grow up

you exist in a general state of powerlessness, and dismiss people in hopes that you might weaponize your impotence

which i can get behind, but you're also very boring

I agree this video is pretty awful, and not because of its content.

I know right?

The wisdom of our elders...

I had read he's done something like this before while jumping out of a plane.

Yeah, I hate to say it, but I'm with you on this one John. It's neither tragic nor "tragic"; dude died doing what he loved. Nothing wrong with that.

hmm.... seeing that the original vid uses the T word without the quotes, I see nothing wrong with a little snark that I'm not better than.

It's not like we showed up at his widow's house and did scare-quotes in the air around 'tragically' while we said it to her, Mr.Sensitive.

The way I see it, all that means is we're snarky AND cowards.

The guy set himself on fire jumping off a bridge. What, I shouldn't feel a little schadenfreude here?

No. If he survived, schadenfreude away, but it's different when someone dies. Or rather, it used to be; maybe it's not anymore, I don't know.

And anyway, like I said, this guy was doing what he loved. He knew the risks, he took them happily, now he's dead. There's nothing wrong with that. We could all be so lucky to die at 73, doing something crazy and stupid and awesome like this. The joke's not on him, it's on the rest of you.

Everyone dies, but how many of us truly live?

In my opinion, putting "tragic" in quotes seems like 100 per cent attitude, zero percent humor. When I die, make any tasteless joke you like about the stupid circumstances of my death, and my shade will laugh with you if you make it funny. Indulge on lazy sarcasm, and there will be consequences. I'm talking full-on EC comics shit.

In my opinion, I know the definition of tragic, and this isn't it, so snarking out some quote to call it 'tragic' is fitting.

Well yes, technically speaking, this isn't tragic. There are a number of possible definitions for the word "tragedy"{1}, and if you want to be a smartass about it, this incident probably would not qualify. It is not a poem, nor a work of drama, and it is stretching the definition of "calamity" beyond all reasonable bounds. It may arguably be considered "misfortune", but a "tragedy" is generally understood to be several orders of magnitude worse than run-of-the-mill misfortune, so again, stretching the definition beyond all reasonable bounds.

However, as John points out, putting sneer quotes around the word drastically changes it's meaning; it cannot help but be read as tasteless, edgy mockery. You don't sneer-quote "tragic" unless you wish the word to be taken ironically, implying that the "tragedy" in question was actually a good thing, and that the person who died deserved his fate. The inclusion of the tag "Darwin Award" {2} lends further support to our theory that this reading is intentional.

For example, I might say to you the following: Mother Teresa died "tragically" last night. How would you react to this statement? Technically, the sneer quotes might be warranted, as her death was actually fairly routine, and the word 'tragedy' could only be applicable here as part of a dramatic device - intentionally misusing it as a way of producing hyperbole, thereby underscoring the emotional context of her death. Yeah, "technically" speaking, the sneer quotes could be justifiable. But obviously, the above statement is likely to be read, not as a clinical acknowledgement of fact, but as *pure maliciousness*; as if I'm implying that her death was a welcome event, and I'm GLAD the old bat's dead! Which I am.

You cannot brush off the pejorative implications of using sneer quotes in a context like this.


[1]http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tragedy
{2}https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards

you guys are fuckin SOFT

go suck a flaming dick

>>you guys are fuckin SOFT

Bringing up my impotence issues seems like a low blow.

https://youtu.be/uCLRgX02rJA

Remember when snuff videos were verboten? I liked that.

It's like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

The guy who's still laughing must feel pretty great!