Lead singer Rivers Cuomo mentioned in a 2006 interview with the Harvard college newspaper, The Crimson, that the lines mentioning "Cio-Cio San" and "watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack" were actually taken from an essay from a classmate of his at Harvard in an Expository Writing class.

[citation needed] The first line of the song has been mistakenly thought to refer to punk band Half Japanese.

During their stop in Chicago for Lollapalooza, this was again changed to "I asked you to go to the Pixies concert" (a line that was also used in the 2019 tour with them), who were playing just before Weezer on a nearby stage; and at the Panic!

at the Disco and Weezer 2016 Summer Tour, the line was sung "I asked you to go to the Panic concert"; and while playing at John Cain Arena in Melbourne on October 6, 2023, the lyric was changed to "I asked you to go to the KISS concert", as they were opening for KISS the next day in Sydney.

[citation needed] For the single, Cuomo refused to make any "Buddy Holly"-like videos, explaining "I really want the songs to come across untainted this time around...I really want to communicate my feelings directly and because I was so careful in writing that way.

"[6] The final video featured the band playing in an assembly hall in Los Angeles, surrounded by light fixtures of diverse origin, flashing in time to the music.