Why Do We Love Seeing Rich People Suffer (Karma)

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[00:00:02.480] - Oliver (Host)

Picture yourself. You've got your snacks, you're on your sofa, you've got your screen. And on that screen, a billionaire is crying. Maybe they're on a yacht, maybe they're in a luxury hotel, maybe they're wearing an outfit that costs more than your rent. But the important thing is that they're having a complete emotional breakdown. And you? Well, look at you, you're enjoying it. You're smiling, watching their pain. Maybe you're even thinking, Good, you deserve it. So my question for this week is, why do we love watching rich people suffer?

[00:00:46.260] - Oliver (Host)

Welcome to English and Beyond, the podcast for intermediate English learners, where we try to cover unusual, perhaps slightly weird topics in clear English. Ideas to help you speak and think in a new language. I'm Oliver, an English and Spanish teacher from the UK. If there's anything that you find hard to understand about this podcast, some of the vocabulary in this episode, for example, is quite tough, then do you find the transcript and vocabulary flashcards online. They're absolutely free and they're available at www.morethanlanguage.com. Today, we're talking about something that is funny, but I'm not sure if it's funny, ha ha, or funny, kind of odd.

[00:01:32.960] - Oliver (Host)

Because in the last few years, I've noticed that we're seeing many examples of a new kind of popular show, shows about rich people, but not rich people being strong or powerful. No, rich people failing, arguing, crying, making terrible decisions, losing everything, or at least losing their dignity. And we love to see it. You might think, Oh, that's just silly entertainment. That's just TV. But I don't think it's that simple, because the same feeling, that strange satisfaction that we get, also appears when real rich people suffer. Sometimes we seem to stop feeling human empathy for these people. Sometimes we almost seem to stop seeing them as people at all. In exploring this cultural oddity, this cultural strangeness, let's start with the shows on the small screen, on television. There's Succession, a billionaire family at war with itself. They run a global media empire, they fly in private jets, and they throw parties in glass towers. But behind the money and the power, it's all bitterness, betrayal, and something many people can relate to, children desperate for their father's approval. Then, the White Lotus, rich tourists in paradise, a five-star hotel, perfect sunsets, champagne by the pool, and casual cruelty at every turn.

[00:03:13.340] - Oliver (Host)

Thoughtless guests often say exactly what they think, but with a mix of self-absorption and malice that frequently makes the honest moment reflect badly on the speaker. We wait the end of each season to see karma bring everyone what they deserve. Then, reality TV takes it even further: Selling Sunset, million-dollar mansions, agents dressed like models, and arguments straight out of high school. The Real Housewives: shouting matches, gossip, plastic surgery, and handbags that cost more than cars. Made in Chelsea: young glossy 20-somethings sighing and saying, I'm just emotionally exhausted while drinking champagne in the south of France. These shows are dramatic, they're ridiculous, and they're popular all around the world. People watch them to relax, to laugh, and maybe, just maybe, for some reason, watching them makes them feel a bit better about their own lives. But why exactly is it so satisfying? Well, first, because we see rich people as having everything, and yet they are still unhappy. These people are wealthy. They have assistants, private planes, and giant houses, but they're still miserable, still insecure, still lonely, still often pathetic, really. They cry about small, insignificant problems. They complain all the time. And that feels good for the rest of us to watch.

[00:04:55.500] - Oliver (Host)

It shows that money doesn't solve your problems. In fact, it just gives you new problems. These people's lives look perfect superficially, but inside, apparently, a disaster. And for many of us, that feels fair. That feels correct. We think, You spend more money in one day than I'll ever earn in my whole lifetime, and you're still miserable? That's not just funny, that's justice. Another reason why it's satisfying to watch them suffer is because we feel emotionally distant from them. It's easier to laugh at someone's misfortune when we don't feel connected to them. We don't feel sorry for them because they're just not like us. They inhabit a different world, a world of designer clothes, perfect teeth, and not just private schools, but private chefs and private jets. So when something bad happens to them, we don't cry, we don't look away in discomfort. We watch. It's not painful, it's entertaining. It's like watching animals in a zoo, except this cage is made of gold. And part of the appeal is that their lives are just so big. The money, the power, the opportunities - everything is on a grand scale. And when the scale is so grand, when it is so big, the stakes are higher, too.

