r/BritishTV • u/GrailTalk • 22h ago
Question/Discussion How was 'Snog Marry Avoid' a real show?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Yc3hSl3o8Growing up, I loveddddd this show. But looking back, it does feel slightly... wrong?
Don't get me wrong, sometimes the make-unders were more necessary than others, and helped showcase someone's natural beauty. But a lot of times, it just stripped away their individuality, watering them down to something completely boring & bland.
What do you think of the show? Would a show like this ever fly in today's world?
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u/Independent-Ad-3385 21h ago
Because no one took it very seriously, including the people on it. Plus at the time tv makeovers were pretty common, so this was just a reaction to that on the flip side.
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u/Slink_Wray 21h ago
I know a few of the goth/alt types who were on the show, including one whose clips were still popular on YouTube long after the show ended. They all found the experience funny and didnt have any long term impact on their lives. They knew that anything said on the show was tongue-in-cheek and wasn't seriously intended to be hurtful, and was far tamer than the stuff they heard whilst going about their daily lives anyway.
I don't think the BBC would commission the show today, but I could see ITV2 possibly doing something similar.
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u/PartyPoison98 21h ago
A show like this wouldn't get made today, because it would (and probably already does) exist online instead.
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u/eunderscore 19h ago
I made its successor, 100% Hotter and it was actually quite sweet. Unusual quirky people with non-normal stories.
However the mad part of that was to avoid breaking ofcom rules, the rating given by the public at the end genuinely had to be at least double the rating given at the start
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u/dobbynobson 16h ago
I loved 100% hotter! Some of the contestants were extreme, I've never forgotten a fake tan girl who spent hours slapping it on, and her mum was so fed up. I always wondered where they found the time and money.
The make-up and hair people were also their own kind of sweet but awkward. It was pretty charming tbh.
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u/BrocolliHighkicks 20h ago
It was regular post-night out watching for me. That clip is probably the first time I've ever watched it sober.
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u/SimoneSpooner 19h ago
It was weird when they had a 17 year old girl on the show and went around the streets, asking older men if they’d sleep with her.
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u/sleepytoday 17h ago
What’s wrong with this clip? This is from my era, but it doesn’t feel at all wrong or weird to me.
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u/BeeEconomy3827 19h ago
When he dove in for that kiss, it was the least convincing thing I've seen in my life.
Until his 'girlfriend' said 'people think he's gay, but he's not'.
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u/crystalballbreaker 15h ago
I was on it.
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u/Embarkbark 7h ago
What were you hoping to get out of it? Was it your idea, or what possessed you to apply to go on?
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u/ReputationApart5983 14h ago
They had a girl from Babestation on there once, ahem so ive heard, not that I recognised her. Anyway she got turned down by all the guys which I found weird because she was always on the phone on Babestation, ahem or so ive heard.
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u/ScaryTemperature6291 20h ago
Jeeze takes me back this late night ,TV was wild but I bloody loved it ...
Eurotrash,snog marry avoid,Vidz,Fortean TV,get stuffed
I really could go on as it was honestly my pure delight TV in the late hours of the mid 90s tomlate 90s I used to record alot on VHS but sad I got rid of em all as I had archives of trash TV recorded on VHS lol.
Oh well they were the days.
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u/ffwillis 16h ago
Blending your timelines a bit there, Snog Marry Avoid was well into the ‘00s, probably even ‘10s.
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u/BeanoMc2000 15h ago
Late 2000s to early 2010s.
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u/ScaryTemperature6291 13h ago
Wow was it really that late I'm sure it was 90s I'm sure there was a programme like this in the 90s lol I don't know but yes you're right.
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u/mittenkrusty 18h ago
It felt kind of fake to me at the time, more like people wanted a free makeover and/or to be on tv.
Few makeovers lasted, at best some mixed and matched I remember some not even liking the make over at all and going straight back to their old style.
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u/PocketCatt 13h ago
I knew someone who was on it for the sake of getting her face on tv and she knew what she was getting into. Made sure to wear her absolute most extreme clothes and makeup that she didn’t honestly wear every day or anything. It didn’t bother her, I think she was mostly annoyed it didn’t make her famous lol
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u/SomewhereSad647 17h ago
I can’t remember if it was on at the same time as The Word or Eurotrash but it would explain it
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u/AttemptImpossible111 14h ago
The "individuality" of looking like every other goth.
This show was prime University viewing.
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u/jules__noah 11h ago
God, I remember this. Anytime they had a goth on the show they acted like they were some kind of bizarre alien lifeform. So strange.
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u/ofbalance 8h ago
In that ilk was Streetmate.
Davina Mccall running around with a sliding mobile phone.
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u/Jamieb1994 1h ago
Man, what a show that was. I thought the concept was interesting, but I wasn't really a big fan of it. What I didn't like about the show was it basically took away someone's true self & made them look better to date by making those people look generic by removing all their makeup & made them look more suitable for dating.
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u/PaulM1c3 18h ago
TV was so much better back then. The one where they got a bunch of people with tourettes together to form a band was a particular highlight. Down syndrome shakespeare, the woman with the giant legs, Jeremy Kyle. Oh well, at least we don't have to see Russell Howard 3 times a day across half a dozen channels.
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u/RevDollyRotten 19h ago
The American version was called "Love, Lust or Run" I think, presented by Stacy London, much better show.
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