SCHADENFREUDE!

In honor of the recent Olympics, I present a quote from Avenue Q:

"Ain't it fun to watch figure skaters* falling on their asses?!"

Oh god, this makes me sound like such a horrible person, but YES, indeed it is. The fun of speculating how much the fall hurt, the commentary from the announcer people that they are now out of the competition, their dreams being smashed... MUAHAHA!

Nawwww, but srsly...

In order to justify this a little, the definition of "schadenfreude"-- Delight in the misfortunes of others. Terrible premise, but true if you think about it. WHY is it fun to watch people look like fools during the middle of a serious international athletic competition? I've come up with these reasons (slash, my excuses for doing this)

1. The nicer one-- It shows that they're real people, not some sort of superhuman machine*, with flaws that the average Olympic-viewer can relate to that make them feel better about their own abilities.

2. Probably closer to the truth-- All people, not matter how sophisticated they seem, have the primal sense of humor commonly exhibited in monkeys. Doing/seeing embarrassing or painful things done to others that aren't happening to us personally IS FUNNY. Pain = LULZ.

*Not always figure skaters, obviously. Some of the better ones I've seen have occurred during skiing.
**On the side of conspiracy, possibly random mistakes designed into the program of these Olympic robots specifically to REFUTE the idea that they ARE in fact said robots? Always one step ahead, those cyborgs... ;)
***Mmmm, that's all I've got to say, except that AQ is hilarious. Is it just me or do the Summer Olympics have a LOT more events? (or at least a larger variety?)