Schadenfreude

 

1. Genesis

Schadenfreude is a German word made up of two words Schaden meaning damage or harm and Freude meaning joy. 

2. Meaning

It is the feeling of pleasure after seeing someone else's failure, trouble, misfortune or humiliation. 

3. Use in Cinema

It is used in sitcoms and comedy movies where the protagonist can't catch a break. We all laugh along as the character suffers a string of bad luck, humiliation and troubles. They live in a constant state of failure. Everything they do ends in tragedy and misery. Schadenfreude can also be called comedic sociopathy cause in order to laugh at the character's misery we have to be unsympathetic towards the character. This is also called tragic comedy, cause tragedy of one person is laughing stock for others. 

Prat falling is a also used in cinema for laughs where the character falling on their back is shown as hilarious.

British Comedy employs schadenfreude more than American Comedy. Not to go off topic but as a tangent, In British Comedy, we are more likely to laugh at the characters while in American Comedy we are more likely to laugh with the characters. British Comedy is more dark and pessimistic while American Comedy is more optimistic and upbeat. 

In the Popular Show, Two and Half Men Allan can never seem to catch a break he is constantly mocked and humiliated. He is emasculated by his wife. He is scared of his wife and mother and could not stand up for himself. He is essentially a doormat. His son disrespects him while his brother bullied and terrorized him throughout his miserable span on this earth he calls life. But, we don't feel bad for him but instead we laugh at him. He is the punching bag of the show every character takes shots at him constantly even guest character make fun of him.

The actor playing the role has the name Jon CRYer for CRYing out loud. Alan's miserable life played for laughs is case in point for schadenfreude. 

4. In Real Life

When a kid trips and falls on the ground or a kid falls into mud or pisses himself or does anything embarrassing the whole class laughs.  Internet is full of memes of people falling and having full meltdowns and embarrassing themselves. In that situation, the people watching are is experiencing schandenfreude.

In Cricket, When a player gets hit in the nuts everyone laughs including his teammates while he shrieks in excruciating pain.  Movies also use getting kicked in the balls as laughing gags. However, it is not very pleasant for the man whose balls are hurting like hell. Believe me.