Article Lead Image

Illustration by Jason Reed

Watchr is a (fake) dating app that matches people by their Netflix habits

"Shhhhh, Game of Thrones is on!"

 

Aaron Sankin

Internet Culture

Posted on Jan 25, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 4:52 pm CDT

Making a relationship work is truly a delicate dance. There’s a constant interplay between both parties—one partner reading the other and responding to their hopes, fears, and desires on a daily basis. It’s hard work that has to be rooted in shared, fundamental characteristics ranging from dreams for the future to worries about the past.

There are all sorts of factors that determine compatibility: sense of humor, religious faith (or lack thereof), desire to have kids, etc. But finding someone who matches you on all of those things can be difficult. All you want is someone who shares the main interest in your life: sitting on your couch and binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.

Now there’s Watchr, a fake dating app from Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy’s Los Angeles Digital.

“What if I told you there was an app that took away all the second-guessing,” explains the spokesperson in a parody video detailing the app. “Watchr browses the singles in your area and lets you know what TV shows they want to binge-watch. And nothing else. Watchr cuts out the run-around of dating and gives you what matters: someone who wants to watch the same TV shows as you.”

Watchr doesn’t make matches that spark romance, but who needs romance when you can sit silently on the couch for six straight hours of Gilmore Girls, right?

If this idea seems ridiculous to you, that’s only because you haven’t been paying close enough attention to all the stupid ideas coming out of Silicon Valley. Back in the heady days of 2012, a Facebook-based dating app called Yoke used data from Netflix, among other sources, to pair people up based on their pop-culture interests.

Sadly, Yoke no longer exists. To quote Marx, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”

To (probably) quote a recent Stanford grad trying to get seed funding for his startup, “It’s like OkCupid, but for Netflix.”

H/T Entertainment Weekly | Illustration by Jason Reed

Share this article
*First Published: Jan 25, 2015, 4:04 pm CST