The nobs seem to exist not to exploit the plebes but for their vicarious enjoyment.

"It's probably the vicarious enjoyment of what it would be like to have a successful book of my own, the chance to glom onto someone else's success, in a somewhat shameless way."

But curiously, there is a bit of vicarious enjoyment.

This mean streak goes (one hopes) beyond most readers' capacity for vicarious enjoyment.

Historical figures who combine dazzling glamour with thoroughgoing selfishness and are punished in the end always make for a popular subject: we have all the pleasures of vicarious enjoyment leavened by a touch of moral superiority.

From Opening Up, Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio writes that compersion is, in part, "the ability to turn jealousy's negative feelings into acceptance of, and vicarious enjoyment for, a lover's joy."

Why was she telling him this, reliving her humiliation for his vicarious enjoyment?

While Matt, a prosperous local doctor, takes a vicarious enjoyment in the affair, Ruth sees Natalie as a threat to her son's future and makes no bones about her disapproval.

English snobbery and class envy have always provided vicarious enjoyment when ogled from a safe distance.

This is not to imply that this new road show production, presented by, among others, Ms. Rigby's entertainment company, offers only vicarious enjoyment for adults.