The Wedding Proposal: the top ten extreme engagement videos which inspired new Channel 4 show Unfortunately, this grotesque behaviour is only being encouraged by a one-off Channel 4 documentary, The Wedding Proposal, which airs on Sunday - yes, that's two days before V Day, presumably to give nervous boyfriends the last, subtle push they need... or send them running for the hills. A handful of human beings are so confident that their partner utterly adores them (perhaps almost as much as they utterly adore themselves) that they've cooked up OTT question-popping scenarios and allowed a major TV channel to film the whole spectacle and shove it on at primetime. According to Channel 4"s blurb, one of the proposers, ex-naval officer Joe Brown, has only spent a few weeks with the girl he now intends to marry (have these people learned nothing from Kim Kardashian?). Another, David Markwick, is apparently "determined to change his girlfriend's idea of who he is" by proposing in front of thousands of people (that ought to work... if she used to think he was a pleasant, unassuming Steady Eddie, rather than an insane attention-seeker who's had his poor brain corrupted by reality TV). Then there's token female participant Jade Johnston, who's taking advantage of 2012 being a leap year by proposing to her boyfriend (sexist as it may seem, surely if he wanted to marry her, he might have asked? And yet now they're filming it? One fears this may end up calling for a crying emoticon). But we can't blame them for agreeing to it; they've been brainwashed by the internet - the documentary was inspired by the dozens of proposals that have "gone viral" over the past few years. Here are ten of the best/worst, depending on your tolerance of manipulation, shrieking and sheer schmaltz. The one that ruined a quiet night at the cinema As if long adverts at the cinema weren't annoying enough, innocent movie-goers in McDonough, Georgia, had their quiet night at the pictures ruined by a cocky young man called Matt who'd been cooking up "The Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!" for weeks. He'd put together a "trailer" about his love for girlfriend Ginny and somehow persuaded his local cinema to screen it while the happy couple sat in the audience. Matt then proposed to his weeping wife-to-be, bizarrely using the words "Since our second date, we always said we'd be making the movies jealous." Who says that on their second date? In fact, who says that, ever? And which particular movies are now green with envy on witnessing this remarkable scene? Slap Her, She's French and American Pie 27: The Really Disgusting One With Jam In It? The video of the whole spectacle has now, staggeringly, been viewed by more than 21 million of Matt and Ginny's closest friends. Unfortunately, later videos in the series (the success of the "Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!" spurred them on - they've now got a whole online channel of this stuff), including "Ginny's surprise meet and greet with the fairytale wedding planner himself" and "Matt and Ginny show you location of their rehearsal dinner," haven't been quite such ratings smashes. Well, you know what they say - everyone's famous for six minutes and 59 seconds. The one with the immediate wedding Sometimes, men cruelly play with their girlfriends" emotions and encourage fear and paranoia in order to secure that coveted "Yes! In a video duplicitously entitled "World's Most Beautiful Marriage Proposal," one poor woman is confronted in a restaurant by a ranting lady claiming to have been sleeping with her boyfriend. It all gets very complicated, but it later transpires that it was all a big JOKE! The woman was an actress! He's not really a cheating ratbag after all! He's actually proposing to her - and the wedding is RIGHT NOW! Er, phew? The poor bride, her face smeared with mascara and terror, is whisked outside to be greeted with a Disney-like scene of dancers, flashing lights and hundreds of strangers. An ugly, ill-fitting dress is thrust over her head and, still tearful, she mutters the things that one would naturally mutter in such a scenario (no, not "What the HELL are you DOING, you TOTAL MORON, I wanted an intimate beach ceremony and a dress like Kate Middleton's you IDIOT" but "Where are my parents? Are my parents here?"). Yet still, she marries him there and then - well, of course; ten minutes ago, she thought he was cheating on her, so now she's never felt more desperate... ly in love. Desperately in love. The one with all the shrieking Here's one that you'll definitely want to turn the volume down for. It's genuinely lovely that this George chap has surprised his girlfriend Brielle at home in a proposal that isn't actually too flashy... apart from the fact that he filmed it and put it on the internet. Sadly, "only" just over 286,000 voyeurs have stepped into this particular private moment. The good news is, that means there are still a good few billion of the population who haven't witnessed Brielle's over the top reaction (put it this way, if you can make sense of her high-pitched shrieks, you're probably a dog). The one where they "always knew" The trouble with witnessing someone's whole proposal unfold is that it can feel awfully laboured. This is one of the schmaltziest ones going - but it also manages to be really boring (even though it has the highest production values of the lot, complete with cheesy Dawson's Creek-esque soundtrack). Basically, for six looooong years of dating, this couple have been having pictures taken at quirky locations worldwide (there they are by the Eiffel Tower! There they are underwater! Ad-literal-nauseam...), where they clutch letters spelling out the words "WE ALWAYS KNEW" because, well, they always knew... that they wanted to be internet celebrities. There's an elaborate surprise at the end when, for the last letter, it