Previous research showed that provoked participants are pleased by seeing the provocateur suffering from their retaliative punishment in a competitive game relative to not seeing them in pain, as indicated by increased activity of both the zygomaticus major (ZM) and the orbicular oculi (OO) muscles and decreased activation of the corrugator supercilii (CS) muscle. In the present experiment, we sought to take these findings further and investigate whether participants would have a similar smiling reaction when observing the suffering of their rival from vicarious punishment administered by a computer. As we expected, participants smiled (increased activation of both the ZM and OO muscles and decreased activity of the CS muscle relative to baseline activity) when seeing the provocative rival suffering from the punishment administered by a computer, which indicates a schadenfreude response. We did not observe such a smiling reaction among participants who witnessed their non-provocative rival suffering. Conversely, unprovoked participants mimicked the suffering of the non-provocative rival which suggests an empathic concern over a rival being undeservedly punished. Our findings emphasize the role of (un)deservingness in shaping one’s emotional response to the suffering of others.