A "half-familiar" programmer who knows Rap and B-Box, and wants to fall in love

Ouyang | wen

Shi Can | weave

The conversation with Meng Zhaobo took place on a weekday evening. In those days, Beijing was windy, and the sand and dust rolled up covered the sky gloomy, which was very difficult for every rhinitis patient, and Lao Meng was too, he couldn't stop coughing and clearing his throat during the chat, which made me a little worried.

At that time, the second season of "Half-Cooked Lovers" (hereinafter referred to as "Half-Cooked 2") had just finished the seventh issue, and the days in the half-cooked cabin entered the second half, and Lao Meng finally completely released himself. He wore a messy hair that got up early, and he grabbed bread to participate in the "breakfast competition", his expression management was no, and the program was extremely effective. Meng himself began to laugh when he mentioned this paragraph, since the show started, friends will take screenshots of his funny pictures and send him screenshots, which has almost formed a set of memes between brothers.

He has a rare good mentality, amateurs are always somewhat restrained on variety shows, asking Lao Meng, it seems that everything is logical and casual and relaxed: at this age, he wants to fall in love, so he is on a "half-ripe" romance; The mode of getting along with Bao'er doesn't seem to be quite right, so it needs to be raised; No matter what it looks like, it is a facet of "Meng Zhaobo", although he really wants to "decline the emoji", he is still very happy to bring everyone happiness or thinking.

Source: Weibo @Tencent Video: Half-acquainted lovers

We talked about romance, love, and life and fate, and Lao Meng recalled the twenty-odd days in the half-cooked cottage, using a different kind of "half-ripe" to amuse people all the time, but when it comes to emotional concepts, he will still explain a large paragraph logically and clearly. And from the memories and narration of Hu Xujuan, chief screenwriter of "Half-Acquainted Lovers 2" and PD Wu Peicong, we begin to understand why Lao Meng can become the "chosen person".

"Really want to fall in love"

It can indeed be seen that Lao Meng may really need to fall in love, and in our one-hour chat, he expressed a total of five times that he "really wants to fall in love".

He is not shy to express such a request, and has made many efforts to this end.

In the first season of "Half-Acquainted Lovers", Lao Meng was given the show by his friend Amway, and after watching a few episodes, he yearned for the relationship between the CP pairs of Lola Wang Nengneng and the eldest brother and sister-in-law, and now he can also count the impressive famous scenes in the first season. Envy to envy, at that time he did not think that he would solve his love problems through love after that, he was single for a long time, there was no relatively stable relationship for a long time, although he was looking forward to falling in love, but he felt that variety shows were still far away from him.

Before "Half-Cooked 2", he actually had a simple participation in another Tencent Video small dating show, which was a registration post he saw in the company's internal forum, and he thought at the time: "Is this the so-called romance?" After passing the interview, he participated in the recording of the show "Internet Session" one weekend, and after a few hours, he was not successfully matched. But this became the opportunity for him to be selected for "Half-Cooked 2" later: after that recording, knowing that he had not succeeded in holding hands, the staff of Tencent came to ask him if he wanted to participate in "Half-Cooked Lovers", and then entered the guest audition of "Half-Cooked 2".

Image source: Weibo @ A big Meng homesick

Before meeting Meng Zhaobo offline, in fact, Hu Xujuan and they had a lot of expectations for Old Meng. In the information given by the casting company, Lao Meng has several tags: rapper, programmer, real. The last one was written by himself: Meng Zhaobo, a man who tells the truth and does real things. He has always stressed the need to "keep real", which has made both Hu Xujuan and Wu Peicong interested in him.

"We thought it was rare for a programmer in his 30s to still have such real happiness." Hu Xujuan said.

This rarity carried over to the subsequent interviews. During the first interview, the program team had to communicate with at least 20 guests a day, each interviewer ranging from half an hour to an hour, basically all of them were elites from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, who thought carefully and repeatedly deliberated in the face of questions, which was more consistent with the "half-familiar" image imagined by everyone.

No one expected that Lao Meng would come up and sing a whole rap. Hu Xujuan recalled, "He may not know that he said Rap on the spot, but he will press our rhyme in the answer, engage in a single bet, and on that occasion, you will feel an inexplicable absurdity." ”

Image source: Weibo @ A big Meng homesick

Including the first interview Lao Meng's dress, it was also a simple T-shirt, not too modifying the figure, and did not show advantages. At the end of Lao Meng's interview, Sun Li, the chief director at the time, stood up directly, asked Lao Meng and a male screenwriter to change their clothes, and when they left, they also arranged the "homework" that needed to make some adjustments to their clothes during the next interview.

