I posted a bunch of Harry Potter pickup lines a little while ago and the first comment I received was one that distinguished jokes and pickup lines. Some time ago, I posted a FR where my opener for the day was going around and asking people for their best Asian accent. I received a lot of criticism towards this, as well, because apparently my opener left me as a dancing monkey.

I don’t know where this term spawned from or where people got the idea that jokes cannot be openers but I feel strongly against either of them. A dancing monkey would be the extreme end of things, where you are always doing things for other’s approval. I picture a monkey dancing in the middle of a circle of people, where the people are clapping and chanting and the monkey is doing his little jig.

A dancing monkey is not someone who is taking pride in what he is doing, though, because otherwise, we could all be concluded as dancing monkeys. I don’t mean to dwell on the past to much, but from my thread way back when, it seems that some users had the impression that I was a dancing monkey because I was asking for people to produce their best Asian accent. Granted, the opener might have been very cheap and flimsy to some, but I genuinely did want to hear what accent people gave me because I find imitation accents(not good ones, but ones where people try but can't quite pull them off) to be funny.

And so, today, I posted a Harry Potter pickup line thread and the first comment I nabbed was critiquing how the lines were jokes and should be treated as such. That’s not how it is at all. They are jokes, granted, but there isn’t anything wrong with having a little fun with them on the field. There isn’t anything wrong with performing social experiments on the field. I believe Tyler Durden(the PUA) was the one that said he treated the field as one big social experiment.

So what’s wrong with having a little fun, exactly? Well, firstly, there are a ton of better openers out there than kiddy Harry Potter ones. There are also a ton of better openers than asking people for their best Asian accent.
But what is wrong with using these exactly? It depends on what you count as your end goal. If you really want to seduce women, sure, you won’t walk around dropping Harry Potter lines on everyone. Joke lines are generally taken jokingly, and so they set you under that light. That doesn’t mean that you’re all of a sudden a dancing monkey; it could just mean that you are looking to have some fun and not to get laid, which is becoming a more and more accepted PUA tactic as well, since you're just messing around with your words and not giving two thoughts.

Yes, some openers are not the greatest with seducing women. But I don’t think that means we should immediately disqualify them. I personally find it funny how so many on these boards can put down others based on the strategy they use and then turn around and upvote links from a bunch of teenagers who literally get in wheelchairs or stick to their own Starcraft communication to pickup girls. The opener is such a small portion of the interaction process. Are we upvoting them because they’re gutsy, and then downvoting others because they don’t have a video to show? Is it that when you read things, you get a more negative vibe than if you were to actually watch them? I don’t know but I find the hypocrisy here to be top notch.

What I’m trying to say is that there are some openers that might not be very good at seducing women right off the bat. Harry Potter openers won’t land you a spot in bed ASAP and there are many better opening lines out there to look up for seducing ladies. But disqualifying all openers because some are jokes and some are just not fit to be an opener is an incredibly funny sentiment for two reasons: openers are such a small point in the conversation and some openers, although not immediately developing attraction or seduction, can still be used as a different strategy to get seduction. It all depends on your strategy and how you view The Game.

Just some thoughts, Seddit, that’s all.