“Pop the Balloon or Find Love” was a series created by Arlette Amuli and Bolia Matundu, a married couple. It is not the first time seeing something like this as I saw “Sidemen Tinder” by Sidemen on YouTube and it was essentially them swiping right when they like someone and swiping left on someone they do not like. I have also seen it in different forms such as rating who you would date based on their clothing or their answer to a question. However, I have not seen one as explosive as ‘Pop the Balloon’ because they have lasted long with numerous viral videos. 

From what I have seen, the YouTube videos consist of people standing in a line, holding red balloons and one person walks in. If you find them attractive or want to hear more about them then you hold on to your balloon. However, if you do not like them you can pop their balloon. Some people pop their balloon in a simple way, while others do it in a more dramatic way. The dramatic ways are always usually the ones that go viral, especially when there is a general consensus that no one likes how that person looks. The rejection is apparent with some people laughing it off and others becoming defensive, turning it into a cat fight between them. 

The series has a lot of controversy surrounding it as the contestants can be very nasty with each other and the dating expectations they have for each other are sometimes not realistic or downright toxic. I have seen this content on different platforms ranging from TikTok to Twitter to Instagram and in each space there is someone discussing why a response or a question was not legitimate or how “superficial”  some people can be when looking for a partner. For example, in episode 49 of the series, one of the contestants said that she thought that the guy being interviewed was the perfect man and his responses were great, but she could not get past his smile. Some would say that is a petty reason to pop your balloon because it is just eyebrows.

The same argument goes whenever they discuss issues regarding clothing, shoes, makeup, jewelry and anything else that has to do with appearances. There are some who would say that she is within her right to pop her balloon because it is something that she views as important  and because it matters to her, then it is her decision to do whatever, maybe they just do not belong together.

Other controversies surround this series such as misogyny, body shaming, colorism, the reinforcement of harmful beauty standards and normalizing microaggressions. The problem with this is that anyone can watch this content and a young child may be watching it and internalizing the unrealistic standards that these people are saying, which can negatively impact them and the relationships they have with others. Especially because other YouTubers are creating their own versions of this series and recently, the series has been picked up by Netflix, further extending its reach to other streaming platforms. It makes me wonder what this means for the already tense dating realm.