There is something fascinating and slightly uncomfortable about the viral sensation Pop The Balloon Or Find Love. It is a wildly entertaining digital show that makes attraction brutally visible. But the show’s appeal also exposes something bigger about modern dating: We increasingly expect chemistry to be immediate, visual, and legible before we’ve learned anything meaningful about the person standing in front of us.
The show has turned attraction or lack thereof, into a spectator sport…a comedy show and Black women are the butt of the joke. “Pop The Balloon” highlights the message Black women have been getting for years when it comes to dating: adjust. And that’s saying it in a nice way. Underneath that is: you’re not enough.
We have turned the most vulnerable part of dating (wanting to be chosen) into a game show that exposes colorism in the flesh.
“Pop The Balloon” is a Black show, through and through. It was created by Black people, BM Matundu and Arlette Amuli, and consistently casts all Black contestants. The show’s premise is simple. Meet a stranger, ask a few questions, assess the vibe and decide: to pop or not to pop.
Aesthetics are not a proxy for compatibility. Aka love is absolutely not blind. And lust…it’s got astigmatism.
Watch enough of the show’s clips and a pattern emerges. Before someone’s emotional availability or intelligence, politics, relationship history, sense of humor, or even a glimpse of their character is seen, the triggering soundtrack of popping balloons saturates the studio and ends love’s possibility of growing where the contestants’ feet are…
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