"Teenage Dirtbag" is a single by Wheatus, released in 2000. It was included on the soundtrack of the movie Loser. The single was massively successful in Australia, spending three weeks at #1 and becoming the second-highest selling single of the year. It also reached #2 in the United Kingdom and Germany.

It appears on Wheatus's eponymous debut album, also released in 2000. It is often mistaken as being a Weezer song. In 2005, British girl group Girls Aloud covered the song for their tour. (This version reverses the lyrics so that it is the story of a girl singing about a boy owing to the singers being female) It was later featured as a b-side to their single "Whole Lotta History". A studio recording cover by Girls Aloud is included on a special BBC Radio 1 compilation CD, Radio 1. Established 1967, celebrating 40 years of the station. It has also been covered by the all-girl Belgian Scala Choir, and is regularly covered live by Dashboard Confessional. It has also been covered by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain It was also covered by All Time Low at a concert in 2007.

The song was also featured at number 69 on the top 100 greatest pop songs of all time on the UK music channel, "The Hits".

For the radio version, from the sentence "He brings a gun to school" the word "gun" was removed due to the Columbine High School massacre one year previously.

Track listing

1. "Teenage Dirtbag" – 4:17
2. "I'd Never Write a Song About You" – 3:38
3. "Pretty Girl" – 4:29

Music video

The video clip alludes to the film Loser, with Jason Biggs playing a nerdy character similar to that in the movie and Mena Suvari as the love interest who, bizarrely, invites Biggs to an Iron Maiden concert. In some versions of the music video a large glitter ball falls from the ceiling and strikes him on the head, after which he wakes up having fallen asleep while doing his homework. Alas, his brief romance with Suvari was but a dream. Both Biggs and Suvari appear in the movie American Pie and its sequel American Pie 2, causing the popular misconception that the song appears in one of these movies.

There are two versions of the video. The first video received airplay on MTV Hits in the UK and is the one without the Loser slogan, whereas the second version got airplay on EMAP channels across the UK, and is the one with the Loser slogan.

The song appears in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill specifically at the end of episode four, Combat Jack. While driving away from a road block, U.S. Marines Sgt. Brad Colbert, Cpl. Ray Person, Scribe (Evan Wright), LCpl. James Trombley, and Cpl. Walt Hassar (all occupants of the point humvee) bust out singing it. When they're done singing it Colbert says "Thank you, Ray" and Ray responds, "Thank you, Sergeant."

References