Anyone who’s experienced the absolute minefield of online and mobile dating knows just how embarrassing people’s profiles can be, and how difficult it is to write about yourself and explain why you’re such a heartthrob.
Still, at least nowadays selecting a potential match is as simple as swiping left or right on Tinder. Spare a thought for those poor souls back in the 1980s who had to make an actual dating video in their quest to find love.
Thanks to the great folk of Reddit, you can now take a look at some of the hysterically awkward dating footage from 30 years ago, courtesy of Found Footage Festival who culled the incredible clips from old VHS tapes.
If you’re wondering how this worked, the Reddit uploader explains:
Before there were dating sites, there were dating services. What many of them did was have the members record a video introducing themselves. In order to view the videos people would go into the service’s building. The staff would typically give people a bunch of videos to look at that they had pre-screened for common interests, much like dating sites do now but it was done by people rather than computers.
The cringe-worthy footage features guys from 1987 describing themselves like you might in your match.com bio, except they’re sporting mullets, moustaches and a sense of despair in their eyes.
Some of these lads went very literal in their attempts to describe their personality traits – just check out the bloke dressed up as a Viking. He’s a catch, ladies!
And what about the dude who hates hamsters, the jumper wearing fellow who enjoys photography and cuddling, and the man who’s just desperate to try out a co-ed bubble bath.
We’d also love to party with good old Maurice, the guy who describes himself as “an executive by day and a wild man by night”.
So the next time you find yourself getting annoyed because nobody seems to be swiping right on your photo, just remember how much effort it took back in the day to get the ladies to notice you!
