The Offspring

File:The Offspring 7918.jpg

The Offspring are a popular punk-rock band from Orange County, California. They formed in 1984 and released their first album, self-titled, in 1989. They have made eight albums in total and are working on a ninth. Credited along with Green Day and a few others with helping to bring punk rock into the mainstream. Their 1994 album Smash was their biggest commercial success and remains the highest-selling album ever released on an independent label, having sold over 16 million copies.

Their mostly punk music contains elements of Pop Punk, Grunge, metal and Ska. Lyrical topics are very wide-ranging; one of their most famous songs, "Self Esteem", is about a personal relationship involving an Extreme Doormat Love Martyr, but they also released a concept album dedicated to the degradation of America, for example.

Discography:

• The Offspring (1989)
• Ignition (1992)
• Smash (1994)
• Ixnay on the Hombre (1997)
• Americana (1998)
• Conspiracy of One (2000)
• Splinter (2003)
• Greatest Hits Album (2005)
• Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008)
• Days Go By (2012)

Tropes associated with The Offspring:

• Album Title Drop: Inverted Trope in the album Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace - the title was taken from the title of one song and the second line of another ("Fix You").
• Berserk Button: "Bad Habit".
• Black Comedy Rape: "When You're In Prison".
• Black Sheep Hit: "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?"
• Body Horror: The video for "The Kids Aren't Alright" transitions between characters by having them coming out of the previous person's body.
• Censored Title: "Stuff is Messed Up". The chorus actually says "Shit is fucked up"
• The Chessmaster: "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid"
• Cluster F-Bomb + Precision F-Strike: A lot. Conspiracy of One became notable since it was their first album to lack an F-bomb.
  • "Session" starts with one. "Aaaaaaah FUCK! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!"
  • Also "Bad Habit", which includes the gem "You stupid, dumbshit, Goddamn motherfucker!"
  • In "Americana", with the line "distorted in Americana, my way, well...FUCK YOU!"
  • "Da Hui" is just one big Cluster F-Bomb:

I won't fuck with Da Hui! I won't fuck with Da Hui! I won't fuck with Da Hui! Because Da Hui will fuck with me! ... Don't fuck with Da Hui! Don't fuck with Da Hui! Don't fuck with Da Hui! Because Da Hui will fuck with you!

• • "Nothingtown" has the Precision-S-Strike: "We're breaking out of this shitty little town..."
• Concept Album: Americana is about the degradation of America. Smash is sometimes interpreted as this because almost all of its songs are about violence in some form or the other. Meanwhile, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace is often interpreted as the journey of a school shooter.
• Content Warnings: Ixnay on the Hombre begins with a particularly snarky one:

Ladiiiies and gentlemen, welcome to the disclaimer! That's right, the disclaimer! This American apple pie institution known as parental discretion will cleanse any sense of innuendo or sarcasm from the lyrics which might actually make you think, and will also insult your intelligence at the same time! So, protect your family! This album contains explicit depictions of things which are real! These real things are commonly known as "life"! So... if it sounds sarcastic, do not take it seriously! If it sounds dangerous, do not try this at home or at all! And if it offends you, just... don't... listen to it!

• • Done by Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, no less
• Corrupt the Cutie: "Want You Bad".
• Cover Version: "Killboy Powerhead" by The Didjits, on Smash, and "Next to You" by The Police in the Greatest Hits Album (as a Hidden Track). As well as a crapton of random covers on their singles albums and rare EPs. Additionally, "Feelings" from Americana is a parodic cover of Morris Albert, with lyrics rewritten to be about hatred instead of love.
• Creepy Child: The children in the Hammerhead video.
• Deranged Animation: the video for "She's Got Issues", which features Zooey Deschanel in one of her earliest roles.
  • Also, the heads of the characters (the dog included) in the video for "Hit That".
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The girl's movements with a beer can at the end of the "Want You Bad" video, and the guy's reaction. Doesn't help that she ends up covered in white from the eruption.
• Drives Like Crazy: The reason the narrator of "Bad Habit" is Ax Crazy.
• Drugs Are Bad: "Mota" which is about a day in a stoner's life, and "What Happened to You?", which is about a friend who is trying to get his friend to quit.
• Epic Rocking: "Pay the Man", which lasts for 10 minutes and 19 seconds.
• Extreme Doormat: "Self Esteem" is about one of these.
• Farm Boy: The video for "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid"
• Flaming Skulls: The band's logo.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck: "Stuff Is Messed Up". Naturally, it's averted in the song, where the "shit is fucked up" chorus is meant to be the actual Title Drop.
• Gratuitous Spanish: "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seis!" ("Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)")
  • Also, in "Why Don't You Get A Job":

But she wants more dinero just to stay at home...

