What are the pros and cons of an embarrassing age gap? asks the Mash sex columnist

WHEN it comes to questionable dating choices, there’s nothing so visibly freakish as a batshit big age gap. So why do people do it? We explore the pros and cons of dating someone who regularly gets mistaken for your grandpa.

Pros

You feel like a celebrity

Look at the heads you are turning as you stride down the street, hand on the arse of the Joe-Biden-lookalike you love. It feels like the whole world is talking about you…and they are, friends and strangers alike. You live a life of raised eyebrows and amazed whispers, just as if you were dating Mick Jagger (if only your boy had the muscle strength to lift a guitar).

It’s a canny investment strategy

You know what they say: a flaccid dick in your mouth today, a massive inheritance payout tomorrow. It’s simply a question of maths (and morally questionable choices).

Disclaimer: your man does need to be minted to begin with and be free of litigious children from former relationships. Also, ideally, he should be 85+ when you start banging him, which may negate all other pros.

You grow a thick skin

If you can swallow down the horror on innocent baristas’ faces as you explain that the decaf latte with a straw you just ordered isn’t for your grandfather, it’s for your f**kbuddy, you can face anything in life. The personal growth will be invaluable if you can get over the shame.

It’s so easy to cheat

If you want to take another lover, that’ll be no problem when your own meal ticket is tucked up in bed by 9pm with a book about WW2 fighter jets. Also, if they ever see you with another man, you can simply play the dementia card and tell them their memory must be failing.

Nobody will complain again

You know how your friends and family always complain you make bad decisions when it comes to love? Well, any average dickhead you date after this saggy-skinned pensioner will seem like a dream in comparison. From now on, you’ll hear nothing but praise for dodgy Gary with the swastika tattoo.

Cons

You have no references in common

Your man has the cash to take you to a concert, but which do you choose: Taylor Swift or The Doobie Brothers? And when you try to talk about your favourite TikTokker, they show you their watch collection. It’s lonely place to be.

You’ll prove your mum right 

You know the satisfaction of proving the naysayers wrong? Yeah, that’s unlikely to happen in this scenario. And when your relationship goes to shit, on top of the heartache, you’ll have to face the pain of knowing all the f**kers who judged you have been proved right.

You have to shag an old person

Probably the biggest negative of this scenario is that you’ll have to pretend to be turned on by the saggy old flesh and greying pubes of someone old enough to be in a nursing home. If you can get through the retching and self-disgust, you could end up with a mutually satisfying sex life. But it’s unlikely.

Six Edinburgh Fringe performances that will make you give up on the arts forever

YOU like to think of yourself as a patron of the arts, because why else would you spend the best part of a grand on three nights in Scotland? Here are the shows you will most bitterly regret booking.

Student written play

When a sodden teenager thrust a disintegrating flyer into your hand, you couldn’t help but take up the call to be their hero. But you rue your kindness now. All the money in the world (which their accents imply their parents possess a great deal of) couldn’t save this piss-poor analogy for the pandemic told through monologues and shadow puppetry.

Something ‘immersive’

As much as you’re a liberal thinker, you’re of the firm belief that watching a show is a sedentary activity. They didn’t make you ‘vote for who you think is the true villain’ when you watched Top Gun: Maverick, and you didn’t have to take part in a shit flash mob dance that almost made you cringe your colon out either.

Improv (any)

Nothing can replicate the deep sense of dread you feel when they close the doors and you realise that not only are you sat on the front row, but the crowd is outnumbered by the cast, so you’re definitely going to be on stage at some point in the proceedings. You’ll be considering faking a heart attack just to escape it.

A 90s comic’s big comeback 

You should be on solid ground here, you worshipped this guy when you were younger because he was so edgy and cool. Except he’s aged really badly and you can’t help but be distracted by the constant reminder that the passage of time must have ravaged you too. Plus, all his material on his kids is mediocre.

A circus with a message

Of course you’re against animals in circuses, it’s completely cruel and unethical. But when that clown starts up yet another bit of mask work about climate change, would you really object that much to a tiger pulling a Siegfried & Roy and getting this whole experience over much faster?

The Fawlty Towers dining experience

Why the f**k did you even book this? What is wrong with you?