Fail Better: Why We Secretly Love Watching People Fall Apart

Why do we love a good public meltdown? From celebrity scandals to influencer takedowns, we consume failure like it’s a sport—and the media is happy to keep the scoreboard running.
In this episode of FUNK !T, we dig into the uncomfortable truth about why we enjoy watching others fail—and how media platforms exploit that instinct for clicks, outrage, and engagement.
We’ll unpack:
• The Schadenfreude Effect – Why someone else’s fall makes us feel a little better.
• Social Comparison Theory – How others’ failures help us cope with our own insecurities.
• Framing & Cultivation Theories – How media turns human error into algorithmic content.
• Parasocial backlash & cancel culture – Why we feel entitled to tear down the people we once idolized.
Spoiler: failure is no longer just a human experience—it’s a business model.
So let’s talk about how we got here, and what that says about us.
Hit play, and let’s get uncomfortably honest.