• Grief Song: "Gone Away"
• I Ate What?: From Don't Pick It Up":

I saw a little kid As he walked around He picked a candy bar up Off the ground He chowed about a half And his face turned blue Turned out that candy bar was a doggy-doo

• Long Runner Lineup: The lineup of Dexter Holland, Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, Gregory "Greg K." Kriesel, and Ron Welty lasted from 1987 (when Welty joined) until 2003 (when he quit)--16 years.
• Love Martyr: "Self Esteem" again.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Since The Offspring are a punk band, a good many of their songs are very fast. They also cover topics like violence, death, and social problems, fast or slow.
  • "Why Don't You Get a Job?" is an excellent example of this: a rather happy song about people annoyed by their mooching girl/boyfriends.
  • "Self Esteem" is more upbeat than the somber first single "Come Out and Play", and it has lyrics about an extreme Love Martyr.
• Manipulative Bastard: The driving point in "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid". Overcrosses with Magnificent Bastard.
• The Masochism Tango: According to the narrator in "Self Esteem":

Now I know I'm being used That's okay, man, 'cause I like the abuse And I know she's playing with me That's okay, 'cause I got no self esteem

• • "Want You Bad" is another example.
• Motor Mouth: The bridge in "Stuff is Messed Up":

Shopping sprees, RPGs, ecstasy, atrophy Genocide, Pimp My Ride, politize, euphemize Injustice everywhere, apathy, I don't care Hurricanes, climate change, huh! Therapy, I won't tell, rehab and LOL Worldwide calamity, TV reality Euthanize, supersize, death squads and boob jobs VIP infamy, gratify instantly

• Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Usually range from 4 to 7 ("Kristy, Are You Doing OK?" is arguably a 3).
• Murder Is the Best Solution: "Hammerhead".
• Murder Ballad: "Beheaded".
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: "Disclaimer".
• Pig Latin: Ixnay on the Hombre (as Dexter explained: "fuck The Man").
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: The Trope Namers.
• Precision F-Strike: "Smash." "And I don't give a fuck if it's good enough for you!"
• Prison Rape: "When You're In Prison".
• Remonstrating with a Gun: "Bad Habit".
• Repurposed Pop Song: ESPN uses "All I Want" and "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" in adverts for their college basketball coverage.
  • Of course "All I Want" and other tracks were also famously on the soundtrack for the original Crazy Taxi and its sequel.
• Sarcasm Mode: Most often.
  • A great example is in the song Stuff is Messed Up: "Now thank god for the media/for saving the day/putting it all into perspective/in a responsible way"
• School of Hard Knocks: "Come Out and Play"
• Shout-Out: "The Kids Aren't Alright" references the song "The Kids Are Alright" by The Who and more or less presents the exact opposite message of that song.
• Sophisticated As Hell: "When You're In Prison"
• Stage Names: Dexter's first name is Bryan, Noodles is Kevin Wasserman, Gregory Kriesel shortens his name to Greg K... and one of the drummers was Atom Willard (who only played with the band in tours, not studio albums).
• Stalker with a Crush: "Special Delivery".
• Stepford Suburbia: "The Kids Aren't Alright". Most of its album, Americana, also fits.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The video of "Want You Bad", where everything blows up in bubbles.
• Teens Are Monsters/Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: Several of their songs, most notably "Come Out And Play", which deals with gang violence ("You gotta keep'em separated") and "Walla Walla", which is about a young offender who's finally going away ("Slap on the wrist--not this time!")
• Three Chords and the Truth: They tend to get chewed out for recycling their chord progressions. Example: "Self Esteem" is only a half step off from "The Kids Aren't Alright", and the same as "you're gonna go far kid"
• Tomato Surprise: "Hammerhead" The lyrics make it sound like a Cop or a Soldier, but the last verse reveals it is a school shooter.
  • The video changes this somewhat. The video indicates it may be this combined with a tract on war. The first half shows soldiers climbing a pile of Military SUV's (simulating the tough training they go through), saluting a General (showing their loyalty and trust), then allowing the General to push them off to their deaths (the throwing away of expensive training and irreplaceable human life in war). And the very end shows several animals, (a donkey, a bear, an elephant, and a camel if I remember correctly) carrying missiles on their backs, apparently representing....something.
    • Donkey = Democrats, Elephant = Republicans, Bear = Russians, Camel = Terrorists?
      • ...or the camel is just for the Middle East in general.
    • Food for thought: that stack of Humvees looks a lot like a stack of junked cars at a scrap yard, while the general is so warped and bizarre that he might as well be wearing a T-shirt that says, "Hello, I am a hallucination telling you to kill."
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The armed gangs of schoolkids killing each other in "Come Out And Play" and all of "The Kids Aren't Alright."
• The Unexpected: Here comes the next album! First single sounds good... wait, what's that?
• Unwanted Spouse: "Why Don't You Get a Job?"
• Wangst: "She's Got Issues" chews out the titular girl for this.

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You stupid dumbshit goddamn MOTHERFUCKER!