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Today In “Things It Hurts To Watch”: A UCLA Marriage Proposal Gone Wrong

As someone who absolutely loves the Kiss Cam, I have to say that the big screen, sporting event marriage proposal is far too painful for my taste. Everything about it just feels wrong. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the stomach to witness the possible rejection.

During the December 23 game between the UCLA Bruins and Richmond Spiders, the UCLA in-game entertainment gurus decided to spread a little holiday cheer with what they call the Mistletoe Cam, which is essentially the Kiss Cam but more… festive. With the Kiss Cam, there’s nothing quite like seeing two people make an on-the-spot decision in front of thousands of fans, while a bunch of drunk dudes yell, “Don’t do it!!” It’s an “instant smile” moment. The stakes are super low. If you don’t kiss, oh well. But when it comes to marriage proposals… this is big time, baby.

After the set up of seeing a few couples kiss, and with the holiday season just around the corner, everything was set up nicely for this one gentleman to propose to his girlfriend in front of a few hundred strangers. Unfortunately, though, it seems as if he didn’t read the situation all that well.

Sadly, in some cases, it’s become fair game to simply fake the proposal and rejection. I’m not saying that’s what’s going on here, but, I just wanted to point that out. You can judge for yourself whether or not this was staged.

Personally, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. The woman seemed pretty genuine in her rejection and the dude definitely looked crushed. I’ll buy it. And according to a UCLA spokesman, this proposal was not staged. Like I said, I’ll give you this one, UCLA. But I still reserve the right to remain skeptical whenever I see an in-game proposal.

[h/t Keith, via The Dagger]