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Looking for a bad boyfriend on Craig's List

BY JULIA ALLISON | Special to amNewYork

October 24, 2005

It's the single girl's lament all the good guys are "already taken" and, unless you want to pull an Angelina Jolie and steal one of them (not my recommendation, too messy, you won't get any good press for it) you'd better start to like being single.

Or you could find a jerk to date.

Huh?

As I was browsing through the "Best of Craig's List" items the other day (obviously I have too much time on my hands), I found a posting labeled "Looking for a Terrible Boyfriend for One Week." Naturally, this intrigued me. Actually trolling for one on the internet seems, well, a little too easy.

Still, for Arielle, a twenty-something Denver native who penned the wry personal ad in September, it's cheaper than therapy and a brilliant way to "restore her happiness in being single." After all, as New York women well know, there's nothing that makes you appreciate life alone like putting up with a truly horrendous guy for a while.

Arielle's demanding requirements for the chump in question included the following:

1. "Be very needy. Call me several times a day, checking where I am, who I'm with, etc."

2. "Have poor or no manners. When we go out, do not use your napkin, tip poorly or not at all, never open doors, that kind of thing."

3. "Stare at other girls when we're out together. Bonus points for flirting."

4. "Don't listen when I talk, and interrupt me when you can."

5. "Insist on driving us everywhere, but proceed to get so drunk I have to drive your car or call a taxi."

6. Finally, "have wildly inaccurate information and unfounded opinions. It is your mission [to be] right about everything."

So what does the guy get in return? According to Arielle, he'll be equally relieved that he is unattached and, of course, he'll collect a very unique dating war story.

Interestingly enough, the posting actually elicited about 325 responses, 16 of them with photographs attached and not of their faces. (Um, guys? Do you actually keep x-rated full frontals on your computer, you know, just in case you need to prove you'd make a Terrible Boyfriend??)

More importantly, Arielle says, the posting "exorcised my bad date demons," and actually ended up landing her a few very good dates. "If nothing else," she says, "this definitely affirms that old cliché that 'you find someone when you're not looking for them.' Because I can't think of a worse way to look for someone than to advertise many of your most-hated qualities on Craig's List."

Oh, I can. But it involves those photos