I have embedded a YouTube video in this post that I'd like to chat about. Some of you might find it funny, some might find it horrifying, some, disgusting. It depends on who you are.

This video is composed of a montage of many "blooper" style clips in which people get hurt, sometimes terribly hurt, mostly while trying to amuse themselves in risky ways. There are car accidents, skateboard accidents, gymnastic falls, wild animal stunts gone wrong, bike and cycle crashes, skiing accidents... and so forth, you get the picture. I lost count of all the broken necks and smashed faces. There's a few testicle-mashings thrown in for comedy, too.

The video is of poor quality, so you won't see any graphic splashes of blood or bones sticking out of flesh, but that's the undoubted result of many of these "bloopers". Some of them look serious enough to have result in death, if not serious and permanent maiming.

Why have I posted this here? Well, the people who put it together seemed to think it was funny to see all of these people getting hurt. I guess if none of them are your friends or loved ones, it might be, I don't know. But I was fascinated by two things... the nature of why we are willing and able to laugh at such things (the horrible pain and maiming of others) and see it as funny, and why we pursue such risky and witless entertainments in the first place.

Do we laugh because the bad things aren't happening to *us*, and we think we could have handled things better? Is there laughter because we somehow think these people deserved what they got, a la Darwin's Awards?

Do we engage in idiotic dangerous games and hobbies because we have over-civilized ourselves and we need to turn to these pursuits to re-adrenalize ourselves to replace the excitement of being chased by leopards and such?

I debated with myself whether to post this here or in the Interfaith forum, and decided to come here, because I didn't really want a faith-based discussion of the issue, I want to explore the psychology of idiocy, rather than the morality of idiocy.

Warning: Please do not watch this video if you are offended by clips of people getting hurt.

Go to Morbidcurosity.com for more... People really have a morbid curiosity of accidents, the details of accidents and exactly how another person was hurt. They hear about it, but rarely do they get to see it, unless they slow down at the site of an accident or google this stuff on You Tube. There are accident chasers, those people that listen to ambulance and police radios for reports...then they show up!

If one is laughing, I don't think it is because he or she may really think it is funny. I think it is a nervous laughter.... They see this, and to comfort themselves, they laugh. The laugh is one of inner release...

Grand Guignol theater is based on real morbid events, but the characters are stick like...the audience gets the message without "exact" reality of real horror. The movie Fargo is grand guignol. The idea of watching Grand Guignol is to release pent up anger in the audience. It was invented in Paris and became popular during the World War.. It is no wonder today, we are interested in this type of entertainment..with all the bad news in the world, including a war that won't end.

I agree, CG, if people laugh at other people's pain, it's a nervous laugh--but why? Is it because we're thinking, "There, but for the grace of God, go I?"

I watched Helice's clip. I didn't laugh. I'd seen a lot of it before I stopped watching America's Funniest Home Videos. The cute kid and pet videos were all right, but the ball bashing and other accidents weren't, to me. I'd rather read even a mediocre book than watch crap like that.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Grand Guignol before it closed. The troupe presented three one-act plays. I can't remember the first, but the second was a typical French farce with characters popping out of unexpected doors and running into other doors. The third one-act was about a face-lift--a 'real' one, wherein the mad scientist removed a girl's face. The layers of make-up needed for that was fascinating.

But the real fascinating thing for me was the theater. It was small and full of wonderful scrolled woodwork. The great Scaramouche,
was depicted there. I could imagine the character crossing blades with an enemy while balanced on the hand-rail of a balcony.

But--is a fascination with the suffering of other people a 'fascination of the abomination?'

A lot of that stuff is stuff that's been going on since the dawn of stuff going on. Home video and You Tube like outlets are just letting more people see it.

Some of it was not even deliberate risk taking behavior. The guy who fell in the pool with the cake was just that. A guy falling in a pool with a cake. Clumsy him.

There was a robbery clip. People commit crimes for a whole host of reasons not related to their or anyone else's entertainment. Actually, most crimes are not committed for hey look at me purposes. Most criminals want as few people to see them as possible.

Then there were the racing clips. Some people like to go fast. Those who do it professionally invest a great amount of time, education and expense into doing it as safe as possible. Safety is serious business in racing.

Some people do stunts for the shock value. To entertain themselves and others. People do generally enjoy recognition for their accomplishments. Some for hard work. Some for hard stunts.

As for why people watch, I'll tell you this. I have watched 100s of motorcycle crash videos over the past few months. I ride a motorcycle. I want to see how and what happens without doing it to myself. There is a lot to be learned from others mistakes and those lessons hurt a lot less than making them myself. Why duplicate the effort?

A lot of the motorcycle clips seem to have been taken from either meets or races. You drive your motorcycle to and from work, don't you?

The 'fascination of the abomination' is a late 19th Century view of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It was meant to show the interest people had in what was unknown and alien to them and led to a lot of racist views.

But it also reflected a belief in man's animal origins.

What is football? Some people think it's an extension of the Roman gladiatorial games. This would also show man's animal origins.

Is watching competition and failures in competition--and laughing about those failures--an affirmation of man's animal origins?

I don't think we'd be around if proto-humanoids laughed at their failures.

But Helice wants to know why some people find things such as this something to laugh at. Being devoid of humor, I don't laugh--I just turn it off.

Well in chimps, showing the teeth in a laugh type reaction, means the chimp is afraid, and it has been speculated, as far as I know, that in humans, the laugh reaction originated in reaction to a disturbing situation. Perhaps its a reaction to potential insanity in what we are looking at.


I guess that could be a factor, people do enjoy the chance to call others idiots. Unless the injury was very minor I don't think I could laugh too much at others hurting themselves.





Perhaps it is related to the "reality tv" trend. People are naturally voyeuristic, or at least some are, so they want to experience things vicariously; either other peoples sex lives, or their everyday tasks, or watching others suffer. Perhaps the television has made us see all people as entertainment.

Of course I cannot blame everything on the modern entertainment culture, since even the Romans had their "bread and circuses" to amuse them, and that often involved a lot of blood and death also. Modern culture has made us less open to others, more willing to view people as entertainment or means to a profit.

If more and more things are more designed towards instant gratification, if more and more things are defined in terms of monetary value, people are taught by society to value the dollar more than brotherly love, then why not be laugh at people being maimed, since such things do not effect us personally or our wallets in a bad way, therefore we can laugh or cry at such situations, as we see fit.


All things are entertainment in our society, even video clips of war and killing; this is an trend that does not seem likely to stop or slow down.