Self-awareness or savvy marketing? Probably both. “Living with us is essentially the real life version of the TV show,” the Craigslist ad humblebrags, instantly narrowing the applicant pool dramatically, while also giving an honest glimpse at what living with these people would be like.
The “HBO Girls” posting goes on:
-One gay roommate, with a penchant for backhanded compliments, adding the oh-so-needed bitchiness to a night in of getting drunk and re-watching 90s TV shows. He is everything you might want in a roommate: neurotic, judgmental, and certainly more attractive than you.
-One roommate named Hannah (for reals) with the fashion sense of a homeless kindergartener. She shares a number of wardrobe items with Lena Dunham, but also adds a flare of originality through such novelties as elephant pants. She self-identifies as an “artist.”
-Both of us graduated from college two years ago and moved to New York to “follow our careers.” Watch as we navigate the minefield that is our 20s and tackle the challenges of our generation, including: Is it appropriate to sleep with [person X], and would you judge me if I did? Which Thai restaurant should I order from tonight? And how does one install a coat rack onto an electrical panel? (But really if you know the answer to that last one, please drop us a line.)
As for the real estate, “It’s a room. There’s a window.” And they’re looking for a Shosh or a Marnie (sorry, Jessas). Just $1,500 a month for the authentic HBO experience! Imagining the theatricality of the responses doubtlessly pouring in is making us a little nauseous, but it is best these types stick together. For all of our sakes.
Update: Hannah and Sean, the sassy gay one, write to say, “Despite the unexpected coverage we haven’t gotten that many actual responses to the ad. Definitely a couple of Girls superfans, mixed in with your average subletter, and one guy who did seem to have some helpful suggestions for our coat rack problem.”
But one of their favorite responses so far (“a total Shoshana”) went with the conceit in a major way: “Like, oh my god, yes. A million times yes,” the applicant e-mailed. “You guys sound really cool and amazing, like if Bravo was somehow relevant and wasn’t for old people who live in red states but have the wealth of people from blue states.”
“I would love to see some Instagrammed photos of the apartment, but please don’t use frames?” she continued. “I think frames are actually negatively impacting Instagrams because the frame can change a picture so much and sometimes I think people are unfairly under-using certain filters that could actually be the right filters, because they don’t like the frames that are associates with those filters. That’s why I don’t use frames and honestly it feels like a juice cleanse for your iPhone.” Ding ding ding.
