Tones of fail

It is important to distinguish between the types of fails and the tone of the fails. I am using

tone here to mean different kinds of attitudes displayed in the data. Not all writers who

expressed failure in themselves were devastated and not all writers calling someone else a

fail did so in an aggressive manner. Many texts that included a fail were stories about some

type of failure. Failure to follow a recipe, failure of a mechanic to fix the blogger’s

motorcycle or failure by Facebook to adhere to their privacy rules. In others, fail was only

mentioned in passing, for instance, in a picture caption or within brackets to refer to the

previous sentence. But all the same, the texts varied in the way the writers handled those

fails. Some were amused, some were more neutral and some were disappointed or even

angry. Figure 3 is a generalization of these tones based on the data.

Schadenfreude

Amusement Neutral Disapproval/disappointment Anger

Self-mockery (disclosure)

Fig. 3 Tones of fail

The overall attitudes varied from amusement to anger. Schadenfreude, whether expressed in an amused or disappointed manner, was sometimes present when the object of fail was someone or something else whereas self-mockery or self-disclosure was present when the writer blamed him/herself for a failure. Expressing amusement in one’s own failure may be less common than schadenfreude but it did happen:

(36) Cant win Mao-chan in the pretty category, and he’s a freaking boy! I’m so fail… as a girl. Haha.

The writer may be serious or not but the use of “haha” at least lessens the sense of her being crushed because of this revelation. This is not to say that all approaches were either or – it is possible to feel amused and disappointed by someone’s failure at the same time.

There were also some instances of unsure or even “positive” failures:

(37) This was a first for me editing colours this way so hopefully it isn’t a fail :)

(38) A brighter shade of fail: openness, adaptation and learning

(39) I ★ my ★ me ★ mine is alright, but against other idol songs out there, this was a bit fomulaic and not surprising in any way, shape, or form but it’s still average so it’s not too much of a fail.

Example 38 is the title for an entry about how companies can look for the silver lining and learn from their mistakes in the corporate world which lessens the negative failure aspect in this text. The other two examples show that not all fails were failures after all.

There were only a few clear cases where fail was clearly linked to direct schadenfreude which was less than expected. Many bloggers used fail as a simple statement without the feeling of them gloating over someone else’s failure, at least not in an explicit way. That was not the case with these bloggers, however:

(40) Oh Duuuude. Fail! (Title to a funny video post about people acting silly) (41) But the thing that drew me in to post about Madam tonight is his epic fail of a tattoo. Bhahahahah! Lookit it!

(42) Beyonce in Alexander McQueen {uber FAIL} (picture caption)

In examples 40 and 42, fail is used as a declarative term without further explanation. If fail

was used in a debate in a similar fashion, there would not be anything to discuss. One can

understand the notion mentioned earlier of fail hindering conversation because it is a

subjective term which offers little to argue against. Nonetheless, as an Internet slang term

for a quick evaluative remark it is effective. Examples 41 and 42 are from blogs which focus

on celebrities. Thus, the connection between celebrities and schadenfreude is present in this data as well.

In some cases, schadenfreude was combined with the feeling of discontent:

(43) Lately, Bank of Makati, the bank who finances my account, I think.., calls me every now and then to follow up on payments that I have already settled. In short, they do not remit my payments on time. FAIL!

The writer is not exactly fuming about the problems with his bank especially since he is not even sure if it is his bank. His response leans more towards schadenfreude with a hint of annoyance at the failure of the bank to manage their accounts.

There is evidence in the data to suggest that fail has secured its place not only as a funny catch phrase but as an argumentative statement, at least in certain contexts. Especially in the political filter/opinion blogs, fail was a common phrase used to criticize, for instance, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, or his administration or vice versa the republican Tea Party organization:

(44) Another Obama transparency fail, the TPP

(45) Mitt Romney proves that this will NOT be a rerun of the John McCain campaign in ’08 and Visits the Poster Child for Obama FAIL Solyndra

(46) Vetting Themselves: Breitbart Gang in Yet Another Ridiculously Massive

Fail

All of these examples are from the titles of filter blog entries. It is interesting to see here how fail has been incorporated into political rhetoric, at least in an informal online environment. Then again, its origins are partly in the financial crisis so in this sense the usage is not new. The word captures the frustration, disappointment and even anger that the author has towards the opposing political party or its members. Still, its use in these examples does strike as a form of an empty argument when everything else has already been said and the author only wants to show that his/her opinion is still valid.

The most aggressive samples where fail was used came from comments to filter entries. It does seem that the comment section promotes Internet users to be more straight-spoken than regular bloggers. One could argue that it is due to anonymity, which is very likely in some cases, but, in fact, many of the people leaving comments on these sites used traceable usernames, some with a link to their own site, so it is not the only explanation. It is more likely that filter and opinion blogs invite more aggressive responses purely due to the nature of their topics, ranging from politics to religion and climate change. The following examples are from comments to filter blogs:

(47) Once again, the uber-anti-science folks have a full-on, absolute, total, and utter case of FAIL!

(48) She’s going to turn out as bad as, if not worse than, the older sisters.

Willow now looks like her hair exploded (and she’s got that “career” going on –

where she is learning to “do” hair…EPIC FAIL) and she has that incredibly fat

“PregnantPalin” face already. Piper is rude and treated rudely ... even when

she was little, Sarah thought it was cute that she was an uncontrollable little brat. And Bristol…dear dimwitted ignorant promiscuous Bristol…fat face, dyed hair…and a split chin implant.

(49) WTF is this shit? You “expose” someone with information he’s already made publicly available? My lord, the FAIL clings to this site like stench does to a crust punk working as roadie for a touring band.

In these examples, fail is capitalized. Since the first fail is followed by an exclamation mark, it makes it feel as if the writer is shouting which adds emphasis on the fail. The comment is made following a blog entry to refute the claim that Darwin invented eugenics. The writer’s view is plain to see and shows his frustration toward a certain group of people. Example 46 is an argumentative comment criticizing Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor, and her family with some harsh words. Although the fail is capitalized here, it feels more like the writer is rolling her eyes at the career prospects of Palin’s daughter instead of shouting. The example also shows how easy it is to criticize people who are in the public eye, especially with comments directed at their appearance. The last example was the first comment someone made to an entry about a hipster musician which then exploded into a confrontational argument with the owner of the blog. The writer uses quite creative language in expressing his views. His attitude is that of disapproving schadenfreude.

On the whole, these types of angrily worded texts were still very much in the minority. Many

fails in the data were not confrontational but can be placed somewhere in between the

neutral-disapproval line. This also applies to the amused tones, both of these extremes were

in the minority in the data.

In document "Nice try, but this is a complete fail." : The use of Fail in Internet Slang (sivua 48-54)