[00:06:28.320] - Oliver (Host)

That's why Greek tragedians loved writing about heroes and why Shakespeare filled his place with monarchs. When a king makes a mistake, it shakes the whole kingdom. When a billionaire self-destructs, it ripples through companies, families, entire business empires. Their fall from grace feels larger than life. In that sense, these shows are like modern tragedies, but with some comedy woven in. Power, jealousy, betrayal, family conflict. These are the same ingredients as Athenian drama or Shakespearean theatre. But then there are the ridiculous touches, the petty arguments, the awkward dinners, the absurd outfits. We laugh, we cringe, we say, Oh, no, not again. It's tragic and it's funny at the same time, and that's exactly what makes it so addictive. The combination keeps us surprised, keeps us feeling, and and keeps us watching long after the credits roll. But so far, we've only talked about fictional wealthy people or real people who have signed up to have their lives fictionalised on these semi-reality shows. You might therefore say, It's just scripted. These people are acting. It's fine to laugh at them and their misfortune, obviously. But I would argue this strange pleasure doesn't stop when the TV turns off.

[00:08:00.000] - Oliver (Host)

You may remember that in 2023, a father and son died in a small submarine while trying to visit the Titanic alongside several other passengers. They were undoubtedly very, very rich. The trip cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was a terrible accident. But online, many people didn't feel sad. They made jokes. They said things like, Anyone who has enough money to do something that stupid is asking for it. This real-life tragedy, in the eyes of many ordinary people, became comedy, or at the very least, justifiable. In 2011, a school trip from Eton College, one of the most exclusive schools in the world, went to the Arctic and ended in tragedy when a polar bear attacked their camp, killing a 17-year-old student and injuring others. It was a horrific event, but the public reaction was striking. Many in the UK showed very little sympathy, saying things like, What do you expect if you send school boys camping in polar bear country? Others dismissed it as too much money and not enough sense. The privilege of an elite school adventure made the tragedy feel distant, even absurd. For some people, it therefore invited mockery rather than compassion.

[00:09:25.580] - Oliver (Host)

It's strange, isn't it? We usually feel bad when someone dies, especially a young person. But in these cases, the money may have changed some of the reaction. It's almost like it could be that the world decided, You were rich. That's enough. Even if your luck ran out here, you just don't get our sympathy. These weren't TV characters. They were real people, real deaths. But for many, the reaction was quite cold. I think that part of the reason for this reaction, part of the reason not the entire reason, was because they were rich. So what does this lack of empathy for the rich say about us in general? In many countries, even their relatively wealthy countries, life is hard. Wages are low, rent is high. The rich among us seem to float in another world. No buses, no queues, no bills keeping them awake at night. When they throw money at something ridiculous and it goes wrong, It's very tempting to laugh. For that, we can use the German word schadenfreude, the guilty pleasure of enjoying someone else's misfortune. And it doesn't apply only to the rich. We laugh at Darwin Award stories all the time. People who try ridiculous stunts, ignore obvious dangers, or make spectacularly bad decisions and die, taking themselves out of the gene pool, hence the Darwin survival of the fittest element.

[00:11:01.740] - Oliver (Host)

Part of us things, well, what did you expect? It's cruel, but it's also a way of distancing ourselves from the event. I wouldn't be that stupid, is what we think. And when the person is rich, That effect seems to multiply. Suddenly, the laughter isn't just about their foolishness, it's also about class. Their wealth becomes part of the punchline. We feel a flash of superiority. We think, Well, they may had millions, but look who's laughing now. It's a rare moment where ordinary people can feel above the wealthy, if only for a second. The danger, of course, is what happens when that instinct goes too far. If we stop seeing the rich as people, we lose empathy. We start confusing entertainment with real life. It's one thing to laugh at a millionaire crying on scripted reality TV. It's another thing to laugh at someone's death just because they were rich. We can criticise inequality. We can question the system and even want to disrupt it. But turning real suffering into comedy and losing all our empathy is a line worth noticing when we do cross it. So, why do we love watching rich people suffer? Because it's dramatic, because it feels like justice, because we're tired of seeing the rich win all the time, because sometimes it helps us feel better about our own lives.

[00:12:30.940] - Oliver (Host)

It's easy to enjoy the drama, but maybe we should think twice before laughing. Thank you for listening to English and Beyond. If you liked this episode, share it with someone who loves reality TV or someone who just has very strong opinions about the rich. See you next time.