What is the German for Schadenfreude?
What is the German for schadenfreude? It’s so integral to our British psyche, we don’t have a word for it. Do the French? Or do they, like us, use the German for want of anything better. Literally it means Harm-Joy, but loses something in translation.
As you and I know, schadenfreude (sound the last letter, so not as in Sigmund) is that gorgeous feeling of self-satisfaction at another’s misfortune. Nothing too serious mind, the British don’t laugh at grief and tragedy - like the MOD’s PR handling of the Navy’s Iran hostage crisis. What we are talking about are life’s little banana skins and surely the big PR banana prize this month (so far) must go to Sir Michael Lyons, newly appointed Chairman of the BBC Trust (£140,000pa).
He is the man who at his first press conference told those Attack Jessies, the Media Correspondents, ‘I probably at the moment sample rather more radio than TV’. And not content in lowering himself straight into their feeding bowls, he compounded it by coming up with three TV programmes he did like (er, had heard of), of which one was on rival ITV and the other on Channel 4. HaHaHaHa!
Don’t get me wrong, my schadenfreude is not directed at his gaff but at the PR people who MUST have been minding him. Did nobody think to ask him before the conference, what his favourite BBC telly progs might be and if he answered Quatermass and the Lone Ranger, then suggest he say. “I watch the News and my wife loves anything with Lenny Henry and Red Nose Day”. Untrue perhaps but a major improvement none the less.
But then I wonder if this is the same lot of advisors who came up with this quote in the official BBC/10 Downing Street release announcing his appointment :
“It is a great privilege to be appointed Chairman of the BBC Trust,” Sir Michael said. “As the BBC’s sovereign body, our duty is to ensure the public who pay for the BBC retain overall control of their BBC. As Chairman I will never lose sight of the public’s core expectations of editorial independence and quality programmes across television, radio and the internet which inform, educate and entertain. I look forward to the exciting challenges of the future and working with my colleagues on the Trust to ensure the BBC provides a quality service to justify the public’s continuing support.” “(Source: BBC press release, London, in English 5 Apr 07).”
He never said any such thing. Some PRat wrote it for him. Sir Michael says things like ‘‘I probably at the moment sample rather more radio than TV. I’m an inveterate supporter of Radio 4. I wake up with the Today programme every morning. I am also a regular listener to Analysis and The Moral Maze.‘
Thank God, the man is an intellectual and not a dumbed down Toscar Winner after all.