YellowJacket Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Come on. That would have to be some faceplant. If one of my friends trips and falls flat on his face, it's so absurd that it is funny, and I'll laugh as I help him to his feet. IF his spectacular fall did cause serious injury, it would cease to be funny. Schadenfreude is a bit different and doesn't apply to your own friends. a faceplant implies you have slammed your face into the floor. So you laugh until you realize the injuries are serious? like, you laugh all the way til the next morning and the friend can't get out of bed cuz they've jammed a shoulder or slipped a disc? How serious does the injury have to be before it ceases to be funny? even a swollen knee can mean lost work time if you are a cashier on your feet all day. But at least we all got a good laugh when that walmart lady hit the deck, eh? one of my best friends slipped, without falling, on an osage orange and the resulting knee tear cost her 3 YEARS of being unable to teach yoga. too bad you I wasn't there to laugh. There are also plenty of jobs where you can't show up for work with visible bruising or road rash. How can someone do a "spectacular fall" and not end up with bruises? but to you - that's not serious, so its funny. Hey, Mr. High-and-not-so-Mighty, aka Swollen-Buzzkill, if a faceplant is not funny-unless-it-is-the-rare-case-of-serious-injury, why is it that when the guy who actually faceplants gets up, he laughs?! You're out of touch. Oh also, you can quit it with that condescending tone of voice, asshole. http://www.lawfirms....l-accidents.htm some people laugh to keep from crying with pain, asshole. Try volunteering at the nursing home and see how funny those face plants are, asshole. ever push your grandma down the stares for a laugh, asshole? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadedAtheist Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 perhaps you laugh because you know you aren't responsible for your friends doctor bills? or were you not punished for this in elementary school? back in my day, anyone laughing at a classmate's injuries got a trip to the principals office. Yes, a 4 yr old laughs at the pain of others, because they don't understand the consequences. You are trained NOT to laugh at this the same way you are trained not to laugh at a speech defect or the limp of a polio victim. Bullying comes natural to children until they are trained out of their natural narcissism and to have empathy for others. But with all the "bullying" problems in high schools today, I'm guessing this sort of training hasn't be around since the 60s. When I see someone faceplant,, my thoughts are: broken nose, chipped teeth, lost time at work, doctor bill. "Not OMG the scared look on his face caused me so much enjoyment!!!" It is Schadenfreude, a mischievous delight in the misfortunes of others, which remains the worst trait in human nature. - Arthur Schopenhauer, 1897 The issue here is you act a certain way, I act a certain way but since it's not the same as yours it must be bad. From my example labels like "narcissistic" and "lack of empathy" are thrown at me. Once again, you're intellectualising the issue. I do not think "X, Y, Z happened therefore I should laugh". No one thinks that. Do you do that when someone tells you a funny joke? No. You simply hear it and laugh. You are right that it's a natural tendency though, one that it appears that you have been trained out of which is fair enough but I don't think you can say simply because I laugh at such an incident I am narcissistic or I don't have any empathy towards others. I don't like to toot my own horn, so I won't give examples but I can assure you that I would be right beside you rushing to help if I saw someone get seriously hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yrth Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Come on. That would have to be some faceplant. If one of my friends trips and falls flat on his face, it's so absurd that it is funny, and I'll laugh as I help him to his feet. IF his spectacular fall did cause serious injury, it would cease to be funny. Schadenfreude is a bit different and doesn't apply to your own friends. a faceplant implies you have slammed your face into the floor. So you laugh until you realize the injuries are serious? like, you laugh all the way til the next morning and the friend can't get out of bed cuz they've jammed a shoulder or slipped a disc? How serious does the injury have to be before it ceases to be funny? even a swollen knee can mean lost work time if you are a cashier on your feet all day. But at least we all got a good laugh when that walmart lady hit the deck, eh? one of my best friends slipped, without falling, on an osage orange and the resulting knee tear cost her 3 YEARS of being unable to teach yoga. too bad you I wasn't there to laugh. There are also plenty of jobs where you can't show up for work with visible bruising or road rash. How can someone do a "spectacular fall" and not end up with bruises? but to you - that's not serious, so its funny. Hey, Mr. High-and-not-so-Mighty, aka Swollen-Buzzkill, if a faceplant is not funny-unless-it-is-the-rare-case-of-serious-injury, why is it that when the guy who actually faceplants gets up, he laughs?! You're out of touch. Oh also, you can quit it with that condescending tone of voice, asshole. http://www.lawfirms....l-accidents.htm some people laugh to keep from crying with pain, asshole. Try volunteering at the nursing home and see how funny those face plants