly have it complete only to have the skin and tobacco to blow off into the wind. That's painful but funny at the indignity of it all.

Or my Irish teacher in secondary school, she was some bitch who wore clothes that were..............*shudders* too tight for her. One day the some of us noticed when she stretched to get something above a locker that the side of her jeans had torn from being so tight around her flabby arse. Massive tear. Naturally, those who noticed (including me) couldn't stop laughing discretely.

Or whenever someone in my local goes to break on a game of pool but ends up launching the cue ball and smacking the opponent standing opposite in the nuts. Ah, that happens roughly every 1 in 10 games.

Floppybits

I know its terrible but you do have to laugh. I remember one evening coming home on the bus and some Kid in secondary school was running up and down the aisle upstairs on the bus annoying everyone, anyway the bus is going round the santry flyover at the m1 and at that time the kid is running by the stairwell gap and falls down the gap. I was afraid to laugh in case the kid had hurt themselves but I got up and looked down the stairwell and there was the kid sprawled over the stairs. Nearly wet myself laughing.:D

Then there was the time I ended up flat on my back in a nightclub due to my dancing, another time I fell down the last four steps in club m because I was checking out a girl and missed my step. Was funny my mates were doubled over laughing the Fooks.

Pompey Magnus

Isn't vitually all humour founded in someone's misfortune to some degree, be it someone experiencing pain, embarressment, or just plain stupidity. Isn't there something about how laughter evolved among primates as a nervous reaction to the threat of pain or something?

r3nu4l

Rovi wrote:

Mel Brooks on the difference between Tragedy and Comedy:
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."

This is very true and an example of what I'm talking about. Very amusing, the type of stuff I like to see on youtube...minus the actual dying bit of course

Replace "walk" with "pushed" and it's not comedy anymore, this is why bullying behaviour is just unfunny.

Terry

jackdaw wrote:

you sound like a f**king idiot..

Less of that, please.

jester77

I always burst my hole laughing at those schadenfruede moments even though sometimes I shouldn't.[SIZE=-1] [/SIZE]

fakearms123

jackdaw wrote:

you sound like a f**king idiot..

good contribution, you sound intelligent, im not promoting bullying and im not saying all misfortunes are funny, that poor kid had a bad day and from where i was observing it, i have to admit i laughed, doesnt mean that i personally pushed him and sh*t on his shoulder.

padi89

layke wrote:

It's these sort of things in the Irish culture that makes me sorry i'm part of it.

WTF?? Do you not this happens in any other country??

Slow Motion

fakearms123 wrote:

good contribution, you sound intelligent, im not promoting bullying and im not saying all misfortunes are funny, that poor kid had a bad day and from where i was observing it, i have to admit i laughed, doesnt mean that i personally pushed him and sh*t on his shoulder.

Actually by laughing at it and not seeming to care about the kid (I know you said poor kid in your quote but it didn't come across as particularly sincere) you are promoting bullying. Until bullys realise there actions are socially unacceptable they will continue with it, you don't seem to get this ! There is a huge difference between something funny happening and some one being victimised.

Cheeky_gal

Don't know if this has much relevance but i've been so embarrassed! I was working p/t as a waitress over the summer at the horse races and a table of about 11 lads came in and i was told to take their drinks orders so i went over to them, took their order and then one of them uses his finger lyk as if to say come close i wana ask u something so i leaned in and the whole table goes dead silent and everyone stares at me while your man asks me "do i do bets too?"...but i thought he said "can i have a plate of veg?" (which i thought was really weird) but anyways, i said "yea!" and came back 5 mins later with a plate of veg!!!! haha omg the embarrassment!!! They laughed their heads off when i apologised and told them what i thought they asked! Had a great night with that table for the rest of the day! haha

Leeby

Ah sure it just depends on the situation, sometimes when bad things happen to people it's impossible not to laugh. When I was 10 in a holiday resort in France they had this little train (not a real train, drove on normal paths just a little slow cartoon looking thing) that ran from one end of the resort to the other. It says not to jump off it while it's moving but some impatient man in speedos did, the back of his speedos got caught and he had to run alongside the train for the last 20 metres before it stopped with his speedos stretched right out but still on him so he got the worst wedgie I've ever seen and showed us all his bum, embarressing but hilarious!

You've got to be able to have a sense of humour about it when it happens to you though, when I was a temp I was in one company for only two days and on the first day I fell on my arse in mud before I even walked in, people saw, they laughed, I laughed. I had to walk around with mud on my bum all day, people laughed at me, I laughed with them. On the second day I was mud free but dropped my entire tray of food in a canteen full of people I didn't know, they all stared, I went bright red but then I waved to them all and did a little bow so they laughed, you've got to be a pretty wound up person to not be able to laugh at yourself once in a while.

