Antoni And Jonathan From 'Queer Eye' Irritate Twitter With Dating Bait-and-switch Into Product Announcement

Many fans of Queer Eye are hashing out the definition of queerbaiting after two of the show's stars, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness, announced they were "finally together" — only to clarify the next day that they meant it as business partners and not romantic partners.

Some personal news ❤ after years of joking about it, we’re finally together. Here’s to giving things a shot :) More tomorrow pic.twitter.com/H4ZFumqkf9

— Antoni Porowski (@antoni) September 14, 2022

We’re finally together ❤️ Details tomorrow, but know that we’re very happy and feeling supported by the people around us 🏳️‍🌈 pic.twitter.com/9wNStao1sd

— Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn) September 14, 2022

The two employed their bait-and-switch marketing tactic to generate interest in their pet food brand called "Yummers."

Mini clarification – not life partners, business partners. Introducing our new company Yummers: meal mix-ins for pets! Mix a little into your pet's bowl each meal to add extra flavor, variety & nutrition into their diet (I promise I made @jvn wear a hairnet in the test kitchen) pic.twitter.com/bOISQJGV3p

— Antoni Porowski (@antoni) September 15, 2022

Users were divided as to how to take this information. People who knew a little bit about the personal lives of the Queer Eye stars were able to quickly suss out that the pair weren't actually dating. Van Ness married his actual romantic partner Mark Peacock in 2020, and Porowski has a boyfriend. Still, performing a stunt designed to attract attention from Queer Eye fans and shippers left many feeling irritated.

"Hope you’re not too heartbroken we were being clever lil bebe’s to announce this baby we’ve been working on for years now!" Van Ness said on Instagram following the backlash. "Love y’all!”

In an opinion piece on the stunt, Slate wrote, "'Being clever lil bebe’s' is one way to describe what the two were doing, but I think 'being shameless, manipulative, and deeply moronic lil bebe’s' would be more accurate." Glamour then stated, "It's like getting a birthday present from a friend but when you open it, it's just an invitation to buy into their MLM. It's like getting invited to a baby shower and then the baby turns out to be a labradoodle named Muffin."

Much of social media appeared to have a similar opinion, as many users expressed that this basically "sucked."

the first two gay men to queerbait this is historical https://t.co/Vthr7loFhO

— Alice🌻 (@_Alicewe) September 15, 2022

…i hate it. i can't even articulate why, i just hate it. it's not a clarification it was a weird marketing ploy idk it's not cutesy to me https://t.co/VBAtlVKIu3

— arabellawrites ✨ (@ArabellaWrites1) September 16, 2022

A couple years ago I remarked on how the Queer Eye fab five would likely go the way of Ellen and go from beloved to hated within two decades and I’m shocked to say it’s taken much, much shorter than that. https://t.co/tCbk3tchsH

— Blumpkin Spice Latte (@prune__tracy) September 16, 2022

Queer Eye has begun filming its seventh season in New Orleans, so it'll be some time before we see if the pair's stunt will hurt the show's numbers going forward.