Schadenfreude, Baby!

Plot

Schadenfreude has taken hold in the American vernacular. This German word translates, roughly, as “pleasure taken at someone else’s misfortune,” and it has been mentioned more than once on The Simpsons, Boston Legal, The Colbert Report, and Two and a Half Men, among other shows. The human spirit is almost always boosted by the failures of others. This little book compiles scores of Schadenfreude moments, at least one of which is sure to provide helpful cheer, such as taste-maker Martha Stewart going to prison, wartime VP Dick Cheney in a weapons mishap, and Olympian showboat Lindsey Jacobellis losing the snowboarding gold medal. This is a book for anyone who derives guilty pleasure from stories of disaster, slows down to look at car wrecks, or simply finds self-affirmation in the failure of others.