Schadenfreude

Ah, that satisfying, superior, at once gleeful and slightly sinful feeling when the aggressive driver that overtook you gets their comeuppance and is flashed by a speed camera. Or when you find yourself laughing when a loved one falls over.

#EpicFail comes to mind.

This human experience can also be described as Schadenfreude, a nifty German word made up of schaden for damage, harm or hurt and freude for joy. Taking pleasure in others’ misfortunes.

And so begins a litany of examples amongst the three of us of times we've felt schadenfreude.

We learn that there are different types (summarised as 'good' and 'bad'), that some of us experience it more than others, and that there could be learnings in it for all of us to help consider our relationship with those around us.

You can find the headline sketch here.

We regularly reference the writing of cultural historian, Tiffany Watt Smith and her book on the topic.

Let us know your stories where you've experienced schadenfreude. We'll try not to laugh.

email us: [email protected]

alternatively, you can find all three of us on Social Media here too: Jono Hey, Tom Pellereau, Rob Bell.

Find many more sketches at Sketchplanations.com

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

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