Pickup lines have been in circulation long enough to lose their appeal based on the merit of the words alone. If there’s anything they’ve still got going for them, it’s the delivery. An attraction to the person delivering the line sure wouldn’t hurt either. Anything can sound appealing if it’s coming from someone you like.
People with a great sense of humor make life easier for everyone, if you use a pick-up line on such a person, you can expect them to have a good laugh or use it as a premise to connect, they don’t have to like you first to appreciate your wit.
Others, on the other hand, may not find your pick up lines funny, but let it pass if they find you attractive and want to get to know you. Then there are those, perhaps most common, who can’t see past the shallowness of pick up lines and will not hesitate to make you feel lame.
There is no telling how the recipient will receive your pick up lines, and carrying on despite that is perhaps one of the most admirable things about those who still use them. That said, below are some examples of pick up lines in their cliché, tacky and corny glory.
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“I walked by twice, in case you don’t believe in love at first sight.”
Cheesy yes, but isn’t that par for the course for pick-up lines? Just typing this made me smile, imagine how a good-natured guy would receive it coming from a catch like you. The good thing about this line is that you don’t necessarily have to be in the same physical space with your target for it to work.
With a little tweak, you can pass your message across just as well over the phone. Let’s say you are on the verge of giving up on your dating site scrolling when your eyes catch a profile picture, and you get a little flutter in your belly.
You are usually not like this, but something about his smile has got you all pumped to move in for the catch. Well, what’s life without throwing caution to the wind once in a while. You’ve swiped right, now it’s time to break the ice. Instead of settling for ‘hello’ like every other person, you can send him two beautiful pictures of you with a caption that shows you mean business but is still fun.
Something like “I sent two, in case you don’t believe in love at first sight.” According to The Attraction Doctor, Jeremy Nicholson M.S.W., Ph.D., research shows that the right line can actually interest the person you are into. You just never know if you don’t try, so go get him, Queen. Remember, it’s not just about the words; it’s the way you say it and how it meets the recipient.
You’ve got to be confident if you want to pull off a pick up line, he might find it funny and say hello. Or he might think of it as a cheap shot, especially if his sense of humor is along the other side of the spectrum.
“Great jacket, is it made of boyfriend material?”
We’ve all heard ‘feel my shirt, it’s made of boyfriend material’, guys love that one. It’s right up there with “are you tired, cuz you’ve been running around in my head all day.” They are both cringe-worthy, and even though it doesn’t always get the reaction they want, they don’t stop.
Over the years, women have developed a sort of thick skin towards overexploited lines like this. Although most just let it go, some find it more amusing to outsmart people who think themselves clever because of this line. So, for every unwelcome line, they’d throw an anti-pick up line back, the kind of comeback that would send an unwanted person away faster than “ I’m not interested.”
I like to say it’s not that we are that hard to please, we just have what we’re looking for when it comes to good pick up lines. This article explains it in better details, in the cited publication, An Evolutionary Perspective on Effective vs Ineffective Pick-up Lines, the authors explain that the effectiveness of a line used on a woman varies by what they are looking for. We always worry about making the right choice all the time, so that makes sense.
Apparently, of the 70 women that took part in the experiment, most preferred innocuous pickups to flippant ones, especially those looking for something stable. However, those who just wanted to hookup didn’t mind flirty pickups as long as the men were attractive. Even the latter group is believed to have been that way because we instinctively view attractiveness as a sign of heritable fitness.
I guess we’re just who we are when it comes to choosing partners, but you know who else is that way? Men. A woman flirts with them, they flirt back, of course, being good-looking counts for them too, they just typically don’t overthink it as much as we do. This is why I think a little reverse engineering of one of their favorite pickups would work.
So if there’s a guy you fancy, you’ve got to summon up that cheesy confidence and hit him with “great shirt, is it made of...” At the very least, you get a ‘hahaha.’
“Are you a parking ticket because you’ve got fine written all over you.”
People like compliments, perhaps guys love getting compliments more. Pre-written pickup lines don’t usually always hit home, especially with analytical people because they know they’ve heard it before somewhere. Something about not making an effort to form something of yours makes you seem off. It’s why direct pickup lines are encouraged, you hardly hear people complain of those being overused.
When guys are trying to pick a girl up, it’s almost like they are picking up lines right under their sleeves, but sometimes it’s more about the charm, than what was actually said. In this case, the pickup line is actually a compliment, it can be said to someone you love or a guy whose attention you’re trying to get.
When I’m going out, I try to dress well, so when the compliments start coming in, I know it’s true, and not just some guy trying to pick me up because guys love to do that. You could be dressed in rags, and they’d still say you look fine, but that’s beside the point. The strategy of using a witty or cheesy line to get someone’s attention almost never fails.
If you’re using this line on a stranger in real life who’s got fine written all over him, maybe slip him your number and tell him to do whatever he wants with it while you’re at it.
“Am I on an episode of Fixer Upper? Cause I have never seen hardwood like that in real life.” Bam!
You can say whatever about pick up lines, but you can’t take away their flexibility. Do you need an icebreaker with a crush? Trying to get laid at a bar? They slide right out of you. You can use them to tease your single best friend just for the kicks. The usefulness of these pick up lines doesn’t even end at the first meeting.
Is it like pulling teeth getting him to spend time with you?
The key to solving is understanding men on a much deeper emotional level. The number #1 factor that causes men to behave this way is actually relatively easy to change with a few subtle things you can say to him.
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We all use them to intentionally make our man cringe sometimes too, (right?) A raunchy line can be so fun, besides, what’s a hookup without a little edge? These open the floor for an exciting back-and-forth repartee.
“Something’s wrong with my eyes, I can’t take them off you.”
Admittedly, I can be a hard-ass sometimes, but I’m mostly the type of girl that awards points for effort. You probably get uncomfortable when someone won’t stop looking at you. Yes, you look good, and a part of you revels in the attention, but people overdo it so much sometimes that the stares make you feel like a treasured piece during a museum tour.
I don’t know if that paints a good enough picture, but the bottom line is that being the subject of attention can trigger an awkward self-consciousness. Or maybe that’s just me, but if the person were to work up the balls to walk up to me and say “something’s wrong with my eyes, I can’t take them off you,” I’d probably smile.
I’m going to say this, and you can call me corny, but you never know, the next person of interest might share that trait with me. Of course, you have the right to roll your eyes at the attempt if the line is just not doing it for you, there’s no ‘normal’ way to react to these things. Best case scenario, they hate pick-up lines too and you can both bond on your dislike for cheesy stuff, that’s if they are your type anyway.
A wise woman once said pick up lines aren’t going away anytime soon, you can either take them with grace and move on or come up with comebacks if being compared to a parking ticket bothers you so much. Which of these two categories do you belong to? Humor me in the comment section and share the article if you liked it.
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