Tagging along to disaster?

Last night, I watched a new episode of Making the Band 4 that took me back to an all-too familiar place.

For those who don't know, this season is focused on a girl group, known as Danity Kane, a solo artist and a male vocal group trying to create their albums. In between, there is supposed to be all kinds of hooking up and drama.

Now that we have that out of the way, in last night's episode, one of the guys in the group, Q, is interested in one of the girls from the group, Dawn. Well, in an effort to get a date, Q decides to bring his friend Robert and Dawn convinces D. Woods from her group to engage in the double date scenario.

Long story short, D. Woods and Robert get into an heated argument resulting in Dawn and Q going out by themselves and having a nice date.

Watching this made me think of times when my girl friends were interested in guys who were stopping by or going out with friends and my friend would find herself in the mix. Sometimes, they would call on me or another friend to "keep the friend busy."

Sometimes, the friends would turn out to be cool. It may not go anywhere but you were able to hold down a conversation for the better portion of a night.

Other times, however, were not so easygoing. Sometimes, there would be no chemistry whatsoever so you're sitting there in awkward silence. In some cases, the other person may just be a jerk. And then there's the good old-fashion case where the two of you just disagree on everything which could lead to an argument somewhere down the line. And let's not forget the guy (or girl) who is seeing this as an avenue just to get some action. Either way, the whole episode ends up feeling like a waste of time.

Have you ever been the tag-along or asked your friend to tag along? Are these ventures usually successes for you or have they led to dating disasters?