are, asshole. ever push your grandma down the stares for a laugh, asshole? The hell? No one is talking about the elderly, that's completely different. And no, these people are laughing because it was funny that they just fell over. Context is everything, which is what people have been saying to your deaf mind. Weak mischaracterization. -1 for Swollen-Buzzkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yrth Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Slip and fall lawsuits are some of the most numerous. Fall in any place of business and I guarantee you the owner isn't laughing - they are panicking over the impending possible lawsuit. the last time i slipped, with out falling, was 3 months ago and I tore a glute. It will never heal properly. The last time I faceplanted was 2007, and tore a hamstring. Permanent scarring, 80% recovery at most. If the person who helped me up had been laughing I would have punched him in the face. mmhmm, yes, I know this, I've even helped depose slip and fall plaintiffs. Never even thought of laughing at them. Context is everything. So apparently you are like House MD, where your bad leg makes you an ass. Good luck with that (and the leg). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VacuumFlux Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 I laugh at my own minor injuries, because it's more useful than panicking. Like when I was learning to use clipless pedals on my bike, forgot how the whole stopping thing works, and fell over sideways in the grass. When I tell that story to other people, I intend it to be funny and want them to laugh. (The story about the time I fell onto the curb, got a bloody knee and adrenaline shakes bad enough I had trouble making it home, and terrified a passing car's driving isn't funny, because people were in much more distress.) Other cyclists then share their "I did something dumb but was not seriously injured" stories too, and treat them as funny. But there's also a sense of camaraderie there; they tell me their stories to reassure me that making mistakes is part of the learning process and that things are going to get better. We laugh to prove that there's no shame in having a rough start of it. Edit: Note the difference there between laughing with and laughing at. For me, personally, if I'm really badly hurt I don't like being laughed at (at least not right at the time, though I may find it somewhat amusing later), but having people freaking out over my injuries doesn't help either. When the people around me stay calm, I can too. When other people overreact to my injuries, my empathy kicks in and suddenly it's harder not to panic. I don't need anyone else's overprotective emotional outbursts to add to my misery while I'm trying to cope with an injury. So I'd rather someone say "hey, that was wild, are you ok? you need anything?" while trying not to laugh (assuming they're also willing to provide any help that I request) than having to calm down a panicked person at the same time I'm trying to take care of myself. I've also been on the other side of that, being the panicked bystander, and learned to stop reacting that way when I realized that I wasn't helping anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 About 10 years ago my parents were working on their house. My dad fell off a ladder and hit my mom. It was a funny story they would tell. My dad started acting strange. More and more so. He wound up getting (yet another) brain surgery. It fixed his physical symptoms but he's still not quite "right" even today. It has caused a great many problems in our family. So when my parents told their supposedly funny story instead of laughing I should have immediately foresaw the future and let into my parents for...what? They got hurt. Saw doctors. Did what they felt was appropriate. And they found it funny. They wanted others, me included, to find it funny. So I did. It was funny...until it wasn't. But even then the original story, the way they told it, was funny because it was a silly accident. The tragedy is not funny (for us). If you want to laugh at that there's nothing to stop you however. That is why comedy and tragedy are related and found together. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowJacket Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 I laugh at my own minor injuries, because it's more useful than panicking. Like when I was learning to use clipless pedals on my bike, forgot how the whole stopping thing works, and fell over sideways in the grass. When I tell that story to other people, I intend it to be funny and want them to laugh. (The story about the time I fell onto the curb, got a bloody knee and adrenaline shakes bad enough I had trouble making it home, and terrified a passing car's driving isn't funny, because people were in much more distress.) Other cyclists then share their "I did something dumb but was not seriously injured" stories too, and treat them as funny. But there's also a sense of camaraderie there; they tell me their stories to reassure me that making mistakes is part of the learning process and that things are going to get better. We laugh to prove that there's no shame in having a rough start of it. Edit: Note the difference there between laughing with and laughing at. For me, personally, if I'm really badly hurt I don't like being laughed at (at least not right at the time, though I may find it somewhat amusing later), but having people freaking out over my injuries doesn't help either. When the people around me stay calm, I can too. When other people overreact to my injuries, my empathy kicks in and suddenly it's harder not to panic. I don't need anyone else's overprotective emotional outbursts to add to my misery while I'm trying to cope with an injury. So I'd rather someone say "hey, that was wild, are you ok? you need anything?" while trying not to laugh (assuming they're also willing to provide any help that I request) than having to calm down a panicked person at the same time I'm trying to take care of myself. I've also been on the other side of that, being the panicked bystander, and learned to stop reacting that way when I realized that I wasn't helping anyone. so what did you think about the ESPN guy laughing for days about the Tour de France wreck last yr? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VacuumFlux Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I laugh at my own minor injuries, because it's more useful than panicking. Like when I was learning to use clipless pedals on my bike, forgot how the whole stopping thing works, and fell over sideways in the grass. When I tell that story to other people, I intend it to be funny and want them to laugh. (The story about the time I fell onto the curb, got a bloody knee and adrenaline shakes bad enough I had trouble making it home, and terrified a passing car's driving isn't funny, because people were in much more distress.) Other cyclists then share their "I did something dumb but was not seriously injured" stories too, and treat them as funny. But there's also a sense of camaraderie there; they tell me their stories to reassure me that making mistakes is part of the learning process and that things are going to get better. We laugh to prove that there's no shame in having a rough start of it. Edit: Note the difference there between laughing with and laughing at. For me, personally, if I'm really badly hurt I don't like being laughed at (at least not right at the time, though I may find it somewhat amusing later), but having people freaking out over my injuries doesn't help either. When the people around me stay calm, I can too. When other people overreact to my injuries, my empathy kicks in and suddenly it's harder not to panic. I don't need anyone else's overprotective emotional outbursts to add to my misery while I'm trying to cope with an injury. So I'd rather someone say "hey, that was wild, are you ok? you need anything?" while trying not to laugh (assuming they're also willing to provide any help that I request) than having to calm down a panicked person at the same time I'm trying to take care of myself. I've also been on the other side of that, being the panicked bystander, and learned to stop reacting that way when I realized that I wasn't helping anyone. so what did you think about the ESPN guy laughing for days about the Tour de France wreck last yr? Didn't see that. Looking it up online, I think I'd be offended at them laughing, since there were injuries and I doubt the cyclists themselves thought it was all that funny. I might even be angry, because I'm scared of road riding due to assholes in cars who intentionally hurt cyclists for fun, or hit and run, etc. It's somewhat personal, too, since the girlfriend of a coworker was in a cast for a while after a hit-and-run from a car while cycling. At least that one sounds like an accident. Then it's just sad. It's usually harder for me to laugh if there's no indication that the people involved think it was funny. Sometimes I'll laugh at strangers getting hurt on youtube or TV when the setting indicates it's supposed to be funny, but if I realize that someone really got hurt then it won't be funny any more. Unless they're adults and it's on America's Funniest Home Videos and they're sitting in the audience being happy and excited to be on TV, then it goes back to laughing with instead of at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowJacket Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 Didn't see that. Looking it up online, I think I'd be offended at them laughing, since there were injuries and I doubt the cyclists themselves thought it was all that funny. I might even be angry, because I'm scared of road riding due to assholes in cars who intentionally hurt cyclists for fun, or hit and run, etc. It's somewhat personal, too, since the girlfriend of a coworker was in a cast for a while after a hit-and-run from a car while cycling. At least that one sounds like an accident. Then it's just sad. It's usually harder for me to laugh if there's no indication that the people involved think it was funny. Sometimes I'll laugh at strangers getting hurt on youtube or TV when the setting indicates it's supposed to be funny, but if I realize that someone really got hurt then it won't be funny any more. Unless they're adults and it's on America's Funniest Home Videos and they're sitting in the audience being happy and excited to be on TV, then it goes back to laughing with instead of at. scroll up I post links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijpCcGeSLzU this is the TV segment where he can't stop laughing. its a screen cap cuz ESPN pulled it when people called for Smith's firing (he wasn't fired) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djoker Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 "The most amazing thing about this crash, everybody was okay and finished the race." I didn't necessarily see what was so funny about the crash, but does them laughing change this fact? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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