Before Match.com came along and changed the dating frontier, lonely singletons had to opt for more creative ways to meet The One. These dudes sat down with an archaic Betamax and a very colorful background, and delivered an awkward (yet hopefully convincing) speech about why women should date them.

The hilarious video montage may make you squirm with embarrassment, but no matter how hard you laughed at Maurice cockily discussing his late night hobbies, you have to give it to these guys — this takes major cajones. Sitting in front of a camera without profusely sweating is impressive enough, but doing so knowing that you’re going to be judged by countless women later? That’s horrifying.

So next time you catch yourself pouting because you only got five matches that day, remember how much effort it took to get a date way back when — and thank God you’ll never be in that position.

Here’s five things we learned from watching the masters of video dating:

Always be prepared

The beauty of today’s online dating scene lies in the pure and utter laziness of mankind — you can craft a perfectly appealing dating bio from the comfort of your own bed. No one needs to know that you haven’t showered in three days, or that you reek of last night’s Chinese leftovers, or even that your roommate tweaked your bio four times to make you sound like less of a jerk. But for Steven, this was never an option.

Steven had to show up to the filming studio prepped with pseudo-romantic pick-up lines and a skintight t-shirt in order to make the ladies swoon. You think without a solid one-liner and painstakingly outlined pecs he’d make it out of there with some arm candy? No way in hell. Though that Tom Selleck mustache may have gotten him a few points.

Videos are forever

Despite online dating being the norm these days, people are still hesitant to broadcast how they met their significant other. VHS dating videos, on the other hand, are not only something you can’t deny, but also something you can’t erase. Those archaic fashions and corny one-liners are haunting these dudes more than 30 years later, and will continue to pop up on YouTube every now and again even after their demise. You think that yuppie guy wants to remember the time he told the world he didn’t want to date fat girls? No. But, he now has no choice. It’s one more added pressure you’ll never have to worry about, thanks to the “delete” button.

The first impression is the only impression that matters

Being on Video Mate took real effort, and the process to get a lousy dinner date seems pretty draining in comparison to skimming through Bumble. With that being said, if these guys weren’t bringing their A game, it wasn’t worth them coming in at all. Women were going off the first few seconds of a video — if they didn’t like what they saw, it was onto the next. Luckily when you’re rocking the John Bender vibe, holding a (pre-Bachelor copied) rose and talking about goddesses, the first time is a charm. Noted.

You need to be shameless in order to get the girl

Take it from the dude who’s dressed like a clinically insane Viking — you’re never going to get anywhere in life unless you go against the grain, and that includes snagging the girl of your dreams. Sure, you might want someone relatively normal (or as that pudgy man in the black suit says, no dopers, no smokers, and no alcoholics), but if you want to get noticed, you’re going to have to stand out. And being a yuppie isn’t going to cut it (unless you’re a refined valley dude, then all bets are off).

You’ll never — ever — have to do this to find a date

And finally, the most important thing to take away from these videos: you’ll never have to take such extreme measures when suffering from a dry spell. Could you imagine anyone doing this today? People will barely get out of bed to feed themselves, let alone go out and randomly meet someone. Rest easy knowing you have your cell phone to fall back on when that coffee date turns into a hellish affair.

Read the original article on Thrillist. 

When you think of dating apps, a few things usually come to mind: 1) MTV’s Catfish, 2) Non-stop Netflix and Chill invites, and 3) The grim death of the dating world your parents always warned you about. If any of these thoughts apply to you, rest assured knowing that your initial instincts are dead wrong. Whether or not you want to admit it, utilizing dating apps has become the new norm, and it’s the best thing to happen to lonely singletons since cats. And we have Match.com to thank for it.

What started as one, solitary site in 1996 quickly spawned a dating revolution, a trend that promptly transcended bulky desktops to millennial phone screens across the world. And it just keeps getting bigger. In 2013 more than 2,500 dating sites were available in the U.S., and roughly 1,000 others were popping up each year. The number continues to grow and because of it, you’re guaranteed to find at least one service you don’t hate. From connecting people who love the gym (Sweatt), to dog owners (Twindog), to classy workaholics looking for someone to share the daily grind with (The League) — whatever the niche, there’s an app for that.

