Teenage Dirtbag

2000 single by Wheatus
the 2009 film

"Teenage Dirtbag" is a song by American rock band Wheatus. It was released on June 20, 2000, as the lead single from their eponymous debut album (2000). The song was written by guitarist and vocalist Brendan B. Brown and was inspired by a childhood experience of his. The song was especially successful in Australia, spending four weeks at number one, being certified triple platinum and becoming the second best selling single of 2000. It also reached number one in Austria and Flanders while peaking at number two in Ireland, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where it was certified quadruple platinum in 2024. It has sold five million copies worldwide as of 2014.

"Teenage Dirtbag" is about a childhood experience that guitarist and vocalist Brendan B. Brown had. In a 2012 interview with Tone Deaf, he said:
It came from the summer of 1984 on Long Island, when I was 10 years old. That summer in the woods behind my house, there was a Satanic, drug induced ritual teen homicide that went down; and the kid who did it was called Ricky Kasso, and he was arrested wearing an AC/DC T shirt. That made all the papers, and the television, obviously; and here I was, 10 years old, walking around with a case full of AC/DC and Iron Maiden and Metallica – and all the parents and the teachers and the cops thought I was some kind of Satan worshipper. So that's the backdrop for that song. Brown also added that the song's sing along chorus remains an act of defiance: "so when I sing: 'I'm just a teenage dirtbag', I'm effectively saying: 'Yeah, fuck you if you don't like it. Just because I like AC/DC doesn't mean I'm a devil worshipper, and you're an idiot.' That's where it comes from." In June 2013, Australian radio station Triple J ranked "Teenage Dirtbag" as number 82 on their "Twenty Years of Triple J's Hottest 100". The song was ranked number 69 on the "Top 100 Greatest Pop Songs of All Time" countdown by British music channel The Hits.

In the United Kingdom, the song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, staying there for two weeks and kept off the top spot by Atomic Kitten's "Whole Again". It spent four weeks at number one in Australia and also topped the charts in Austria and Flanders. Despite being a chart success in the UK, Europe and Australia, it failed to appear on the US Billboard Hot 100, but it did peak at number seven on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In March 2011, the song returned to the UK Singles Chart at number 43 and climbed to number 35 the following week, The song has re entered the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart on multiple occasions, including in March 2011, April 2012, and November 2023. The song was re recorded and re released in 2020, retaining the original lines.

The music video for "Teenage Dirtbag", directed by Jeff Gordon, is based on the 2000 film Loser, which the song is featured in, and tells a different story from the film based on the song's lyrics. Jason Biggs plays a nerdy character and Mena Suvari is the love interest who unexpectedly invites the protagonist to an Iron Maiden concert, and in the end scene they dance together on prom night. In some cases, the beginning and the end of the video were deleted: The full version of the video begins with Jason falling asleep while doing his homework and ends with a large glitter ball falling from the ceiling and striking him on the head. He then wakes up, revealing his brief romance with Suvari to have been all a dream. The video was nominated for Best Video at the Kerrang! Awards.

As the multitrack masters to "Teenage Dirtbag" were lost, Wheatus rerecorded it in 2016. Brown said they felt "compelled to recreate them so that, if for no other reason, we could own a copy". Wheatus took lengths to rerecord every element, including the distorted snare drum caused by a recording error in the original. Brown estimated that it took two years to recreate the song.