Worst ever dates, with Alita Brydon

[upbeat music] [whimsical music]

I went on a date with this guy, and he shows up with this massive bunch of flowers, and like it's kinda sweet, but at the same time, like you, you start carrying these flowers around all night.

This is Melbourne-based writer Alita Bridan.

So we get talking about what he likes to do in his spare time, and he tells me he enjoys trolling people on the internet.

No, he told you that?

He told me shamelessly, like it was this great hobby that he had.

Then he says to me, "What are your thoughts on second cousins getting married?" And I thought, "This is strange.

This is strange date discussion for this guy to go through." And then he starts telling me his thoughts on feminism and why it's no good, and at this stage of the date I'm like, "How do I get out of here?"

Mm-hmm.

"How do I get home?" Uh, he goes to drop me off.

He goes in for a kiss.

I dodge it, and I run up the driveway and run home.

This experience with the troll didn't slow young Alita down.

She was a motivated dater.

I used to be a real Tinder addict.

Like, I would be swiping all the time to the point where my thumb was getting calloused.

Like, I loved it.

[whimsical music] Alita was having a good time, even though the dodgy dates were more common than decent dates.

While clearly communicating that she was looking for a relationship, she found that men would agree that they too wanted a relationship, but then would expect one-night stands.

She was ghosted and grossed out by men with grody old mattresses on the floor, impoverished conversation skills, and profoundly compromised hygiene.

She was giving maximum effort but receiving minimum return.

Except one day Alita realized that these bad dates made for really great stories, so she started a Facebook page called Bad Dates of Melbourne, where she posted her own experiences.

Within weeks, people started writing in, and the page absolutely took off.

In the first two weeks, I think it had like 1.5 million people looking at the page.

Are you kidding?