What word means "the feeling of discomfort caused by watching people's ineptitude"?



I am watching a UK TV programme called "The Apprentice". The candidates have to sell guided tours. Some candidates are terrible at giving these tours. They fluff their lines, or they haven't researched, or they make up "facts".


Watching their ineptitude cause a feeling of discomfort. What is the best word for this discomfort?


The German word schadenfreude means roughly "the pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others". The word I want would be almost an antonym of schadenfreude - "the discomfort derived from the mosfortunes of others". Except not the misfortunes but the uselessness of others.



Answer



vicarious embarrassment



The very uncomfortable sympathetic feeling experienced while you watch someone else embarrassing themselves. This feeling is often intensified when the person embarrassing themself is not aware of how embarrassing their behavior is. In this case it is more like you are feeling the embarrassment on their behalf.




Facepalm (slang) is another possible translation of the import term (from German) fremdschämen.



A German term which describes the process of being vicariously embarrassed by someone else. For example when somebody's concept for a great party gag goes terrible wrong and you watch him fail in the middle of all of his friends. Tom was completely wasted while he held the speech on Mike's wedding party. Fremdschämen in perfection.



urban dictionary



“Fremdschämen describes the almost-horror you feel when you notice that somebody is oblivious to how embarrassing they truly are,” writes Daniel Hawes in Psychology Today. “Fremdscham [the noun] occurs when someone who should feel embarrassed for themselves simply is not, and you start feeling embarrassment in their place.”


... the auditions for American Idol and all of the related rip-offs are Fremdschämen factories,



http://www.nationalreview.com/article/369402/how-do-you-solve-problem-wendy-jonah-goldberg


Picard facepalm



Alo's suggestion of 'cringeworthy' is also very valid.


More generally, here in the UK we sometimes talk about 'car crash' or 'train crash' TV. In the US they call it a "train wreck".


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