It’s difficult to say whether e-dating has weakened or boosted the pickup line game. It probably depends on who you ask.
To get to the bottom of it, we ventured over to Reddit to check out the general state of cheesy one-liners to be deployed in an online dating setting. And the results are, well… the results kinda speak for themselves. But as far as we can tell, pickup lines, like cockroaches after an apocalyptic event, have survived the shift to online dating and are doing just fine.
From the looks of r/pickuplines and other subreddits we dug into, they continue to be as prevalent — and face-palm inducing — as ever.
To determine the order of which lines appear on our list below, we looked to Reddit’s point system, which allows users to upvote posts and responses, signifying popularity, which is how we selected our top 20. Some of these zingers weren’t necessarily used on Tinder originally, but if we could imagine them feasibly being used in an online setting, they made the cut.
Cringe warning: Viewing these Tinder pickup lines may cause you to recoil away from the screen in secondhand embarrassment. Using these pickup lines on an actual human in an online setting may result in a swift block — a digital severance of communication from the person you’re talking to — because your pickup line was just so damn cringe-y your intended couldn’t bear to talk to you anymore.
Could the target of your pickup line turn out to have a fond appreciation for corniness and end up being the love of your life? Maybe. A very, very, very, featherlight maybe. Like, probably not. The odds are stacked against you there. But who knows? Anything’s possible, we guess.
That said, gaze upon the results of our rigorous content analysis below and, beyond that, proceed with caution.
1. “Are you sugar? Because you’re sweet and I wanna spoon you.”
2. “Have you got an ugly boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Do you want one?”
3. “I can’t cook a good lasagna, but I can cook a great lasagna.”
4. “Hi, my name is_____, if anyone is looking to make a mistake tonight.”
5. “Are you my last 1099 check? Because I want 100% of you.”
6. “Heard you like bad girls. Well, I’m bad at everything.” *blink instead of wink*
7. “You have a bit of cute on your face.”
8. “Hey, you’re beautiful. Can I tell you that again next Saturday over dinner?”
9. “You dropped something: My jaw.”
10. “Are you a model?”
“No.”
“Oh, when did you quit?”
11. “My mom told me that life was a deck of cards, so I guess you must be the queen of hearts.”
12. “Of all your curves, your smile is my favorite.”
13. “I went to your boyfriend’s Instagram page. It said ‘edit profile.’”
14. “Hey girl, are you a microwave? Because M̷̢̤̤͍̭̻̬̉̽͘M̷̧̢̨̧̘̖̝̫̝͙̾̑̇̐̈́̅́͋͗̎͜͝ͅM̴̞̦̮̈́̈͋̈́̍̚̕M̶̧̬̣̝̳̜̖͈̝̞̎̏͜ͅͅM̵̛̬͖̩͐̅̀̍̾͛̒̌̆͗́̆͒͘͝M̶̡̯̥̳̳̲̥̄̽̓̂̅̍̍̿̀̇̎́̂͒͝M̸̧̱̺̩͚̝̼̫̜̮̞͂̽̌̃͊̌̾̋̔̓̏͜ͅͅM̸̙̼̈́̉̽̎̒͑͊̆͑͑̑̐̍̈́͂̔͠͠ͅM̸̮͛́̽̔̎͆͋̎̏̑̀̄̆͘͝M̵̛̘̳͔̻̬͖̣̙͚̜͊̽̓͒̿̆̊̀̀̉̆̚ͅ.”
15. “Your hand seems pretty heavy … let me hold it for you.”
16. “Hey girl, is your name John? Because I’ve never Cena girl like you.”
17. “I’m gonna sue Spotify for not including you in the ‘Hottest Singles of the Week’ list.”
18. “Are you a meme? Because I’d like to show you to my friends and then hope they like you as much as I do.”
19. “Redstone is red, Lapis is blue. I’d rather quit to main menu than respawn without you.”
20. “Are you http? Because without you I’m just ://”
UPDATE: May. 1, 2023, 3:06 p.m. AEST This article was originally published Jan. 2021, and has been updated in May 2023.