turns out he's actually proposing, using a banner that she only spots in the photograph... or something. Sounds complicated? Just watch it. And it'll make sense. Ish. If this is just the proposal, presumably their actual wedding will need to be as long, drawn-out and soppy as Titanic. But hopefully with a happier ending. The one with the celebrity wannabes Meet Charles and Alli. They're in Spain. And they're documenting their whole lives on camera. "Internet Killed Television is the new type of reality show, following Charles Trippy and his fiancee, Alli Speed as they travel the country and world planning their dream wedding!" reads the blurb. Charles Trippy and Alli Speed... hmm... do the names sound familiar? That's because they're not celebrities. They just think they are, and the endurance test that is their proposal video will have you longing for a simpler time... you know, like back when the first Katie Price and Peter Andre fly on the wall series was on. The one where she thinks he's dead After watching this many proposal videos, you might indeed be experiencing dark, disturbing thoughts about the oh-so happy couples... but wanting them to fall off a building seems a little extreme. It also seems a little extreme to pretend to do such a thing in front of the love of your life, but this guy, Josh, thought it would be totally hilarious to basically pretend he was dead. That's taking the "playing with your girlfriend's emotions to ensure a positive response" tactic to extremes - although, admittedly, in this instance, the whole thing feels very, very staged. Did she always know too? The one with the Disneyland flashmob Many of these videos have a whiff of Disney about them - they're sweet, sugary and they feature unrealistic caricatures in far-fetched scenarios - so it was only a matter of time before one came along that took place at Disneyland itself. Never trust a man who wants to go on a date to a theme park without any children in tow - he's probably bought a ring, booked a flashmob and written a song about "Tweedle-you and Tweedle-me." And yes, that nice singing lady is on a wheelchair with Mickey Mouse ears built into it - well-observed. The one where she said no Sadly, things don't go quite so smoothly for every aspiring YouTube sensation. Clearly assuming his extravagant romantic gesture would ensure him internet infamy (oh yeah, and a pretty wife), this poor hapless fool got down on one knee at a televised basketball game. But... she said no. Instead of embracing his sweet lady love and celebrating plans for a long, happy life together, the man found himself being comforted by a giant, beer-wielding furry mouse while the non-missus was nowhere to be seen. This should serve as a harsh lesson to all men considering such a spectacle - rejection is humiliating and painful enough when you're alone, so imagine how it would feel if three million strangers were simultaneously guffawing at your moment of doom while hitting the "like" button on Facebook? The other one where she said no... at a food court Enjoyed that last rejection? Well, here's another. Frankly, any man who thinks a shopping mall food court is an appropriate proposal venue deserves a big fat no. To be fair, this man didn't film the video himself, so perhaps it's unfair to lump him in with all the amateur romcom-producers above, but if he'd just popped the question somewhere more private, he would have avoided the attentions of opportunistic teenagers wielding cameraphones. And maybe she would have even said yes. Still, at least there's likely to be a branch of Argos nearby where he can trade in the ring for a nice powertool. You might notice that all of these examples so far have been conducted by American men - and perhaps this isn't surprising. After all, in the US, men (who all look and sound just like Matthew McConaughey) regularly make proclamations like "You're my soulmate, you're my rock, you're my everything, I feel truly blessed and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." British men have never been quite so slick and are far more likely to summon the spirit of Hugh Grant in any Richard Curtis film and mumble something along the lines of "So, well, I was, um, wondering, if, ah, I might perhaps possibly be so bold as to trouble you for... well... oh fiddlesticks, I've dropped the blooming ring" while scrambling around on the floor for the little velvet box that's slipped out of their sweaty, shaky grasp. And actually, we were all totally fine with that - but now the virus has infected the UK too. Most recently and memorably, what initially appeared to be a standard "nutter on the tube" incident turned out to be an intricately choreographed proposal by Adam King, who used a flashmob choir to confuse and/or delight and/or terrify his girlfriend Lucy Rogers. The one on the train to Watford The resulting scene was disgustingly soppy and, yes, admittedly, quite an impressive feat too - but all of the examples above and the ones featured in The Wedding Proposal raise a lot of worrying questions for women hoping to get married: will nice, normal boyfriends be repulsed by the egos of these terrible show-offs and be put off from proposing? Do men now feel under pressure to hire a choir/plane/TV crew, when their future wife would be happier and infinitely less embarrassed if they clumsily got down on one knee outside the local pub and shoved a ring on the wrong finger? Is their boyfriend's annoying mate, Techie Dave, going to be there filming what should be the most intimate of moments? And, most importantly of all, if more and more men are spending this much time and money on all this unnecessary faff, have they even thought about the important stuff - like what it means to make the ultimate commitment? And what kind of ring they should buy? The Wedding Proposal is on Channel 4 on Sunday 12 February at 9.00pm.