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Last week, a relationship reunion video went viral for all the wrong reasons. Posting on TikTok, Lauren Zarras shared the moment she surprised her boyfriend at college with what’s now become over 51million people.
If you’ve got TikTok, there’s no doubt you’ve already seen the video – but if not, allow me to explain 'couch guy TikTok' for you...
Lauren walks into a room led by her boyfriend’s roommate. Bouncing on in, Robbie – her boyfriend – is sat on the couch with three girls, one of whom slightly scooches away from him immediately. She appears to inconspicuously hand Robbie a phone that is clearly his, and with EXTREME slowness, he starts to get up. Their hug looks awkward, as Robbie glances round the room to his friends while red in the face. Take a look for yourself…
The original couch guy TikTok video:
Now, you can see what the people have assumed. Robbie, now dubbed ‘couch guy’, stands accused of cheating on his long-distance girlfriend with one of the girls on the couch. In a mere 15-seconds, millions of people appear to have jumped to that conclusion. Not just because of the weird phone trade-off, nor the awkward hug, but also the body language of people in the room as his girlfriend entered. But there’s one person who hasn’t: Lauren.
‘Breaks my heart that people can watch a special moment and bring so much negativity,’ she posted in the comment section of her video. ‘Please think before you assume anything about my relationship. As for the phone comment, his phone was in his lap – thanks for the concern though, and no I’m no in denial.’
Most would read this comment and feel empathy for Lauren. Regardless of whether her boyfriend is cheating or not, she clearly loves him and wants to believe the best despite countless comments telling her not to. Most though, don’t appear to be on TikTok. With Lauren’s sheer will to ignore the negative comments, all empathy for the girl potentially being cheated on has gone out the window and forged a thousand reaction videos.
From in-depth analysations of the interaction – complete with slowed down, zoomed in footage – to sarcastic remakes of the moment, TikTok has become awash with couch guy content. And honestly, some of them are admittedly hilarious.
Why is it so funny? Because for most of us, it’s an emotional trauma we can all relate to. That is, being cheated on by your boyfriend as soon as he goes to university. It’s probably why so many people jumped to the conclusion so quickly, why they’re so quick to judge Lauren for not trusting their opinion over her boyfriend, because let’s be honest… we’re all kind of projecting.
Haven’t we ALL dated a couch guy? Or if not dated, at least saw how couch guys operated at university? We may not have been cheated on, or been the cheater, but if you didn’t witness someone ruin their five-year high school sweetheart romance over a quick shag during Freshers Week did you even go to university?
‘Literally every boy I knew with a long-distance girlfriend cheated on them in first term of university,’ Claudia, 28, from Manchester, tells me. ‘One of them used to bring his girlfriend to visit all the time, meanwhile the girl he had sex with when she wasn’t there would be at the table with us drinking, acting like everything was normal.’
‘Me and my boyfriend were together two years before he went to university,’ says Emma, 25 from London. ‘He kissed four girls in Freshers Week… four! He told me right away and so I stayed with him thinking “well at least he was honest” but we ended up breaking up anyway because it just wasn’t the same after that. He then started dating his flatmate right away, so I’m pretty sure he was still cheating even after I forgave him.’
Michael, 26 from Liverpool, even confesses to being couch guy himself when he went to university.
‘My ex-boyfriend used to live in the sticks of the city I went to university in, and one night when he went to bed - after watching me get embarrassingly drunk - I ended up having an affair with my housemate… Everyone in the accommodation knew. They all encouraged me to leave him, it was a very confusing time.’
Perhaps that’s why couch guy has gone so viral. If you didn’t date him, you were him – or you were probably his flatmate. Either way, who could’ve thought a 15-second video about two random teenagers relationship could have us all so hooked to our screens…
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