The Rise of the Failure Video

Dude you gotta check out this insane video cuz it's totally insane!

We've all received emails and IMs with some variation of the above sentiment, always paired with a link that we're not sure we should click lest a parent come into the room at the decisive moment. Video cameras have captured many types of outrageous acts over the years, from Little League homers to illicit bedroom antics, and while plenty of these recorded events have been widely circulated on the Internet, the ones that generate the most interest often depict someone falling down a flight a stairs, trying to jump a bicycle over a creek, or screwing up a live TV broadcast. Cute vids along the lines of “Charlie Bit My Finger” (96,313,691 views and counting) are still popular, but it's the videos that preserve total unadulterated failure that seem to captivate most.

The Germans call it schadenfreude—enjoyment caused by the pain of others. But just because there’s a fancy foreign word for it, does that make it OK? Should we seek out entertainment that exploits the misfortune of others? Why are these videos funny? Do they make us feel better about ourselves because we didn’t experience the failure? Or do we, having at times failed ourselves, identify with them?

Predictably, we at SparkNotes will fail to answer these questions. But as we ponder them, let’s take a tour of some of the Internet’s most reliable providers of failure-based content.

FailBlog
FailBlog.org, which was created by the same folks behind Lolcat juggernaut ICanHasCheezburger, has quickly risen to the top of the failure-video heap. It has brought us classics such as Dance Fail, Best Man Fail, and Wii Fail. As a bonus, it also provides many still images of failure, including misspelled signs, tattoos with typos, and ads for disturbing products, including one for a baby outfit that turns your child into a mop.

Break
Break.com must get its name from the fact that participants in many of its videos likely end up with broken bones—clips such as “Massive Faceplant Off Staircase,” “Pitcher Stops Line Drive With Her Face,” and “Brake Fails on Scooter” are not for viewers with weak stomachs. At least some Break users are compensated; the site pays $600 for what it calls “Crazy Amazing Talent Videos.” We imagine the proprietors are especially pleased when submitters are not quite talented enough to pull off the stunts they propose.

Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat
As we explained earlier this week, this new entrant brilliantly combines the failure video with the cute animal video. Each of its clips begins with failure, but then cuts to footage of a cat playing a keyboard. The cat is wearing a shirt, or maybe it's a kimono, and its chilled-out facial expressions are rather amusing. Check out “Treadmill” and “The Original,” then examine mash-ups contributed by fans, especially “Knock ‘Em Out,” which incorporates an old viral video wherein a street-fighting gentleman gets seriously served.

YouTube
Right now, searching for “fail” on YouTube yields more than 350,000 results. Many of these are from FailBlog’s YouTube channel, but there are also plenty of gems from elsewhere—“Rap Battle Fail” likely was spawned in the Land of Bored Teens. Searching for “owned” or “pwned” also brings forth a cornucopia of struggles caught on tape.

Do you find failure videos funny? Do you feel bad for the people you’re laughing at?