Since the question of how to respond to the ubiquitous “I have a boyfriend” female test comes up a lot here, I’ve decided to put together what I think are the best answers a man can give in return. These answers were gleaned from commenters, from pickup forums, and from my own posts on the subject. Here are 14 awesome ways to respond to a girl when she tells you she has a boyfriend.
1. “I don’t care.”
One of my favorites. Best used on ultrafem girls who yearn to submit to a very psychologically dominant man.
2. “That’s OK, I’m not the jealous type.”
Replies to “IHAB” fall into two major categories — qualifying and disqualifying. A disqualifying reply is one where you shame the girl for even bringing the subject up, since she has no chance with you anyhow. A disqualifier is ideally used on superflirts and other varieties of cockteasers, because it fucks with their expectations.
A qualifying reply is one where you brush off the boyfriend objection, but do so in a humorous way that implies she has met your conditions for being bang-worthy and that you would sleep with her given the chance. The line above is an example of a qualifying reply — you would have sex with her and she needn’t worry that you would judge her for that. A qualifier is ideally used on girls who are attracted to you and want to sleep with you, but either have a boyfriend for real they want to step out on, or don’t have a boyfriend but say so anyhow because they are feeling slutty or anxious that sex might actually happen. Sometimes girls just blurt IHABs without even thinking, like they often do with any kind of shit test.
Note: If the girl drops an IHAB from the moment you start talking to her, it is likely she is rejecting you. IHAB is very context and time dependent; don’t bother with any of these lines if she hits you with an IHAB soon after you introduce yourself. These IHAB killers are meant for girls who are receptive to your gaming or are otherwise actively flirting with you.
3. Girl: “I have a boyfriend…..”
Man: “Wow….amazing…seriously, that’s amazing!”
Girl: “What? That I have a boyfriend?”
Man: “No, that I’ve barely known you for 5 minutes and you’re already telling me your problems.”
Girl: “lmao!”
The above line was cribbed from a commenter over at Roosh’s pickup forum. It’s a type of disqualifier; one I would happily use on attention whores who love men bowing and scraping before their almighty bloated egos.
4. “Whoa, not so fast. We’re just talking here, ok? Don’t get the wrong idea.”
5. “You really thought I was hitting on you?”
6. “No worries. You’re not my type.”
Tamer version of above. Opens the door for further conversation.
7. “So does my girlfriend.”
Short, sweet and funny. Categorized as a qualifying reply — you’re not dismissing her as a sex prospect. Hints at preselection. Use on girls who want to sleep with you already but have to rationalize their way to it. Don’t use on drunk girls; it’ll take them too long to get it. I tried this on Superflirt and she just tilted her head and stared blankly at me for a few seconds. Don’t use on evangelical church girls, either; they might take it at face value.
8. Girl: “I have a boyfriend.”
Man: “Hey, my dog can juggle.”
Girl: “What?”
Man: “I’m sorry, I thought we were talking about shit that didn’t matter.”
This is a qualifying IHAB killer. You are implying you have designs to bang her, and are mocking her IHAB for the adorable little whiny objection it is. (The hidden subtext is “Let’s get back to seducing each other.”) A bit too clever by half for my taste; could work well on hard-charging lawyer cunts with high Wordsum scores.
9. “Annnnd… so?”
Same type as above, but shorter and easier to remember.
10. “Good job!”
A variant of “I don’t care.” Some guys prefer to plow through an IHAB by either ignoring it or contemptuously dismissing it.
11. “Your parents must be proud.”
Same as above.
12. “Oh man, I’m so embarrassed. I thought you were a lesbian.”
13. “Are you allowed to talk to other men without his permission?”
Puts the girl on the defensive. This is a risky line. Some girls may react poorly to it, while others immediately qualify themselves to you.
14. Ignore the IHAB
Plow, baby, plow! Caveman game. She’s so cute when she’s disingenuously objecting to you conking her over the head and dragging her into the brush for a rogering.
You’ll notice a pattern here; I prefer short answers to IHAB rather than long-winded, witty replies. A rule of thumb: wordiness is beta, succinctness is alpha. This is a broad generalization with plenty of exceptions, so don’t get too hung up on it. Just try and keep your texts, phone messages, and parts of your early and end game on the laconic side. Rapport and DHVing obviously will require the use of more than a few pithy quips.
You’ll also notice which IHAB replies are conspicuously missing from the list. I don’t like classic PUA IHAB destroyers such as
“Hey, no problem, you can bring him along on our date.”
or
“Cool, he can buy the first round.”
I’ve never liked these. They make the man sound like he’s forcing the issue. And they’re cheesy.
Perhaps a better way to handle the IHAB is to avoid it altogether. Preempt it by not giving the girl any reason to bring it up in the first place. An example of a preemptive IHAB blaster is “Are you single?” Upside: very effective neutralizing and filtering tactic. Downside: she might not have been planning to mention a boyfriend at all.
