get on the (band)wagon

one of the most dependable relationship tenets is the fact that when its blatantly obvious that a man is in a committed relationship, there’s a certain segment of women (read: “all“) who will begin to find him more attractive. from latent self-esteem and “distant daddy” issues to the fact that men in relationships generally aren’t pressed to find new pu**y (an attractive quality in the eyes of most women), there are myriad possible reasons for this phenomenon, but, for the most part, it all comes down to one general rule:

women are lemmings (ie: “sheep”, “followers”, “the borg”, “republicans”)

how so, exceedingly omnipotent and virile champ?“, you ask…well

…its all about the wagon. the bandwagon

bandwagon attraction is a general thought process that many women possess, a way of thinking that allows peer-pressure to influence how attractive they might find someone. they practice this everywhere, from the nightclub dynamic where one expertly timed “i think he’s funny looking” can influence an entire flock of chicks into thinking that an relatively unfunny looking guy is, in fact, funny looking, to the entire mystic surrounding the wedding ring:

well…there must be something great about him since someone actually wanted to marry him. i wonder if he wants some head?”

in equation form:

x (a man’s base score)

+

y(1/10)  (the number of women who’ve professed attraction to him with her earshot)

equals

z (his adjusted score)

for instance, if a woman thinks a guy might be a 5 (x), but she hears 20 different women say that he’s attractive (y)*(1/10), his score raises to a 7 (z)

***for a negative remark, the equation stays the same, sans the “1/10th” changing to a “negative 1/10th”***

in no other avenue is this phenomenon more prevalent than when thinking about pop cultural figures. from michael jordan (who, more than any other public figure, made it socially acceptable again to admit attraction to dark-skinned black males) to the mystery surrounding the confusing infatuation black women had with mos def from 2001 to 2004, theres a long and varied history of men becoming “attractive” basically overnight just because a few fickle women deemed them such and their opinions began to pick up steam like, ummm, a thing that picks up lots of steam very quickly.

the patron saint...for now

the patron saint...for now

currently, the 2008 patron saint of bandwagon attraction seems to be hill harper, a man who in less than 30 months has gone from “what kind of f*cking name is hill??” to the de facto ideal mentioned when black women profess an affinity for nerdy n*ggas. in fact, if you google “i need me a hill harper type of n*gga“, over two billion results pop up, with over 500 million of them coming directly from lizburr.com (***editors note: the champ is lying***)

what does this all mean? why are women so easily influenced when it comes to what they find attractive? why did mos def shack up with an nba groupie? who knows. all i know is that i need to start rocking a wedding ring.

on second thought, maybe not. wagons give me motion sickness. i think i’ll pass

–the champ

you suck. no…seriously, you do.

i’ve been there before.

i’ve walked this road.

it was a long time coming, but the change finally came.

you see, i used to be a pretentious piece of sh*t.

for a year (from may of 02 to the following may) i was “that guy”, that asshole, that diva dude who’d ostentatiously play with his sidekick in public because he knew that nobody else had one, who owned 150 dollar t-shirts despite making less than 30 g’s a year, who once refuse to call a “solid 8” he met at the club because he thought her first name was stupid.

a young champ (on the left) and one of his infamous t-shirts

a young champ (on the left) and one of his infamous t-shirts

i made my “recovery” sometime around the summer of 2003, when realizing that my outrageousness was becoming increasingly detrimental to my overall growth. i wasn’t pleased with who i was becoming as a person, and my pretentious aura attracted pretentious women…a fact that still makes me dry heave when thinking about it.

this state of mind isn’t uncommon though. there are many pretentious people among us, some completely unaware of their dangerous levels of pretention and how theyre self-sabotaging their own dating experiences.

so, as a service from vsb, i’ve decided to provide you all with a simple ledger, a guide, a list naming…

…9 signs that you can very well be a pretentious piece of sh*t

1. you refuse to eat at chain restaurants.

i don’t know whats worse, the fact that people actually think like this, or the fact that people think like this and actually arent ashamed to admit it in public. luckily, ive never had to date a woman who felt like this, because i would have been tempted to go all morgan spurlock on her ass, making every outing nbmd (nothing but mickey d’s)

2. you leave comments on blogs/message boards just to let everyone know that you think the topic of the day sucks

a huge pet-peeve of mine, this also happens to be a close relative of…

3. you leave comments on blogs/message boards just to let everyone know that something made your b*tch ass upset, and you won’t be returning

4. you’re black, and you have a college degree.

my freshman year of college, the champ and a few of his buddies caught a train to the hoodest movie theater in western ny to see  “lisaraye’s fine milfy ass” “the players club”.  if you recall, in the middle of the flick diamond gets clowned by some fellas in one of her classes after they find out her, ummmm, “hobby”, a scene which prompted one of the many remy ma dopplegangers sitting in the row behind us to remark “see, thats why i hate them college-ass nigg*s“.

after a decade of dealing with educated-ass “college-ass nigg*s” (and niggetts), i see her point.

we kind of suck.

seriously.

5. you think that nyc, la, d.c. and atlanta are the only acceptable places to live in the entire country.

if you feel this way, please stop reading this, please get up from your pc, please go find a way to rupture your own spleen, and please do it

6. you’ve often referred to yourself as “the black…” (ie, “the black carrie bradshaw”, “the black ethan hunt”, “the black verne troyer”, etc, etc)

7. you have business cards but no benefits

8. you make completely random and completely inane concrete demands of the opposite sex

ah, how these people tickle me. theres nothing more fun than hearing a woman remark “he has to be at least 6’2..and this is non-negotiable” and asking her “well, what if he was 6’1 and 7/8ths? 6’1 and 3/4ths? 6″1 and 16/29ths? 6’0 and 99/100ths? would these be acceptable?”

what amazes me most about this is the fact that usually, these horrific demands have absolutely nothing to do with that persons happiness, and everything to do with the perpetual pissing contest they’re having with their peers.

9. you inneccesantly brag about your eclectic tastes

you have both joni mitchell, janis joplin, and g-unit in your ipod? whoopdy f*cking doo. do you want a sugar cookie? fine. now take it and shove it up your ass.

if you suspect that you might be a pretentious piece of sh*t, please take the next public bus to the nearest wendys, and ask for the finest junior bacon cheeseburger they have on their menu. also, make sure you do this during the noon lunch rush, just so that you’ll hafta wait in line and so that as many people as possible will witness you actually ordering food from wendys. it might be painful, but, like john rambo says, pain is just pretentiousness leaving your body.

–the champ