Entertaining article from The Morning News:

Schadenfreude is a fairly simple word, as far as compound words go. Schaden means “harm,” freude means “joy.” Literally, it’s “harmjoy.” In fact, other languages have similar words: Greek’s epikhairekakia and the Finnish vahingonilo, for example. The feeling of schadenfreude isn’t cultural, though. It’s biological. In January, a study published in the journal Nature even identified the part of the male brain in which the feeling lives. But if anything, the way Americans use the word “schadenfreude” is embarrassingly American, not German.

I like reading etymologies as much as the next language geek, but I have to disagree here. Mr. Feifer’s grossly overstating his case. Germans came up with this word for a very good reason: It constitutes about 80% of their humor. Germans, indeed Europeans in general, love watching low-brow, slapstick comedy. Ever wonder what the whole France/Jerry Lewis thing was about? Or Benny Hill’s Yakety-Sax segments? There you have it.

A rare comical treat for a German is when somebody busts their ass on the sidewalk. As an example, I was in Atlanta once with a German girl, in the Virginia Highlands area. A lady was jogging by, and caught her foot on a loose flagstone (Atlanta sidewalks are among the worst I’ve ever seen). She ate dirt in a most unflattering and painful way. The girl I was with suddenly started braying like a choking mule, slapping her knee and pointing. I thought we were going to get sued.

I do think that Americans like it when their enemies or competitors take an embarrassing tumble. But Europeans will laugh at friends, or even complete strangers. In fact, it’s pretty much become EU foreign policy at this point.