The ‘Review’ Catfishing Episode Came True For This Couple, Albeit With A Much Happier Ending

In the hugely popular The Atlantic article “A Catfishing With a Happy Ending,” writer Jeff Maysh recounts the story of Emma Perrier and Adem Guzel, a young couple living together in London. The subject of a previous Daily Mirror tabloid article, Perrier and Guzel’s rendeavous is a weird one. Having never tried online dating before, Perrier tried it for the first time in 2015 with the Zoosk app. She was subsequently messaged by an Italian man named Ronaldo “Ronnie” Scicluna, who was actually an older British man named Alan Stanley, who was using Guzel’s pictures instead of his own to catfish others.

As the article reveals, Perrier ultimately discovered Stanley’s con and confronted him. She also found the real “Ronnie,” Guzel, and reached out to him to let him know his pictures were being used by catfishers on online dating websites and apps. Since then, Perrier and Stanley came to a cordial understanding of sorts before parting ways, while she and Guzel began dating and ultimately moved in together. Despite its weird beginning, “A Catfishing With a Happy Ending” is a beautiful story, especially since — as the internet quickly realized — it’s a more positive version of a catfishing story we’ve seen before.

Specifically, the “Catfish, Haunted House” season two episode of Andy Daly’s brilliant Review on Comedy Central.

In the episode, show-within-a-show host Forrest MacNeil (Daly) is must review the experience of being a catfisher. Recently divorced from his wife Suzanne MacNeil (Jessica St. Clair), Forrest isn’t too terribly excited about the prospect — until he realizes he can catfish his ex-wife. So after creating the profile of Ace Shrift, the show host goes along with the charade until Suzanne demands a Skype call. Enter fictional baseball player Joe Dale Jr. (Christopher Robles), the man whose pictures Forrest used for the imaginary Shrift’s profile. He manages to convince Dale to stand in as Shrift during the Skype call, albeit for a hefty fee.

Dale pulls the rug out from under Forrest and his team and seemingly ends the Skype call with Suzanne, but in later episodes, it’s revealed the two have started dating. This sends the show host on a downward spiral that culminates in the ridiculously wonderful third season, though truth be told, it ends quite differently from how things turned out for Perrier, Guzel and Stanley in The Atlantic‘s story. (Thankfully.) Yes, even Forrest’s real-world counterpart came out on top. “I think it’s brilliant Emma and Adem have met,” he told Maysh. “It’s almost like fate.” Five stars.

(Via The Atlantic)