Bill Ackman’s dating advice mocked, Washington Post finds

Thanks, but no thanks.

Pershing Square Holdings CEO Bill Ackman had an epiphany over the weekend when he posted on

His flirty conversation starter of choice?

“Can I meet you?”

It’s a real headache, but the billionaire swears he “almost never gets turned down” using it.

Thousands of people were quick to chime in on the post, mocking Ackerman’s dated opening line, but his suggestion raised a bigger question: What are the best and worst pick-up lines people have ever heard?

Because, let’s face it, in today’s dating world, singles have become a lot more witty and weird.

The Washington Post did some digging to find out which lines captivated the masses and which confused them.

For example, in our own newsroom, a reporter was once asked by a person, “Would you mind talking nonsense?” To the consternation of her friends, she thought it was both clever and cheeky. One editor also heard a pick-up line from a friend that seemed to have been stored in his memory bank, and when asked, he immediately responded with: “Nice shoes. Want to fuck?”

In the real world—that is to say, on social media—it’s a mixed bag.

“Every time I say to a woman, ‘Hey X, I like you, I’m attracted to you, and I want to get to know you better,’ I get a date,” Reddit user notume37 shared.

On X, Melissa Chen, vice president of geopolitical risk analysis firm Strategy Risks, shared a sweet quote that would have worked for her had she been single.

“Two days ago I was leaving a supermarket in north London and a young man – I think he was 21, maybe 25 – came up to me and said, ‘Can I take you out on a date?’ I smiled, showed him the ring on my finger and said: ‘I’m engaged, but if I were single I would say yes. “

Emma Davis told The Washington Post that her current boyfriend sweetly referenced the brutal heat wave New York experienced last summer.

He texted her on Tinder with the opening line: “Is it hot enough outside?” and the 26-year-old was instantly smitten. “It’s probably one of the most cliche things I’ve ever heard, but he found me and four months later, here we are,” she recalled.

While many people think Ackerman’s pick-up lines are pretty creepy, when compared to other conversation starters people have been exposed to, shockingly, his pick-up lines aren’t the worst of them all.

Adea Sessoms, 38, told The Washington Post that she was approached by a taciturn man when she went to the bathroom. He might get cold feet because when they come face to face the only words out of his mouth are “good night.”

Reality check: “It was 4:30 p.m.,” Sessoms revealed.

One time, Charlee Remitz was buying fish at her local Whole Foods when she “was accosted by the seafood clerk,” she told The Washington Post.

“He asked me if he could assume I was single because I was only buying one fish,” she recalled. “I don’t like being accosted when I’m buying fish.”

In March 2020, as the world went into lockdown due to COVID-19, Sue D. told The Washington Post that an interested (albeit lecherous) suitor asked her, “Want to play with the coronavirus and spread it on hard surfaces?”

Christina Harman, 32, also recalled to The Washington Post that she grew tired of a finance brother who annoyingly boasted about his work to get her attention.

“Nothing he said impressed me enough to go on a real date with him.”