Flirting is framed not as a set of lines but as a decision and an attitude: choosing to make a conversation man-to-woman, playful, and light, and preferring the risk of rejection or offense over defaulting to another boring "nice to meet you" logical conversation.
The same words delivered flatly and seriously can read as weird or creepy instead of playful — delivery and attitude matter more than the specific line. See Cocky Attitude as a Frame Substitute for Scripted Teasing for how a general attitude can substitute for scripted technique, and Teasing Line-Format Toolkit (Exaggeration, Cold Read, Future Projection, Nicknames, Callbacks) for the specific formats built on top of this foundation.
Recommended rollout is to add one or two techniques at a time, observe whether the interaction improves, and keep adding until diminishing returns — flirting/teasing can be overdone. Compare Momentum Management in Graduated Escalation for the same incremental-and-observe logic applied to physical escalation.
A man must actively decide and signal that an interaction is romantic/sexual ("man-to-woman") rather than platonic — women lack the social permission to initiate that shift themselves. Once a man frames an exchange as man-to-woman, it becomes effectively impossible for the other person to revert it to purely platonic: "the person who decides to make it man-to-woman decides that; the other person cannot decide."
Tools for establishing the premise early:
Overt early compliments, gimmicky out-of-character moves, or nervous/evasive handling of sexual topics undercut this: they collapse tension, put her on a pedestal, and signal that sex is "a big deal" to the man, which in turn makes her nervous about it too.
Teasing under this framework transitions into a "qualification" phase, where she's given room to prove her worth to the man (interviewing her) rather than being teased indefinitely — men who only tease and never qualify stall the interaction. See Push-Pull Teasing and Teasing Line-Format Toolkit (Exaggeration, Cold Read, Future Projection, Nicknames, Callbacks).
Source: The Science of Attraction (YouTube).
Stating your own frame (e.g., a doubt about compatibility) before she can arrive at or state it herself forecloses a more powerful, independently-generated version of the same sentiment. Instead, her response becomes either a weaker echo of what you already said, or a shit test/pushback you can pass — which itself becomes a tension catalyst per the Sexual Tension Formula (Relevance + Uncertainty + Validation + Investment − Resistance). Leading with your own premise beats waiting for her to volunteer the same idea.
4 Jokes That Make Women Notice You (Charisma on Command) states the mindset underneath its four joke types directly: the primary purpose of flirting should be to maximize fun, not to get one specific woman to like you — so the same playful energy should go to everyone, not only people you're attracted to.
Proof-point used: Craig Ferguson is married and flirts with guests anyway; the video frames their enthusiastic response as evidence the flirtation lands because there's no agenda attached, not despite it.
Stated cost of the opposite pattern — reserving humor/charisma only for women you're attracted to: desperation shows through, pushes her away, and erodes your own natural confidence. See Concealing Desperation Preserves Negotiating Leverage for the adjacent claim about why concealing want matters. Cited failure case: Theo Von reportedly gave a stewardess he'd connected with no way to reach him, becoming self-conscious and awkward in the moment specifically because he cared about the outcome.