Almost everyone has been both the giver and receiver of a pickup line. What's most surprising to us here at FAIL Blog are not necessarily the pickup lines that failed or even the ones that worked. We're curious about the pickup lines that should never have worked but somehow did. What does that say about the state of dating culture in 2023 and what does that say about how we have lowered our collective standards? On a positive note, it's nice that we have normalized the concept of taking big sw…

Here's a friendly reminder that when you approach someone at a bar with a bold pickup line, chances are there is at least one other person who is hearing everything you say: your bartender. If this list serves one productive function in this world, let it be something that motivates you to always tip your bartenders generously because you know they have to hear a ton of nonsense on the job from singletons attempting to flirt. Sometimes, as these folks from r/AskReddit shared, people were trying…

Servers have to deal with a ton of unwanted nonsense on the job, but one perk of the job is that they get a front row seat to a wide variety of date nights gone wrong. From awkward first dates that turn out to be full of red flags to full-on marriage proposals that turn out to be complete failures, it seems like servers have seen the full range of possibilities that can occur on a date. Not to persuade people not to go out to dinner, but when someone says, “Just go out with them! What's the wor…

Bad breakups may come with the territory when we're talking about dating, but no one could have been prepared for this dude's reaction. He really goes through the full range of human emotion, calling himself a loser one second and then calling himself a lion and a king the next. First of all, a lion and a king? Who is he, Simba?! It's hard to read this cringe exchange without thinking of your own similar experience because everyone has had one. Heck, I've been on both sides of a breakup, but I'…

Everyone has an opinion about other relationships: whether they should go out or ghost, stay together or break up, get married or divorce, etc. Sure, it's nobody's business except for the people in the actual relationship itself, but also that's no fun! It's entertaining to unpack what makes certain couples work and what seem to be clear signs that these two people are going to crash and burn, so to speak. Obviously, some red flags are incredibly obvious from the start, whereas slowly reveal th…

Unfortunately for some people, the reputations of their professions may or may not precede them. It is inevitable in this day and age that people will check what a potential significant other does for a living before they even swipe left or right on a dating app. Hopefully, people aren't so basic to completely judge a book by its cover, but it's not like dating apps were intended to look at folks in a nuanced way. Just like people judge pictures and other credentials like height and education,…

Some people are single because of bad luck, others just got out of bad relationships. And then there are some people who have absolutely no clue that they're the problem. You would think at a certain point that these folks would consider that if everyone they go out on a date with is crazy, perhaps they are the ones who are insane. But, as we all know, self-delusion is a powerful force. Many of us don't have the confidence to tell these people in our lives that they are the primary reason for t…

We know that the dating scene these days can feel like an endless pattern of failed first dates, but you have to make the slightest bit of effort at the very least. Otherwise, you are simply in no position to complain about your life as a single person. This Redditor tried his best on a first date with a woman who would not stop texting during their meal. It was just constant. Every time the phone buzzed, she just had to pick it up and text (probably with her sound on) instead of answering simp…

No one ever said that the most memorable pickup lines had to be the great ones. Some pickup lines are creative and clever and wholesome. Those are obviously strong in quality. For this list, we've included a few of those ones for good measure. However, cynical-minded folks like me will be more interested in the pickup lines that are so bold and so bad that somehow they're good?! We love a bold swing and a miss here at FAIL Blog, and you have to hand it to some of these singletons because they r…

People are getting candid online about why their relationships are falling apart. No, the answer is not because Mercury is in retrograde, although if you haven't noticed, there have been an unusually high number of breakups and divorces this year among public figures and celebrities. If we look closer than astrology, which is not exactly my preferred method of analysis, there seems to be a disconnect among partnerships about how to even be in a partnership anymore. Part of that is because of th…

Trying to get back together after you've burned a bridge is a lost cause. It's kind of a Sisyphean task and a pointless one at that. If your relationship crashed and burned, you must be in an even worse place if you're trying to get back together. There's no way you could be well-adjusted. If you were, you would have recognized that the damage is done and that it's just better for everyone involved if you walk away and stay away. Some of us, however, are not this smart. When I was in my early t…

It is a Friday night, you have surrendered to your sofa, turned on the TV, and put on some garbage reality show, just to get bored enough to pull your phone from the wooden living room table posted in front of you. Have you gotten a text? No sirree. Just one missed phone call from your mom. You will call her back, you say to yourself. Soon, for sure, totally. Oh, an email from work. Would you look at that. Your eyes move slowly across the different icons… until they reach one specific one. You…

Everyone says it's important to be your full self on a first date, but let's be honest: some people should absolutely not follow that advice. Their full selves are far too bizarre, ridiculous, and outlandish for any stranger to encounter without a serious advanced warning. I suppose showing all those true colors is good for the other person to make an immediate judgment, and in all of these cases, that immediate judgment was a hard no. Personally, I have never had a date that went so poorly I c…

Cheating on your partner is a serious offense to most, but these people took it in stride.

Modern dating at its finest

It's not exactly easy to play it cool in a situation like this. Picture this: you wake up one morning and you scroll on social media for a bit. Then, you complete your lazy morning routine by checking out your dating app matches and messages. You start to message someone new, you exchange witty texts, and you agree to catch up later because you both have to get ready for work. You then check in with the person you had already been messaging for quite some time now because the two of you have a…