On Valentine’s Day, pickup lines are familiar and abundant at the University of Wisconsin and nationwide, if not worldwide. They are also used year-round at parties, classes, stores, bars and even on the street. Whenever pickup lines are used it’s a mystery how they are received and meant to be taken.

Everyone has heard the pathetic phrases, “Your legs must be tired because you’ve been running through my mind all night,” “Do you come here often?” or “Your name must be Mickey because you’re so fine,” and laughed at their cheesiness, but it is their humor that gets the attention in the end.

“Pickup lines are used as jokes, not actual lines,” UW sophomore Ben Stein said. “It’s just to make people laugh.” Freshman Mike Poliak agreed. “It’s for fun. I use pickup lines to make girls laugh, not to pick them up.”

Overall, college men say pickup lines are just for kicks and a good laugh, and women agree.

“I don’t take them seriously because they are very funny and nothing more,” UW freshman Erin Daniel said. “But the really offensive ones are over-the-top and don’t need to be said.”

Attempting to get someone’s attention, suitors often resort to distasteful and obscene pickup lines.

“But I don’t see the purpose of them because you want to [succeed] in the end,” Poliak said.

Most pickup lines are not meant to be offensive or discriminatory because many of the people that use pickup lines hope the corny humor will strike up a conversation.

“Lines are usually good for getting attention,” UW sophomore Ben Krolowitz said. “But you have to have something after those first 10 seconds if you want to stand out above everyone else.”

Pickup lines can be memorable, especially if the person giving them is creative and forms their own, but some of the classics can stick out too.

UW sophomore Tammy Krukowski reflects on pickup lines in her past.

“In high school, I was walking down the hall when some guys said, ‘Did it hurt?’ And being the smart person I am, I was like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ thinking it had to do with a basketball injury. They replied, ‘When you fell from heaven.’ I still laugh about it.”

It seems a lot of UW students think original pickup lines are better pickup lines, but this Valentine’s Day, if you are not creative, here are some of the top picks from the cheesy classics:
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Do you have a map? Because I keep getting lost in your eyes.
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Hi. I suffer from amnesia. Do I come here often?
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If I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put U and I together.
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Where have you been all of my life?
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If you were words on a page, you’d be what they call fine print.