The Bachelor

Submission 12,567

About

The Bachelor is an American reality television dating series in which a single bachelor chooses from a pool of over 20 romantic interests, each of which must proceed through a series of elimination rounds. The show has spawned numerous spin-offs, including The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise, and Bachelor in Paradise: After Paradise.

History

On March 25th, 2002, The Bachelor premiered on ABC, in which American businessman Alexander Michel starred as the game show's bachelor, with contestant Amanda Marsh emerging as the winner. In January 2003, the spin-off dating game show The Bachelorette premiered on ABC, starring actress Trista Rehn as the bachelorette and contestant Ian Mckee as the season's winner. In subsequent years, several other spin-off shows were launched, including Bachelor Pad (2010), Bachelor in Paradise (2014) and Bachelor in Paradise: After Paradise (2015). In December 2015, NY Mag^[7] published an infographic in an article about the show's history (shown below).

Online Presence

On November 11th, 2008, an official Facebook^[1] page for the show as launched, gathering upwards of 1.7 million likes over the next nine years. In August 2011, the @BachelorABC^[6] Twitter feed was created, received more than 710,000 followers over the next six years. On February 10th, 2012, the /r/thebachelor subreddit was launched for discussions about the show.

Parodies

On March 9th, 2012, Funny or Die released a comedy sketch in which comedian David Spade stars as an inappropriately honest bachelor (shown below, left). On May 17th, 2013, Jimmy Kimmel Live released a Bachelor parody starring a cast of children (shown below, right). Within four years, the video gained over 8.6 million views.

On May 14th, 2015, GameGrumps released an episode in which they play a video game version of The Bachelor, which accumulated more than 1.55 million views and 2,500 comments over the next two years (shown below).

On March 14th, 2016, YouTuber LifeAccordingToJimmy uploaded a Bachelor parody titled "The Bachelor Unscripted," featuring a "bro" as the show's bachelor and the "Suh Dude" Viners Nick Colletti and Tanner Petulla (shown below, left). On September 18th, YouTubers Niki and Gabi released a parody of the show titled "How Girls Act on the Bachelor" (shown below, right). Within six months, the video garnered upwards of 4.1 million views and 20,400 comments.

Nick Viall's Turtleneck

On February 27th, 2017, Season 21 bachelor Nick Viall wore a gray turtleneck sweater during a date with contestant Raven Gates (shown below).

That day, people began mocking Viall's outfit on Twitter and Instagram, often comparing it to various photographs of other celebrities (shown below).^[4]

Additionally, Gates revealed in the episode that she had had never experienced an orgasm. The following day, comedian April Lavalle launched a GoFundMe page to fund purchasing a Hitachi Wand vibrator for Gates (shown below).^[2]^[3] Also on February 28th, The Daily Dot published an article about the crowdfunding campaign. Shortly after, the GoFundMe page was taken down.