The theory behind the creation of optimal pick-up lines is stale.  Humourous pick-up lines, while once perhaps endearing to a certain extent, are now simply cliché and they fail at their primary purpose: getting a positive result.  However, I believe that it is possible to apply the field of logic to the creation of pick-up lines to create a more optimal pick-up line.

When delivering a pick-up line, the desire is to get a positive result, i.e. getting a phone number, “hooking up”, or what have you. Current pick-up line theory rests on the premise of delivering a clever line followed by the request, under the premise that showing yourself as a humourous individual will result in a better than average chance of getting a positive result.

For example, a classic pick-up line is “I lost my phone number. Can I have yours?” However, the problem with these pick-up lines is that they still offer the recipient the chance of a negative response.  Furthermore, overuse of these pick-up lines has led to them being cliché and is more likely to make the deliverer of the pick-up line look pathetic rather than funny.

The solution to the stale theory in the field of pick-up line creation is to apply mathematics to build a more optimal pick-up line.  Specifically, we can use logic to build a pick-up line which always evaluates to a positive result, regardless of the answer.

“If I were to ask you for your phone number, would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?”

If the recipient answers “no”, then that implies that she would say “yes” to a query of her phone number. Similarly, if the recipient answers “yes”, it also implies she would say “yes” to a request for her phone number. Thus, we have created a logically perfect pick-up line. No matter how the recipient of the pick-up responds, he/she is giving you a positive result.

Of course, we are assuming a two-value Boolean logic system with the values “yes” and “no”. Reality tends to favour the three-value logic system when it comes to pick-up lines: “yes”, “no”, and a slap to the face.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Math and Humour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.