“I realize I look more like Kevin James than Will Smith,” David Coleman began his presentation in the Duke Ellington Ballroom on Tuesday night. Regardless of his appearance, Coleman is the “real-life Hitch.” And yes, that means the movie was actually based on him.

The movie, Hitch, falls into the most baffling of genres. Maybe I have too many guy friends, or maybe it’s a reaction to my father’s favorite channel being Lifetime, but I just do not get romantic comedies. Don’t get me wrong, we all love a good will-they-won’t-they, but it is astounding how much of the fairy tale people believe. The genre at its core sets up unreal expectations. From Pretty Woman to Knocked Up and even Hitch, these movies pump the image of the “perfect romance” into pop culture. This is a romance that just doesn’t exist, and even Coleman agrees.

“It’s very difficult for me to watch romantic comedies, I almost can’t get through it,” Coleman said. “They write them so that the average woman who drags the guy there will go ‘awww’, and I’m just not a fan of the ‘awww’ moment. They are not real, and they are short-lived.” ‘Awww’ moments, off the silver screen, are few and far between, but still, movies tell us that we should follow their formula. Meet the person of our dreams, then for a while things go well, but wait! There’s an argument, or a betrayal, but then after some huge romantic gesture, we make up and live happily ever.

Our heads tell us that it’s just a movie, but it’s hard for women to watch Hollywood starlets falling in love and not want those perfect moments. And I’m sure it’s hard for men to always see the friend-zoned underdog win, when the majority of the time friends stay friends.

What we need to learn, especially at our age, as we are preparing to start our careers and maybe even settle down, is that on-the-screen romance and real, honest love are two very different things. So while we can still enjoy a cheesy romantic comedy, we can’t hold our significant others, or ourselves to those standards.