68 Facepalm Moments That Prove Some Lack Common Sense And Basic Logic

A lot of internet fads come and go, but there are a few things that seem to have a constant demand online, and fails definitely belong to this category. Similar to cats, no matter how many you’ve seen, every single one is still unique in its own way. And nowhere is that better showcased than on the legendary subreddit r/facepalm. It’s full of bad luck, questionable decisions, and secondhand embarrassment. After all, nothing brings comfort quite like realizing someone out there manages to mess up even harder than you.

#1 Simple As That

#2 Can’t Afford To Be Taxed

#3 Make It Make Sense

Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D., ABPP, is a Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She says the idea that you should feel bad when someone else encounters a loss or other form of misfortune is hammered into most people’s sense of moral responsibility.

“Little children may shout with joy when they win a family board game, but this ignoble reaction ordinarily becomes less and less acceptable in anyone over the age of 8 or 9,” Whitbourne writes. “As adults, you may still experience this sense of delight when you’ve vanquished your opponents, but you know that you have to hold back on expressing it openly.”

#4 A Big Lesson For All!!

#5 The Official Tomi Lahren

#6 On Starvation

So what is it about fails that makes them feel so entertaining? Feeling happy at the expense of someone else’s losses is what psychologists refer to as schadenfreude, a German word combining schaden (harm) and freude (joy).

Although this is a common enough emotion, is it inevitable that people take pleasure in the misfortunes of others? Perhaps you see your neighbor hop an electric fence and get shocked by it. Shouldn’t you feel more sympathetic toward them rather than triumphant?

#7 Yeah

#8 If Know, You Say

#9 Psychopaths

According to research by Lea Boecker and her colleagues at the University of Lüneburg (2022), emotions that fall under the category of “fortunes of others” (FOEs) can range from assimilative—meaning empathetic—to contrastive, or unempathetic. In their model of FOEs, the researchers explore what determines whether people respond to others’ fortunes and misfortunes—what they call “(mis)fortunes”—with empathy or detachment.

The four FOEs depend on whether people make upward or downward comparisons in response to good or bad outcomes. If someone you compare yourself to has something good happen, you’ll probably feel envy. Maybe you weren’t invited to a friend’s outdoor party and wish you had been. If the weather is perfect, you’ll envy everyone who went. But if those same people have something go wrong—say, a sudden rainstorm ruins the party—you might feel a bit of schadenfreude, or pleasure at their bad luck.

#10 The Company Has Needs… Which Don’t Include Employees I Guess

#11 Great Question!

#12 Still Doing Better Than You

When the two dimensions align, assimilative emotions tend to emerge. Returning to the electric fence example, you’d likely feel sympathy for your neighbor if you could “look down” on their misfortune without feeling inferior.

On the flip side, you might experience what the researchers call happy-for-ness when something good happens to someone you don’t see as better off than yourself. Without any trace of envy, you can genuinely share in their good fortune.

#13 Ew, A Lab Diamond?

#14 Fancy That

#15 And When He’s Not Doing It Himself, His Lovely Followers To Do It For Him

#16 Not Even His Own

As Boecker and her colleagues highlight, part of what drives the FOE model can be explained by our perception of fairness. This is because, in their words, “A plethora of studies have shown that individuals do not like inequality, also known as inequity aversion.”

Because of this belief in fairness, “fortunes and misfortunes that increase inequality elicit unpleasant emotions, whereas those that reduce inequality produce pleasant emotions.”

In other words, the further someone moves ahead or behind you in relative standing, the stronger your emotional reaction will be.

#17 Smh This Woman…

#18 Murica

#19 Perhaps Two Minutes!!

#20 Earning The Right To Live

#21 Did He Think No One Would Check?

#22 On Double Standards

#23 The Far-Right Sure Do Come Real Close To Getting It Sometimes

#24 Love That Joe Is Sharing This Story

#25 Not Almost Embarrassing. Straight Up Humiliating

#26 System Is Failing

#27 Times Have Changed

#28 “I’ll Give You The Truth…”

#29 There Is Some Idiot Stamping This On Five Dollar Bills, Thinking The Lincoln Memorial Is The White House

#30 He Thought That Wouldn’t Come Out…

#31 Patton Oswalt On Point Here LOL, Elmo Is So Transparent!

#32 You Can’t Get Any More Divorced Than This

#33 This Is The Dumbest Timeline

#34 Florida Needs Help, But Their Reps Said No To Fema Funding

#35 Misdirected Anger

#36 Ron Desantis Is Willing To Kill Floridians To Own The Libs

#37 “Their” 🙄🤦‍♂️

#38 Literal Facepalm

#39 Oh The Irony

#40 AI Bros Discover Copyright Infringement

#41 He Borrowed A Family For His Campaign Picture

#42 Billionaire Turns Beautiful Landscape Into A Dump Because They Blocked Part Of The Wall

#43 It’s Depend

#44 Facepalm

#45 Scott’s Not A Good Person

#46 Imagine Being This Dumb

#47 Elon Suspends A Journalist For Sharing The Jd Vance Dossier

#48 Wow 🤦

#49 No Way

#50 The Tampa Bay Area’s Main Hospital And Only Trauma Center Is Built On An Island At Sea Level

#51 Fair Point Though

#52 It’s Like He Wants To Get Voted Out As Sheriff

#53 Twitter In Brazil – Elon Musk Agrees To Appoint A Legal Representative, Pays Fines And Takes Down User Accounts That The Court Had Ordered Removed