I can’t speak for anyone else, obviously, but I have to go with no.

VH1 has decided to give Erik Von Markovik — aka Mystery, supposedly the world’s best pick-up artist — his own reality show in which he coaches hapless, lonely men to seduce attractive women, thus boosting the men’s self-confidence and ability to interact socially with women.

Or something like that. Frankly, it seems to me like Mystery — a former magician who now travels the globe giving expensive seminars on how to get beautiful women into bed — just gets away with being a giant, insulting jerk while babbling on and on about spirituality and psychology from beneath his enormous furry hat. It seems silly and not worth much contemplation.

And yet, Mystery has created a career out of helping “average frustrated chumps” use his techniques to land “hot babes.” He even played a major role in the creation of super-stud “Style,” the alter-ego of author Neil Strauss, who wrote The Game about his pick-up experiences. It seems that more and more men are relying on Mystery’s techniques — including the “neg,” which amounts more or less to a backhanded compliment — to try and seduce women.

But Mystery’s jerkdom comes out in full force in this interview with Salon, where, by the end, he’s insulting the female reporter and trying hilariously to spin his technique on her. And, while Mystery and his ilk will swear up and down that there is no underlying misogyny to their methods, I think between the interview and the countless YouTube clips of his seduction method in practice, it’s clear that at best Mystery’s method takes a very condescending approach toward women, and, at worst, a very hateful attitude toward them.

Just check out this video and see if you can squirm your way through it. (Slightly NSFW language.)

Don’t you just want to call out to the woman, distract her and then shoo her into the bathroom? Ick. So why are some women charmed by the likes of Mystery? Why are his techniques — which seem smarmy and disingenuous enough to be instantly detected and deflected by most women — apparently so successful for some men?

There’s a long-standing stereotype that assumes all women love jerks. I don’t believe that’s true, of course. But in a world ruled by Mystery’s methods, we may eventually be left with little choice.