(I've also done the ultimately stupid walking into a pole in the middle of town thing, you could hear people in stitches half way up the street!)

JCDUB

I was in a nightclub in Limerick a couple of years back, dancing away on the dancefloor with a couple of friends, and my mate was about four feet away on a step just off the dancefloor with a railing between us. My mate is about 6'4", stocky, and has a big mop of black curls, just to set the scene.

We were having a bit of banter and he obviously misjudged the distance between us and decided to have a mess swing for me, just trying to clip me on the ear.
He toppled over the railing and somersaulted down onto the deck, spilling his drink on himself and even causing the music to skip:D
The doormen came running over because they just heard a big bang, then they along with everyone else around the place broke their bollocks laughing at this hulk getting up off the ground.
Fookin priceless, although I nearly embarrassed myself as much by pissing myself laughing at him:eek:

Different from bullying though, he brought it on himself...

fakearms123

Slow Motion wrote:

Actually by laughing at it and not seeming to care about the kid (I know you said poor kid in your quote but it didn't come across as particularly sincere) you are promoting bullying. Until bullys realise there actions are socially unacceptable they will continue with it, you don't seem to get this ! There is a huge difference between something funny happening and some one being victimised.

Firstly this lad usually does hand out a lot of slaggings himself, at the time he was a chubby kid but he has a quick wit and used it to slag people, although he had an unfortunate lunch break which lasted probably 10 minutes, he got through it. And im sure someone else got the same treatment the next day, i was not involved in the kid's situation but im sure my laughter contributed to his embarrassment. It was a comical moment, he even has said it himself.
There is a quote, "if you dont laugh, you cry". I am not promoting bullying, it can be a terrible cycle in school, you can have a horrible day of insults have a misfortune but its yesterday's news the next morning. Im sorry if in writing the bird sh*t on shoulder incident doesnt sound funny but at the time it was, im not proud of myself for laughing but i did. The man who fell in the cinema was laughing when he fell, he obviously appreciated a bit of humour. One day in secondary school i was standing outside the primary school and spent the rest of the day called Charlie CHester the Child Molester, looking back it was funny.

L31mr0d

Gore Vidal: “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.”

That quote pretty much explains why we laugh at other peoples mistakes and misgivings. Everyone finds it amusing when something stupid happens to someone else, if not then we wouldn't have great shows like faulty towers, Monty Python and the like. In fact I can't think of one comedy that isn't based around the mistakes of people.

But I agree with others in that their is a line, someone doing something to themselves is funny, someone doing it to them is not. I found the fat guy tripping and getting shat on funny, but people beating on him is not.

I also laugh when bad things happen to me. I can appreciate the ridiculousness of some coincidental events that have happened to me. Like on my stag weekend in paris, the hotel we stayed in was a 2 star dive, it was a french version of faulty towers, not being stereotypical but the staff and manager where truly obnoxious. The morning breakfast was bread and water, the walls where falling apart, whenever my friend plugged in his razor the electricity in the building would trip out, and the cleaning lady would just let herself into your room without knocking, one time my friend was actually coming out of the shower. He was really pissed off about how bad it was but I found the whole thing hilarious.. and it is a pretty funny story to tell people.

Slow Motion

fakearms123 wrote:

im not proud of myself for laughing but i did.

Fair enough ! I just wanted to make the point that your two stories were different ! One was (somewhat) acceptable and I can understand people finding the humour in it, the other wasn't, as someone who was bullied in school I suppose it struck a chord and I felt the need to make my point, the effects of this kind of thing can have very serious consequences (in my case for the bullies as I ended up beating the $hit out of one*) and I have an issue with any form of bullying and the tacit acceptance of it by others (this is a general point and not directed at you OP).


*I do not advocate violence as a means of solving problems it just happened that I found myself being attacked and defended myself usning the martial arts I had being studying for the previous year to boost my selfconfidence to the great supprise of said bully

TwoShedsJackson

I'll usually laugh if i see a kid trip or drop their ice cream or something and go into a huge hissy fit, but then again I do hate children.

scruff321

Niamho! wrote:

i think its only natural to laugh. My sister is the WORST person for that.

the main one that sticks out in my mind was the sh*telink one night, a bloke got on with a Backpack. Twisted. started goin up the stairs.....right as the bus took off. fell right back and every bit of loose change fell out of his pocket rolling all over the bus. i was in Knots. it wasn't so much the fall it was the little pathetic noise he made while he was falling. So funny.
then he asked the Driver (77 to tallaght) did it go near Sandyford, when the driver said no he got off near Cork street. the poor Fooker.

