The song received positive reviews from music critics, with many of them comparing it to Eilish's hit single "Bad Guy".

Eilish performed the song at American Music Awards of 2020 in November 2020 and as part of a concert film and a world tour in support of Happier Than Ever.

[14][15] Music critics have commented that the song features instrumentation consisting of a bassline, kick drum, "disaffected vocal performance" and a "swaggering beat".

[21] In the first verse, Eilish expresses disdain towards the constant media coverage about her and demands the charlatans to stop speaking her name as if they know her personally.

[14][21] Laura English of Music Feeds theorized that she is singing about "articles about her baggy getups to paparazzi shots when she wears normal clothes".

[9] In a five-star review, Thomas Smith of NME noted that Eilish "fuses critical philosophy with a swipe at the haters on her thrilling new single, a deliciously spicy tale that will no doubt have fans decoding every line".

[23] Good Morning America's Josh Johnson described the song as a sequel to Eilish's number one hit "Bad Guy".

[19] Slant Magazine's Alexa Camp analyzed that the song is a "stark contrast" compared to her two previously released singles, "No Time to Die" and "My Future".

[17] Jordan Robledo of the Gay Times lauded the songs "eerie" sound, "hypnotizing" vocals, and its "unapologetic" lyrics.

[44][45] The song also reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and received a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which denotes track-equivalent sales of 200,000 units.

[51] It further reached the top five in Australia,[52] Austria,[53] Denmark,[54] Finland,[55] Germany,[56] Hungary,[57] Israel,[58] Portugal,[59] Singapore,[60] Sweden,[61] and Switzerland.

[15] The video begins with Eilish, dressed in both a baggy white cardigan that has graffitied symbols and patches, and a pair of shorts, walking around an empty shopping mall alone.

[74] The video concludes with an off-screen security guard yelling at Eilish, instructing her to leave the building; the singer flees from the mall into a parking garage.

[79][83] Writing for The Fader, Jordan Darville compared the visual to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" music video (2001), but said it had "less dancing and more french fries".

[75] He mentioned that Eilish was not "implicitly haunted by the shuttered shops and eerie emptiness", while adding the video evokes "Dawn of the Dead's suburban post-apocalyptica" and plays like a "nuclear-fallout version of New Radicals's beloved late-'90s kids-take-over-the-mall anthem, 'You Get What You Give'".

[75] Liam Hess, writing for Vogue magazine, stated the video offered a "mall rat-inspired twist on a signature Eilish silhouette—and marked a welcome return for one of pop's most agenda-setting style stars".

[78] The staff of Paper magazine noted the production has a "lo-fi handheld camera quality", and hypothesized that Eilish and her crew spent their budget on renting out the mall.