Misery loves company poker tactic?

[TStoneMBD]

I was playing live with a well known poster here, SoBeDude, when we came across a little debate that neither one of us was too sure about.

Sitting to SoBe's right was a huge fish with Indian ethnicity. He just came to the table for about an orbit playing nearly every hand and had lost a couple of pots. He just lost another hand and was a bit frustrated at his luck throwing his hands up and what not.

SoBe then turns to him and tries to make him feel better by empathizing with him by telling him about how when he himself first sat down at the table he lost with a set of aces to runner runner flush, which was true. SoBe btw, is a very personable guy and wasnt trying to share his bad beat stories in a negative "look at how unlucky I am" type of way. He was just trying to make the other guy feel better as SoBe understands the value of keeping the fish happy.

So do you think making a comment like that is a good strategy to befriend the fish and offer empathy, or do you think the fish doesn't want to hear any of our bad beat stories? Does it vary depending on what type of fish we're playing against? Personally, I think so.