A Remembrance of Things Ed Hardy, Frosted Tips, and the Height of Reality Dating Shows

My wife and I have gone back and watched some of the older dating shows we devoured when we were first dating. Let’s discuss.

We started off with "Daisy of Love". That show was horrible, but endlessly watchable for the two of us. I found myself transporting back in time on this rewatch. We have also gone back and watched "Rock of Love" and "Flavor of Love". Those shows are a little better than "Daisy of Love", but they are still pretty awful. Bret Michaels had a moment in rock music. He was part of the whole hair band that played their version of metal music. Flavor Flav is the hype man for one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time, Public Enemy. Flav was part of something important. Public Enemy is a major group. They're all timers. And while Chuck D has continued his fight against injustice, Flav decided he needed to go on a VH1 dating show, and eventually do some programs with Brigette Nielsen. Oh well. We have just started to watch "I Love Money", which features contestants from the majority of the dating shows that appeared in VH1. "I Love Money" is just as bad as "Daisy of Love". The contestants on the show are dumb and make horrendous decisions over and over again. I also think it's hilarious that they seem to think they invented alliances on game shows. The show is a total mess, but I cannot stop watching.

That's what leads me to my topic of the day. I don't necessarily miss these shows, and I'm stoked they have never tried to revamp any of them, but these shows captured a certain moment in time. These shows were on in the early-ish 2010's, and even though it doesn't seem that long ago, rewatching these shows have brought back so many memories. The amount of Ed Hardy on these shows is wild. I forgot how ugly and ridiculous those clothes were/are, but the people on these shows were wearing it in droves. You can't look at the screen for more than a second before you see a big tiger and that diamond encrusted Ed Hardy logo. It is hideous. There's frosted tips as far as the eye can see. Every single dude seemed to have frosted tips back then. They would put way too much gel in their hair, spike their hair and then you'd see the off color top of their head. It was a look. I never had it, but I know plenty of people who did. I do not think it looks good, but damned if a bunch of people on VH1 dating shows weren't rocking that look. The amount of muscle dudes was wild too. I get it that sometimes muscles can look nice, but when you overdo it, it looks very, very bad. It is clear a ton of these dudes were on steroids, and it is so easy to pick them out of the lineup. We also had far too many dudes with cauliflower ears. I know that MMA and other kinds of fighting were popular at the time, but damn, clean yourself up better after each fight. The ears looked so horrific and filled with bacteria.

The thing I have noticed the most is all the contestants just angling for their own show. This was before being on the internet was all you needed to be famous, so these people were pulling out all the stops. These shows are supposed to be "reality" shows, but everyone plays a part and has a character. There's always the mean one, the nerdy one, the athlete and so on and so forth. There's not one single person that is genuinely being themself. This is the height of really bad, really scripted reality tv. And yet I cannot pull myself away.

I will continue to watch and I will continue to judge. I'm just happy that the streaming devices of today give me the option to watch again. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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