hugh grant

Do you think there really are people who can say, ‘Hi, babe. My name’s Charles. This is your lucky night’?

A mutual friend sent me this list of pickup lines along with the suggestion to use it on any “smokin’ hot girl” I might stumble upon.

Take for example, this particularly nasty one: “Your skin is so smooth, its definitely differentiable everywhere.

Or perhaps even more horrendous: “From combinatorics, it’s not N choose R, it’s I choose U, now let’s combine.”

Had enough? How about one more for our friends in Algebra: “You know group theory, right? Let’s add you to me and me to you and see if we’re closed under the ‘operation’.”

This does however bring back a particular exchange from the brilliant film of the 90s starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Charles: Though, let’s say, for the sake of argument, one did take a fancy to someone at a wedding. Do you think there really are people who can say, ‘Hi, babe. My name’s Charles. This is your lucky night’?

Matthew: Well, if there are, they’re not English.

Charles: Quite.

And so while I can’t possibly imagine that there are people who are able to use one of these lines with great (or even mediocre) success, if there are, they’re not in Math.