Signs That SchadenfreudeFest (Or The Apocalypse) Is Coming

Filed under: Media Mayhem | By DrHGuy | December 24, 2006 at 6:00 am

SchadenfreudeFest Rocks

The Spirit Of SchadenfreudeFest, the holiday officially initiated in the Heck Of A Guy blog only a few days ago, has already gained a beachhead in its ascension to end of the year celebratory supremacy by suffusing the popular press. While the “SchadenfreudeFest” name itself has not yet been appended to these publications¹, how else could one explain the plethora of articles that so precisely fit the SchadenfreudeFest mode?

As evidence I offer these links to and excerpts from three examples, drawn from a plethora of similar pieces, all published within 24 hours of the Heck Of A Guy SchadenfreudeFest post, in popular, widely available sources.

SchadenfreudeFestesque Holiday Disquisitions Featured In The Popular Press During The Period From 21 December 2006 To 22 December 2006

Those Inflatable Santas: Eyepoppers to Eyesores by Paul Vitello New York Times Dec 22, 2006

On a recent quiet afternoon, with few witnesses around, Homer Simpson, Santa Claus and a penguin perched on an igloo suddenly appeared here on the Long Island landscape as if from nowhere, unfolding slowly like Frankenstein monsters lurching to life on the table. As Homer’s extremities reached full size, his pink nylon fist puffed into Mr. Snow Man’s face — an involuntary attack, to be sure. Bop. Such is the phantasmagoric, Disney-esque experience of the new Christmas custom sweeping the suburbs. Whatever else Christmas in America means — the birth of Jesus, holly wreaths, the Chipmunks, cultural tension — it now also includes these gargantuan, inflatable outdoor decorations, called “Airblowns” by their chief manufacturer.

Coporate Scrooge Contest Results by Daniel Gross Slate Dec 21, 2006

A contract consultant sends word that the company to which he is currently assigned recently sent out an e-mail to some 2,000-odd consultants. The company would give away two $100 gift cards—to two of the brave souls who would commit to work 80 hours between Dec. 18 and Dec. 31. As our correspondent noted: “Hey, if you work Christmas, we’ll put you in a pool of 2,000 other folks to maybe win a hundred bucks.”

2006 Holiday Survival Guide for Slackers by Matthew Baldwin The Morning News Dec 22, 2006

Back when I was an atheist, Christmas was a confusing season indeed. The holiday, as I saw it, revolved entirely around two completely fictitious characters—one in a red suit, the other in swaddling clothes—but believing in the former got you branded as a certifiable nutjob or a hopeless idiot, while failing to believe in the latter meant you were at odds with 79 percent of the American people. Never mind that the two men have essentially the same job description (omnipresent superman who rewards the faithful and punishes sinners); never mind that both come equipped with entourages (disciples and elves); never mind that historical atrocities have been committed in the name of each (the Inquisition and the writing of “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”). We are nonetheless told that the first is but a figment of our imagination, the second a quintessential Truth.

While this is all quite gratifying, I must acknowledge, as SchadenfreudeFest Founder, that naming and organizing the SchadenfreudeFest movement, while admittedly a work of genius, was only the final, albeit essential, step in giving voice to a dynamic that, at least in this country, has existed in ne form or another for years. SchadenfreudeFest is, indeed, as American as figgy pudding.

Footnotes

This reluctance to employ “SchadenfreudeFest” in print could be ascribed to cultural inertia, holiday chauvinism, and even concerns about spelling – or it could have something to do with the media’s chintzy disinclination to make the nominal royalty payments, as outlined in the polite, respectful explanatory memos sent by the Heck Of A Guy Legal Department. ~back~

Show Social Bookmarks