There is this quite interesting internet meme called FAIL. It and its cousin (epic fail) first were used mainly in gaming, but these days they have reached a more universal status – to a point they are quite much used in live conversations aswell. What is quite interesting is, why we like to point out something is a failure. It sets the sayer to a higher position, from where that person can pass his/her judgement. Using the meme FAIL that person can thus sense self gratification and ownership of some information the other (whoever failed miserably) clearly didn’t have. Basicly it boils down to the fact we like to laugh at someone else’s stupidity. FAIL used to be the extreme case, but since the growing popularity of the meme, its power is inflating somewhat. There are even blogs for the meme and meme-videos in youtube about it.
FAIL is the real life counterpart to slapstick humor. Probably it works so well just because its real. The whole thing probably started, because nerds so much like to be right and show it. Since then its becoming a new word for social interaction, and something you should know to keep in touch with the times.
And it’s pretty self explanatory, what more needs to be said, than a single word?