1. They lead to long-term relationships, not just hookups

The complaint is ubiquitous: dating apps are perpetuating hookup culture and killing relationships. But let’s be real — people have been seeking out casual sex since the beginning of time. Like, since the caveman days, when the Internet wasn’t a thing and grunts were adequate pick-up lines. And while plenty of swipers have relied on Tinder for the sporadic hookup, research shows that responsibility can’t be placed on dating apps alone. According to a 2013 study from U.S. researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than a third of people who tied the knot between 2015 and 2012 started their relationship online. Researchers also found that only 5.96% of online-based couples file for divorce, as opposed to 7.67% of couples that start their relationship offline, or as our grandparents used to called it, “the lonely outside world.”

But why trust numbers when you can witness a real-life example? “I met my husband online and we’ve been together for ten years,” says Stacey, a New York photo editor. “I helped a friend create a profile and told her to message this guy because he was cute, but she never did. One night, I decided to make a profile and message him myself. Things obviously worked out for me.”

2. Online dating can be very personal

A large chunk of time goes into making an online dating profile, so to say what you’re viewing is impersonal is just plain wrong. Between photos that highlight important aspects of your life, to a bio that thoroughly explains why you’re more of a dog person, to sorting through an extensive list of dating preferences, the entire process is very personal. Not to mention, skimming through a profile before your initial face-to-face meeting makes the first date even more intimate. You know details about this person you never would have gathered from a random meeting at a bar.

“What I like best about dating profiles is reading between the lines,” says Jake, a 34-year-old guy who recently put himself on OkCupid. “Everyone puts Shawshank Redemption on their list of favorite movies, but I’m looking deeper. Movie preferences say a lot about character… and I need someone who’s willing to sit through an all-day marathon ofShawshank. Better I find that out before the actual date.”

3. People are more likely to settle down despite the large dating pool

When questioned about the positives of online dating, the first thing Manhattan-based couples therapist Jean Fitzpatrick mentioned was the massive amount of opportunity. “Online dating broadens your pool beyond your friend group,” she explained. “It’s a way to connect with a wider circle of people and with potential partners [you] might never have met through friends or work.” While some would argue that having too big of a dating pool could hinder your chances of a lasting relationship — why settle down when you can bone half the tri-state area? — stats say otherwise.

According to Coffee Meets Bagel, a popular dating app that sorts out individual prospects daily, 40% of users know someone who met their spouse or partner online. That makes sense since Match.com helped create a total of 517,000 relationships, 92,000 marriages, and 1 million babies. Take that, skeptics. Numbers don’t lie.

4. They’re reviving the actual date

If there’s one thing dating apps are doing right, it’s bringing dating back. The beauty of talking to multiple love interests at one time is having the opportunity to fill your week out and date around. Movie on Monday! Happy hour on Tuesday! Steak dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! Weird hipster art show you’re not really going to understand on Saturday! This is what dating is all about — going on dates. How are you going to find just one person if you don’t go out with several first? According to Hinge stats, users go on an average of 4-5 dates before meeting their significant other. Tinder’s records yielded similar results.

As of late 2014, roughly 50 million people were using Tinder every month, and nearly 9 billion matches have been made since. From all of those matches, roughly 1.5 million in-person dates stem each week, and more than half go on a second date. In short: start setting up those dinner reservations now.

5. You are most likely talking to a sincere person, not a catfish

Um, hello? Catfish can’t talk. Kidding — but really, that’s a huge generalization to make about the billions of people found on dating apps. We get that Nev Schulman and Manti Te’o got the short end of the stick here, but that doesn’t automatically mean you’ll experience the same woes. Gwendolyn Seidman, an associate professor of psychology at Albright College, explains, “online daters realize that while, on the one hand, they want to make the best possible impression in their profile, on the other hand, if they do want to pursue an offline relationship, they can’t begin it with outright falsehoods that will quickly be revealed for what they are.”

In other words, people who actually want to take you on a date after a day of talking aren’t going to be showing up with an MTV camera crew and a sob story on how they’re not actually Bow Wow. If they’re really serious about taking you out, the chances of them lying about who they are become significantly smaller because — as Seidman pointed out — you can’t adequately start a relationship with a lie.

Read the original article on Thrillist.