Jenny from the Block? More like Jenny getting mocked, mocked, mocked.

Jennifer Lopez is in the midst of a major career moment – the release of her album “This is Me … Now" and its complementary musical film, “This is Me … Now: A Love Story," not to mention the Amazon Prime documentary “The Greatest Love Story Never Told." It follows her reuniting with now-husband Ben Affleck after decades apart.

“This was going to be the quintessential thing I have been searching for and wanted to say about love," Lopez told USA TODAY earlier this year. "I’ve been on this search for so long, since people first met me and my first record came out and even before that in my first movie role, where I’ve been on this journey trying to figure this thing out for myself. This (album) kind of closed the loop in a way,” Lopez says. “It captures this moment to really say the things I want to say about love, and that is that true love does exist and some things are forever. Please don’t give up on that because that’s all that matters in life … love.”

But with all this art comes many, many haters. Though the documentary dropped at the end of last month, TikTok users have flooded the algorithm in recent days with criticisms of the pop star, labeling her work as "creative narcissism" and pouncing on her perceived callousness. They accused her of inauthenticity in her documentary, a failed attempt at relatability. They're also resurfacing old interviews she's done and tearing her quotes to shreds.

"People weren’t loving her even before all this anyway," one TikTok user wrote. Another added: "People are done with all stars!"

Watching rich and famous people crumble is an appetizing pastime for many – particularly when it comes to reality TV, or in Lopez's case, this documentary.

But the lampooning of JLo may say more about us than it does about her. Experts say we can't look away because of schadenfreude – finding joy in others' hardships – and the ever-tantalizing appeal of a good story.

"There's pleasure in watching rich people who seem to have it all and these (moments) remind us that, well, they really don't have it all," Elizabeth Cohen, associate professor at West Virginia University who researches psychology of media and pop culture, previously told USA TODAY. "And maybe they don't even necessarily deserve it all."

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'It can be motivational, but make you feel bad about yourself'

A psychological theory called "social comparison" is behind our love for this drama, Cohen says. It posits that humans will always try and compare themselves to other people to figure out where they fit in the world. If you perceive someone is "better" than you, you fall into upward social comparison. Watching someone wealthy like Lopez will inevitably have you thinking about everything you have (and don't have).

"The problem with upward social comparison is that it can be positive, but it makes you feel like you're not where you need to be," Cohen says. "So it can be motivational, but it can also make you feel bad about yourself."

The flip side is downward social comparison, where you consume media solely to look down on others.

"You watch these ridiculously wealthy people who have in a lot of ways, these enviable lives, but then they're not," Erica Chito-Childs, a sociology professor at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, previously told USA TODAY.

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'We like watching other people behave in bad ways'

TV clues us in that even the rich and famous aren't so perfect – and audiences evidently revel in that. Any move Lopez makes that's even remotely cringey will be fodder for the vultures.

"We like watching other people behave in strange and bad ways," Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications Syracuse University, previously told USA TODAY. "We like watching other human beings melt down, regardless of their income status."

It's all part of what makes a good story. "There seems to be a narrative thread that we like watching people make this climb to wealth and status," Thompson says. "But once they actually get there, one of the only narrative threads left is to watch them fall. And we do get a lot of schadenfreude pleasure out of that if you look at a lot of the examples of stories that we tell."

Whether someone loves or hates (or loves to hate) this is a personal choice – not something ingrained in your brain.

"Why do some people hate this and why do some people like it? That's not a question for science," Thompson says. "That's a question of show business."

Either way, if you feel like you're spending too much time focused on celebrities you don't know, you probably are. It might be time to go explore your own block.

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