The album peaked at number ten on the Billboard U.S. charts and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Upon release, Nimrod received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the singer Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting.

The album yielded the acoustic single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", which appeared in numerous popular culture events, including the penultimate episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.

The songs "Nice Guys Finish Last", "Hitchin' a Ride", and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" are featured in the video game Green Day: Rock Band.

[4] Speaking of Insomniac, the singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong noted, "It did a lot better than I thought it was going to do...From the sound of it, we knew it wasn't going to sell as much as Dookie.

The members became increasingly uncomfortable with the level of stardom they had attained; Armstrong recalled, "We were becoming the things we hated, playing those big arenas.

The band eventually decided to cancel the late 1996 European leg of the Insomniac tour to take time off to spend at home.

[11] While working on Nimrod, Green Day explained to Cavallo their desire to create a more experimental album because the band had grown tired of its traditional three chord song structure.

[12] Armstrong drew inspiration from the Clash's London Calling, and referred to Nimrod as "the record I've wanted to make since the band started.

[10] To preserve the quality of his songwriting, Armstrong began by writing each song on an acoustic guitar, to which the rest of the band would later add heavier instrumentation and faster tempos.

"[14] In addition to the strings on "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", the music of Nimrod contains a variety of other instruments that were not featured on previous Green Day albums.

[19] After opening with Haden's violin solo, "Hitchin' a Ride" evolves into a bass-driven rock and roll song with a "Stray Cats vibe".

[37][38] "Redundant" focuses on Armstrong's relationship with his wife and how "things sometime [sic] get repetitive and you have to make an effort to recapture the early spontaneity", whilst "Worry Rock" deals with the "vicious fights" between them.

[20][41] Armstrong described "Platypus (I Hate You)" as "a vicious song about wanting to strangle someone I have deep animosity for, and the pleasure of watching this person die.

In American English, it became a term for a stupid or dimwitted person as the usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod".

[42][43] After three art directors were rejected by the band and pressing was behind schedule, Green Day asked the help of Chris Bilheimer, a friend of Armstrong who had done covers for another group signed by Warner Bros. Records, R.E.M.

He felt the image was "striking" and seemed to fit the band by featuring "a typical middle-age male, corporate politician American kind of guy, and someone had completely taken his identity away through vandalism."

Following that line of thought, Bilheimer took an encyclopedia picture of men in suits and ties and put colored circles reading "nimrod."

[46] Armstrong then wrote the words "fuck" and "nimrod" in black spray paint on the storefront windows, and proceeded to moon the audience of approximately 1,400 people.

[46] After the riot settled down, Cool threw his bass drum into the crowd while Armstrong attempted the same with a monitor, which was wrestled away from him by a store manager.

[48] The Nimrod tour marked the first time the band performed its now-routine ritual of inviting audience members onstage to play instruments.

"[50] While performing at the 1998 KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California, the Third Eye Blind bassist Arion Salazar ran onstage and "bear-hugged" Dirnt, who was caught off-guard.

"[51] "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" appeared in numerous events of popular culture, including a scene involving the death of a cancer patient on the medical drama ER, the series finale of the sitcom Seinfeld in 1998,[52] and an X-Men blooper reel during the credits sequence of the 2024 MCU film Deadpool & Wolverine.

The pre-chorus was used for "Church on Sunday" on Green Day's next album, Warning, while the chord progression and lyrical construction were used for "Kill Your Friends", a song by Armstrong's 2018 side project, the Longshot.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave Nimrod three and a half stars out of five, calling it an "invigorating, if occasionally frustrating listen", and although he praised Armstrong's "gift for hooky, instantly memorable melodies", he noted that "the 18 tracks whip by at such a breakneck speed that it leaves you somewhat dazed.

"[25] A group of editors writing for People also praised the record's "fresh and original" melodies and "quick-tempoed cool", adding, "Kudos to Green Day, young punk's reigning purists, for sticking with what they know best.

"[65] The Los Angeles Times's Sandy Masuo enjoyed the "mature songwriting that really makes this album tick", noting that "Naturally, a couple of thrash 'n' bash hard-core paeans are included, but they're surrounded by songs that are surprisingly varied in character and grounded in a pop aesthetic that evokes a gaggle of great tunesmiths.

Club wrote, "If Green Day still has a loyal following, its fans are bound to find something to like on Nimrod; for all the attempts at diversity, the record is packed with mile-wide hooks and sing-along anthems.

[66][67] On March 16, 2000, Nimrod was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over two million copies.