"What's My Age Again?" was inspired by blink bass player Mark Hoppus, who was often told (usually by women) that he was immature. By the end of the song, the meaning becomes clear: It's OK, you shouldn't care what people think of you.
The original title was "Peter Pan Complex," but their record company (MCA) changed it during production because they thought the audience wouldn't understand (a "Peter Pan Complex" describes someone who doesn't want to grow up). The band was not happy with this decision.
>>
Suggestion credit:
Chuck - South Berwick, ME
In the video, the band members are naked and causing all kinds of mischief. Adult film star Janine Lindemulder also appears, which got a lot of attention. Responding to a question about nudity in the clip, Mark Hoppus said, "The scene with the butt shots, when we were running down the street, were actually the only real nude scenes. We wore skin-colored Speedos for most of the scenes and when we were running, I realized how unattractive male genitals are. Everything dangling and such. I didn't think I could be embarrassed easily, but I really was."
While the nudity was concealed in comedic ways throughout the video, at the end of the video it is uncensored.
This is the first Blink single to feature Travis Barker on drums. The former Aquabats stickman filled in for their original drummer, Scott Raynor, while he was MIA during a mini tour of the West Coast in mid-1998. After Raynor was fired for his excessive drinking, Barker became his permanent replacement.
Janine Lindemulder also appears on the Enema Of The State album cover in a nurse uniform. Since hooking up with Blink-182 for the video and album artwork, the porn actress has led a colorful life. In the early 2000s, Lindemulder was married to West Coast Choppers founder Jesse James before he wed Sandra Bullock. However, their marriage ended after Lindemulder was arrested for assaulting James. She was arrested again on tax evasion charges in 2008 and sentenced to spend six months in a federal prison. In 2011, Lindemulder found herself in trouble with the law again after sending threatening emails and voicemails to her former husband.
Blink-182 acolytes Simple Plan were heavily influenced by this song, as were many pop-punk bands of the '00s. Their lead singer, Pierre Bouvier, says "What's My Age Again" and "
Basket Case" are the defining songs of the genre. "Those two songs paved the way for bands like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte and New Found Glory, and all the ones that came afterward, like Yellowcard,"
he told Songfacts. "I think we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those two songs - those are the ones that really solidified the pop-punk genre and created a whole scene for us."
The opening riff was inspired by the bass intro for Green Day's 1995 song "
J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva)." Hoppus explained to Less Than Jake co-frontman Chris Demakes on his
Chris Demakes A Podcast he was trying to play it on his guitar but messed up the progression and played it incorrectly. However, he thought the end result was "kinda cool" and it became the basis for the start of this track.
In early pressings of the Enema Of The State album, Janine Lindemulder's nurse's hat on the cover has a red cross, the symbol of the American Red Cross. Blink-182 had the cross removed on later pressings when the organization told them it violated the Geneva Convention.
Blink-182 already had a reputation for their juvenile antics on tour, which involved crass jokes and asking the ladies in the crowd to "show their boobies." After the album blew up and the spotlight shone more brightly on the band, the latter request got them in a bit of hot water in the press, who claimed they were misogynists. Hoppus thought the claim was overblown, considering what he witnessed from other acts that Blink toured with.
"We were on the Warped tour with Ice-T," he told Melody Maker in 1999, "and he's up onstage going, 'This next song's called 'Shut Up And Suck Dick, Bitch.' We get up there and go, 'Hey, we like boobies and everyone's like, 'Blink are sexist!' I think we're easy targets because we're three suburban white kids."
Mark Hoppus' band +44 sometimes covered this song when they toured.
The band performed this on the January 8, 2000 episode of Saturday Night Live.
This was used on the sitcom Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place ("Au Revoir Pizza Place" - 1999) and the romantic comedy Loser (2000), starring Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari.