you wouldnt have been laughing if he was some hard **** that wouldve knocked the bollocks outta you would you?

fakearms123

Slow Motion wrote:

I just wanted to make the point that your two stories were different ! One was (somewhat) acceptable and I can understand people finding the humour in it, the other wasn't

Thats what I had intended, the two stories were different, both instances were situations i laughed and the purpose of the thread was to distinguish between the two. That is why I asked for opinions towards the end of the post. Obviously there is no way to completely distinguish between the two because socially acceptable circumstances can be viewed from either side, the victim and the observer(s)

L31mr0d

scruff321 wrote:

you wouldnt have been laughing if he was some hard **** that wouldve knocked the bollocks outta you would you?

no but I would of laughed if he did... you're not getting the point here are you. Its nearly ALWAYS funny when its happening to someone else.

The other funny thing about buses is when people fall asleep. Its happened to me a few times. I'll be sitting up with my eyes closed, mouth open, then the bus will suddenly jam on and i'll fly forward and headbutt the bar in front of me, making this horrible *twang*. I swear they designed the bus so this would happen. It usually results in the meek hiding their spluttering laughter and the brazen just breaking their sh!te laughing and pointing. Sure its embarrassing, but would I then not laugh when it happens to someone else.. hell no, funny is funny.

scruff321

just remembered the other week i was in a niteclub with my mates,we were sitting on stools and i said to the lads "im goin to the toilet", and immediately as i said that i fell off my stool,i must say very funny,the highlight of my mates nite it was

scruff321

L31mr0d wrote:

no but I would of laughed if he did... you're not getting the point here are you. Its nearly ALWAYS funny when its happening to someone else.

The other funny thing about buses is when people fall asleep. Its happened to me a few times. I'll be sitting up with my eyes closed, mouth open, then the bus will suddenly jam on and i'll fly forward and headbutt the bar in front of me, making this horrible *twang*. I swear they designed the bus so this would happen. It usually results in the meek hiding their spluttering laughter and the brazen just breaking their sh!te laughing and pointing. Sure its embarrassing, but would I then not laugh when it happens to someone else.. hell no, funny is funny.

ok there is alot of times that kinda **** is funny and come to think of it it always happens to me ..oh yea im a demon for falling asleep on the bus,especially the nitelink.sure last xmas i was coming home from a party got the last bus and fell asleep,the next thing i remember i got woken up by the cleaners in ringsend who were about to start cleaning the bus!after missing my stop completely ended up at the bus station! i look around me and another bloke has done the same thing except he fell asleep missed his stop and went back into town,fell asleep again and we both ended up at the station! i felt like giving the us driver a slap he was having a good old chuckle to himself ud think the prick would have woken the 2 of us up!all the same thought it was funny

patrickc

fakearms123 wrote:

it was a mandarin orange! we're swerving away from the point of this thread here, he could of been hit in the head by a homeless guy, it doesnt matter what he was hit by

why pick a homeless person?? it could of been yore ma u shuda said, not insulting the poor homeless..

Terry

People falling asleep on the bus is always funny.
Was working in Listowel a few years back and was sharing a room in a B&B with my friend.
He had gone to bed while I stayed in the bar drinking.
Long story short, I kept him awake all night with my snoring.
Early the next morning he got a phone call saying his granny had died, so he got on a bus home.
About two hours later, myself and another friend were working away when my phone rang. I put it on speaker so that I could keep working.
It was my friend. He had gotten the wrong bus, fell asleep and ended up in Limerick. He was bitching me out over the phone and blaming it all on me because I had kept him awake all night. Myself, my friend and the two guys who owned the shop we were working in were all pissing ourselves laughing at him.

fakearms123

patrickc2006 wrote:

why pick a homeless person?? it could of been yore ma u shuda said, not insulting the poor homeless..

okay ill use yore ma next time!

Ruu_Old

Saw a chap fly over the handlebars of his bicycle the other night after hitting a high part in the path and burst out laughing (then felt bad about it):( It was just a Jackass type moment or some sort of blooper you'd see on telly. He got up right away and off he went.

Niamho!

i was out last sat week and someone told me to run into the loo and Get Serena, so with my drink on board and thinkin they were in a hurry to get goin i literally ran, out the door through the bar where some dipsh*t was moppin the floor.... i went snotting, but the way i landed, i kinda went into tha Splits before i got a hold of myself and realised i'd Rip my Lady bits in two so i bent my knees. oh so shockingly Graceful im sure. the barman offered me help and i never got up and ran from someone so quick in my life!! if i hadn't been in Two knee pain at hte time i would have pee'd myself. shudda seen the Bruises. if my mate had seen me he would have never let me live it down.