Hu Xujuan described Lao Meng's performance as "nostalgic happiness", and compared with other interviewees, he is like a sudden comedy variety show, full of impact, "like a strong medicine to relieve your current anxiety". Describing the scene again, among the business stable men, Meng Zhaobo, who broke the stereotype, really impressed the program team.

This "nostalgia" may be based on the concept of "half-ripeness", a return to the self. It's hard to imagine a big factory programmer in his 30s showing his rap and B-Box skills passionately in a more public setting, more like the male college student often discussed on campus than a professional. Based on the response to reality, the program team hopes to find some people who can alleviate the anxiety of this era, such as Lao Meng's absurd happiness: "It's not easy to make others laugh, but he did it at the time." ”

This casualness on Lao Meng's body is comfortable and can quickly convey a sense of security. This is one of the most important reasons for finally settling on Lao Meng.

But when he really wants to go into the public eye and put his emotions into a public scene to be discussed, he will still be a little worried: "I see that the romance will substitute myself, learn and reflect from it, but if I participate in the romance, I will also worry about whether some of the small details of my life will be magnified in front of the camera." "Family and friends are very positive about this, they all want him to get rid of the order as soon as possible, hoping to solve Lao Meng's love affairs through the form of romance.

After several careful considerations, Lao Meng still chose to devote himself to the experience of "Half Cooked 2".

Attention, amplification

From studying the "real question collection" of romance in the past to now becoming a "question stem" that others substitute and study, Lao Meng quickly accepted his identity change.

The Tuesday when "Half Ripe 2" started broadcasting, it was still a relatively tight working day, and at noon, some viewers began to follow messages on their social accounts through the official announcement Weibo, and Lao Meng only began to read the information when he was busy with work and rest. He also remembers that after the first broadcast, the atmosphere in his social media comment area was not very good, and everyone would pay attention to some details, thinking that his performance was not satisfactory, and many places were completely unnoticed by Lao Meng at that time.

Hu Xujuan knows that even if her heart is as big as Lao Meng, when daily life is projected onto a larger screen and discussed by people, it will inevitably be uneasy. There is also an appointment to have dinner and solve it, but this problem still depends on Lao Meng himself, fortunately, there is not so much pressure now. He also shared with us that when watching the show with his parents and parents, he saw that everyone finished dinner in the first episode and began to clean up, and he had a shot of standing on the side with his chest to watch other guests wash dishes, and then he was educated by his father, saying why are you like this, don't work? But in fact, Lao Meng did something, but it just happened that the picture was seen. ”

This may be due to the "slack" of the elder Meng, who later felt that he still sometimes "should be tight". Once the initial social fear stage passes, he will begin to quickly release himself, facing the camera is the same, that tension only lasted for a short time, although during the recording process felt that his state was a little too relaxed, but because the perception of the camera has weakened at this time, basically the second half is in a state of ignoring the lens, just need to "keep real".

The CP "pineapple bun" between him and Bao'er was actually ridiculed as a "primary school chicken", and the progress was relatively rapid at the beginning, and the mode of getting along was also younger. But Lao Meng does not think that there is only one way to express "half-cooked": "For example, in the show, I and Bao'er's so-called rapid upstart are a bit of a mature way of getting along with the public's definition." But again, I feel that it suits me and can be responsible for my choice, which is a half-acquainted behavior that I understand, not that two people must respect each other after meeting, for example, or how to make progress little by little. ”

Just as he has emphasized the relationship between "like and suitability" several times on the show, the two are equally important, but there is a sequential relationship. After liking it, and then willing to spend time and energy and so on these costs, come and go and run in with this person, let the two people get along slowly, achieve the same frequency, and then there will inevitably be an adjustment process, that is, the stage of "slowing down" that Lao Meng wants in the show, which is his ideal rhythm.

Is it just that this "slowness" is different from the faster pace that is common in romances? Of course, it is important to get along with each other in the half-cooked cottage for twenty-one days, after all, this is the opportunity to meet everyone today, but Lao Meng will not feel that this is a node that must deliver the answer sheet, for some relationships, it can even be a beginning stage, inside and outside the program, it is him.

