Shameless Joy

Many sports fans--regardless of the sport--root for two teams: Team A and whoever is playing Team B.  The Solipsist is no exception.  Team A, of course, is the New York Mets.  Team B is the New York Yankees.

So yesterday was a perfect sports day:  The Mets beat the Brewers 1-0 behind another spectacular pitching performance by Johan Santana.  And, honestly even better, the Yankees lost to Cleveland.  Only they didn't just lose.  They were demolished by the football-esque score of 22-4.  Cleveland scored 14 runs in one inning.  The Yankees starting pitcher now has an Earned Run Average (ERA) of 35.40!

(Digression: For those not familiar with baseball statistics, ERA measures the average number of runs a pitcher gives up per nine innings; the lower the better.  So a good ERA is below 4.00, indicating that the pitcher gives up fewer than four runs every nine innings pitched; a terrific ERA is below 3.00; the aforementioned Johan Santana's ERA is currently a gaudy 0.46!  What an ERA of 35.40 means is that this pitcher, if he were allowed to stay in a game for nine innings, would be expected to give up more than 35 runs.  That's five touchdowns, folks!  End of digression.)

Now usually the Solipsist would take more pleasure in a Mets' victory, and a Yankees loss would be so much lagniappe.  But, 22-4. . . that just brings a real smile to the Solipsist's face.  

Which brings us to today's word: Schadenfreude.  The Solipsist assumes his highly literate readers already know what the word means, but to show off his own erudition, he will explain it anyway.  Schadenfreude, literally "shameful joy," describes pleasure derived as a result of another's suffering.  So, like, when someone at your job tells you that his sailboat struck a sandbar and sprung a leak and sank, and you sympathize while surreptitiously snickering,

(Digression: What's with the alliteration?  End of digression.)

you are experiencing Schadenfreude.

But is it shameful joy if you have no shame?  Or, to put it differently, is there  Schadenfreude without the Schade?  Because the Solipsist experiences no shame at his feelings regarding Yankees' losses.  Indeed, he revels in it.  Seriously, folks, it's about the greatest pleasure the Solipsist experiences clothed.  Too much information?

We need another word to express shameless joy.  Random Sloppist: "Ummm. . . . How about 'Joy'?"  Shut up, Random Sloppist!  We need something more clever, something resonant, something that captures the sheer ecstatic ebullience that comes with wallowing in the suffering of others who really deserve it like terrorists and Yankees fans!

Maybe a Google word-verification will come to the rescue.  We'll keep you posted.