It is considered the Offspring's breakthrough song, as it received widespread radio play,[4][5] with first attention brought by Jed the Fish of KROQ-FM,[6][7] and reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, bringing both the band and the punk rock genre to widespread attention.

[9] Inspiration for this line came from Dexter Holland's experience in a laboratory cooling Erlenmeyer flasks full of hot liquids.

[10] Jennifer Nine from Melody Maker named "Come Out and Play" Single of the Week, writing, "If only all sweaty hardcore boys jumping around in their big boots sounded this cool and this happy.

The video is almost entirely in black-and-white with sepia tone segments, and features the band performing the song in the garage of a house with tinfoil covering the walls.

In 1994, Posh Boy Records owner Robbie Fields submitted a written claim to Epitaph Records via the Harry Fox Agency, alleging that the two-bar Arabian guitar phrase repeated throughout "Come Out and Play" copied the guitar solo from "Bloodstains", a song by the Fullerton, California punk rock band Agent Orange written in 1979 to which Fields, as the song's publisher, owned the copyright.

"[13][14] The Offspring's manager Jim Guerinot called Fields' claim baseless, saying the two guitar parts were "not even close to identical.

"[13] Randall Wixen, the Offspring's music publisher, stated that a musicologist hired by Epitaph determined the two guitar parts were not identical, despite being based in the same Middle Eastern scale.

Frank Agnew, guitarist of fellow Fullerton band the Adolescents, remarked "I don't see how you can call that plagiarism; all it is, is an Arabic scale.

"[13] The Vandals, who were signed to Holland's label Nitro Records, released the song "Aging Orange" on their 1996 album The Quickening, with lyrics by bassist Joe Escalante mocking Palm's claim to ownership of a style rooted in ancient Middle Eastern music.

[14][16] Back in ancient Egypt many pharaohs went to jailFor misappropriation of my Phrygian scaleI said "Listen, Tutankhamun, you're driving me insaneIt's obvious those bellies are all dancing to 'Bloodstains'I figured out you owe me, and please try not to laughBut every time I hear it, I get one more golden calf"[16]Palm called the song "nothing but Joe's desperate attempt to brown-nose the Offspring", characterizing it as "lame and out of line.