Synopses & Reviews
The term schadenfreude—originally a German word translated as “pleasure
taken in someone else’s misfortune”—has become entrenched in popular
culture. There have been references to it everywhere from The West Wing to The Colbert Report. Sarah Silverman has a running joke about it in her comedy skits. Ben Affleck even blamed it for the failure of Gigli, his ill-fated movie with JLo (even though everyone knows what the problem really was . . .).
Delighting in other people’s ill luck is an undeniable part of the modern psyche. It can be as simple as a slip on a banana peel or the soap opera unraveling of a celebrity scandal. This little book compiles scores of schadenfreude moments, many of which are sure to provide helpful cheer, such as heiress Paris Hilton facing a jail sentence for driving on a suspended license, wartime VP Dick Cheney in a weapons mishap, and Olympian showboat Lindsey Jacobellis losing the snowboarding gold medal.
Filled with the missteps and downfalls of the famous and not so famous, Schadenfreude, Baby! taps into our universal longing to gawk and smirk at the people who stand—or fall—for all of us. This helps us feed the delusion that while the accidents and agonies of life are happening to someone else, we ourselves are spared . . . at least for the moment.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Laura Lee is the author of ten books, including The Pocket Encyclopedia of Aggravation (Black Dog and Leventhal), now in its third printing (25,700 on B/S); The 100 Most Dangerous Things in Life (Broadway Books, 7,500 on B/S), which has been featured on GMA and CNN's American Morning; Arlo, Alice and Anglicans (Berkshire House/W.W. Norton); The Name’s Familiar: Mr. Leotard, Barbie and Chef Boyardee (Pelican Publishing) a Book of the Month Club alternate selection; Blame it on the Rain (Harper Collins); The Elvis Impersonation Kit (Black Dog and Leventhal) and the forthcoming A Child’s Guide to the Ballet (Black Dog and Leventhal).
Currently, Lee is a corporate speech writer with OverViews Speechwriting. She's written for such magazines as Reader’s Digest, Private Pilot, The Futurist, Smithsonian, Weatherwise, Preservation and Seattle Magazine, as well as corporate clients including HSBC Bank, The Ford Motor Company, and General Motors.