To say that he doesn't care about being ridiculed as a "primary school chicken" style of getting along, Lao Meng also admitted that it must be a lie: "There will be some awkwardness at the beginning, but I think this is a process, and now I think about it is also a good help for me, because with the comments of the audience, some details that I usually don't realize have been discussed, which is also a kind of growth for me, so I am still very grateful." ”

In fact, in the later update, you can also see that Lao Meng is actually very direct when dealing with emotional issues, more measured and sincerely put forward his own ideas, and expressed the suggestion of "adjusting the rhythm" to Bao'er, but made many viewers sigh: It turns out that Lao Meng is the most mature and stable. This made him shout that he was finally "wronged", although he himself often feels that some actions are too childish when watching the show, but these are one aspect of him, what netizens see from the camera is real, but it is only one of the many aspects of this person.

"People are naturally lazy, and they are willing to understand the whole person with a certain side. One of the words I later asked myself to reconcile was to let time tell. You can't see the whole picture of this matter in a short time, maybe stretch the timeline, and the benefits it brings to you are unimaginable at the moment. Lao Meng said that when he said this, it did give people a different peace than the one in the show.

"Flying" the romance

The 21 days of spending time in the half-cooked hut will make Lao Meng realize some different states of himself: "Time and space are compressed. A few boys and a few girls under the same roof, aside from the camera, such a scene will speed up a lot of things, will make your emotions will be amplified, you yourself do not realize. For example, when Bao'er interacted with Lao Wu, some of his actions that seemed to "eat lemons" were actually not realized that they were so obvious at the moment.

Many viewers like to use "top" and "down" to simplify many of the guests' emotional movements in the show, although these two words are indeed very good to use, and there are some connotations that cannot be replaced, but sometimes they still seem simple and crude. But Lao Meng always felt that everyone's standards for "top and bottom" are actually very different, there are some beautiful details, and there are also problems in principle, which is actually very complicated.

Lao Meng also expressed many times in his self-introduction that he believed in love at first sight, but he was not very willing to say that he was "easy to get on", and he always felt that there would be ambiguity.

"Now people always like to define some of their usual behaviors in a word or a sentence, and label them, just like Internet black words." Old Meng said.

"Then you know this better." I quipped.

"Catch the pain point to form a closed loop." Old Meng laughed twice and replied.

The program team actually tried in previous years to predict the emotional development of the guests. "For example, who will definitely like whom, there will definitely be some kind of spark, but in fact, experience tells us, don't be blind here, it's impossible." We can only do the matching work of Jiayuan, and cannot do the cord pulling work that is not sincere. Hu Xujuan sighed.

Just like the person flying a kite, although the "line" of each guest is always in the hands of the staff, how to fly will not be influenced by people, but the staff will be carried away by the kite. PD Wu Peicong, who is in charge of Lao Meng and Baoer, was in the same mood as a roller coaster during the recording of the show, and was affected by the development between "Meng Bao" every day, but even so, "we are like a tree hole, just to accommodate all their things." ”

Every night in the preparation session, they will have some communication with the guests, listen to their changes in mentality, emotional fluctuations, and as a listener, there will be no more communication.

"In fact, there are only two things we do, the first is to understand this person, and the second is to show this person to the audience. We can't make up something they don't have like film and television works, we can only present the characteristics they have. Hu Xujuan explained.

The screenwriters and PDs of the romance play more as a bridge between people, and they find the points that the audience will resonate with from the guests, so that everyone can project their own emotional needs or experiences. From this point of view, they will prefer to find guests like "friends around them" to make people feel close.

And one of the topics that I want to discuss from the beginning of this season is: half-acquainted people, why must this be the case? Must a semi-familiar person have a successful career, invincible, and self-confident? That's just one part. "Different groups of people can also have different looks at different stages, and Bao'er and Lao Meng are talking about such a topic." Hu Xujuan said.

Source: Weibo @Tencent Video: Half-acquainted lovers

The experience of life will always leave a mark on them, may express more casual, pursue some simple happiness, but the real "half-ripeness" is already in the heart. When it is necessary to communicate and reveal one's heart, the perception of life and one's own experience will naturally run out, to express and share.

After participating in the romance, Lao Meng still maintained a clear understanding and self-determination. He still wants to return to the saying, "Everything is the best arrangement".