Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for April 01, 2011

Schandenfreude - taking pleasure in the misfortune of others!

I was always wondering why people kept seeming to get such pleasure out of hanging around me. I thought that it was my sparkling wit or my snappy dialogue. Well…maybe that could still be the reason.

So, is Schadenfreude the same as Sadism?

@pouncingtiger, I don’t think it’s the same as sadism. Sadism is taking pleasure from inflicting pain upon other people. Schadenfreude is taking advantage of another person’s bad situation that’s already in existence.

Sadists like to inflict — Schadenfreude is voyeuristic

Wow - I feel so mentally healthy! I have no clue who any of the people in the tabloids are or what’s wrong with them. Or does that mean there’s something wrong with me?

When I go Ouch, I hear “Ha Ha” Schadenfreude may translate to “Good, he got his comeuppance” but I think it is caused by my &^%$##@% &^%$#$%.

That is the first time I have sworn in these strips, but I’m talking about HER.

And I always thought Schadenfreude was the protagonist from 1001 Arabian Nights.

And here I thought it was Schasassages!

Schadenfreude over the self induced misfortunes of celebrities is not a bad thing.

Aren’t the high ratings for those “reality” shows just exercises in national schadenfreude?

The new Zeitgeist is Weltschmerz.

And it’s spelled Fahrvergnügen.

Meantime, the Germans are absorbing more and more English into their daily language. These are words I’ve heard on German language news broadcasts from Deutsche Welle TV:

Talk Show, Highlights, Job Interview, Soundtrack, Blockbuster, Happy End, Highlight, Worst Case Scenario, Skyline, Last Minute, Fitness, Pole Position, Facelift, Kickoff, Laptop, Mainstream, Up to Date, Marketing, Hobby, Real Estate…

And the list goes on, but that gives you some idea.

All these years I thought schadenfreude was a sun screen for Viennese psychoanalysts.

It’s all German to me

Is the German word for constipation: Fahrfrumpüpen?

schadenfreude is why Charlie sheen thinks everyone loves him but they are only following him on Twitter because of schadenfreude!!!!!!

Wake up and smell the coffee donkey!!!

Let’s all visit Charlie Sheen and have a shot. After that, we can swing by the Lohan residence.

I wonder if Lindsay and Charlie have their own permanently reserved tables.

Get the music from Avenue Q-they have a song about this.

I liked the cryptogram I did this morning,

“Don’t tell people your problems, eighty percent don’t care and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.”

Had to go check who said it, Lou Holtz. Don’t want to go quoting out of text.

Is that pronounced “shot in foot”?

Schadenfreude, scheiss geschiet, das machts nichts, es ist die ganze gleiche Sache.

Bitte?

In re: Missing Nawlins comment - Schadenfreude, doodoo happens, it doesn’t make any difference, it is all the same.

I heard tell Charlie Sheen did enough cocaine one night to kill 2 1/2 Men.

Actually, English is derived from German, as well as the Latin languages. If the Americas had invaded Britain, or the Japanese or Chinese had somehow joined the waves of invasions, their languages would be mixed in, too.

It’s all Greek to me…

English: let’s see: it comes from what the Norman knights whispered to the Celto-Saxon serving maids to get them to warm their bed for the night.

So it has roots in Latin-Middle French, Norse, Germanic, and Celtic. And since then has adopted a slew of other vocabulary: Latin and Greek technical terms, all sorts of Pidgins and Creoles in the colonies, Indian, Chinese, French, and other idioms, you name it.

Come on over to the Schadenfreude Diner: It serves you right…

Reading these comments is very enlightening! But seriously, I love Non Sequitur! It appeals to those who use the head for something other than a hatrack! I hope this strip lasts for a long time.

Wiley totally gets it. That’s why the strip is so good! I watch some reality shows (mostly cooking or design contests) and I know they are cheaper to produce, even with big prizes. I also watch some of the real houswives even though I know that is total trash (but my daughter has friends just like that)

@Atma, actually, it’s a myth that “but for the sake of just ONE single vote, America’s official language would have been German”; it’s based upon an assertion by a 19th century historian that after the Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania came within one vote of declaring German its official language; further research has concluded that that never happened either.

“Schade” means “That’s too bad!” or “That’s a shame!” “Freude” means “joy”. My translation would be “That’s a shame what happened to you!…but I’m sure glad it didn’t happen to me.”