Laughing at people's misfortune

fakearms123 · 28-08-2007 10:12AM #1

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 · 28-08-2007 10:18AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:21AM

fakearms123 wrote:

mangarine

hit with what??

Slow Motion · 28-08-2007 10:24AM

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! · 28-08-2007 10:26AM

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! · 28-08-2007 10:27AM

patrickc2006 wrote:

hit with what??

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

fakearms123 · 28-08-2007 10:27AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:31AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:35AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:42AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:43AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:45AM

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! · 28-08-2007 10:47AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:48AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:51AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:52AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:53AM

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

r3nu4l · 28-08-2007 10:53AM

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 · 28-08-2007 10:58AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:00AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:01AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:02AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:03AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:06AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:06AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:07AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:08AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:09AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:10AM

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 · 28-08-2007 11:11AM

jackdaw wrote:

you sound like a f**king idiot..

Less of that, please.

jester77 · 28-08-2007 11:11AM

I always burst my hole laughing at those schadenfruede moments

even though sometimes I shouldn't.[SIZE=-1] [/SIZE]

Laughing at people's misfortune

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