LONDON, Aug. 20 (UPI) — The creator of TheUglyBugBall.co.uk said the British dating site is the world’s first to cater exclusively to people who “weren’t blessed with great looks.”

Howard James of London said the dating site for the “aesthetically challenged” excludes “anyone who is overtly pretty or attractive,” The Sun reported Friday.

“It’s a sad fact that up to half of the U.K. is made up of ugly people yet amazingly nobody has ever thought of providing a dating service for them,” James said. “Some of these will be moderately ugly, but others will have fallen from the ugly tree and hit every branch on their way down.”

James said nearly 1,500 people have joined the site since it went live Monday.

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Actual graph from TheUglyBugBall.co.uk

Perhaps we’ll soon see a similar institution for those residing in the lower range of OkCupid’s bigoted bell curve.

I wonder what kind of messages we’d get if this site actually existed.

Courtesy of the Rick Mercer Report.

A wonderfully awkward parody tape by Jon Lajoie. Enjoy.

OkCupid analyzed over 500,000 first messages on its website, finding some interesting but not completely surprising results. It’s not a perfect study, since the data comes only from within OkCupid and it’s heterocentric, but it’s worth reading.

Apparently you’re more likely to get a response to your message if:

1. You are literate (duh)
2. You avoid physical compliments (double duh)
3. You use somewhat unusual greetings (not “hi,” followed by a dirty message) 
4. You don’t immediately try to take it outside (I get this one a lot: “Hey what’s up, wanna grab a coffee sometime?” No. I don’t know you and I certainly don’t want your number. Chat with me a little first so I can make sure you’re not a total freak before I risk meeting you). 
5. You bring up specific interests (a.k.a. you actually read the profile)

The results also showed that self-effacing males (rather than arrogant ones) and atheists tend to get more responses. Who knew?

The whole study is here, including some really neat charts like the one above. Oh, and check out the comments. Some of them are hilarious, like this gem from a man who clearly gets it:

if your not presenting a wealthy, willing to be taken advantage of personna, these women on the net want nothing to do with you.
they tend to be gold diggers, who have nothing to offer except for a few moments of so called bliss.
wait till you have to go to the dr’s office to have those bumps checked out.
if you ask me, your better off without the kinds of women who need to find a date online.
yea, if your fat, ugly, which most on here are.look at the old picture they present as the main picture, vs the rest of the pictures.notice anything different? thye gained 60 lbs in 2 years!!

(The reason why you’re having such bad luck isn’t because you’re broke, it’s because your grammar is horrible.)

And there you have it. Go forth and message in a semi-intelligent fashion. Also, if this study has any effect on the number of creepy messages we receive, we’ll sure as hell need yours.

(Sourced out by antiboredomteam.com.)