Version 2

Music video

The song follows the prankster (the subject of the song), through his life, pulling various pranks on his superiors, being motivated by Redman. As a child, he slips his dog's feces

Feces

Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...

 into his father's sandwich. In his teen years, he uses a bunsen burner

Bunsen burner

A Bunsen burner, named after Robert Bunsen, is a common piece of laboratory equipment that produces a single open gas flame, which is used for heating, sterilization, and combustion.- Operation:...

 on a perverted science teacher. When sent to the principal's office, he sets up the principal to be photoed molesting two students. Throughout this part of the video, the band is shown to be playing at their hometown Huntington Beach, California

Huntington Beach, California

Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...

.

Finally, in the present, he switches off the whole city's power supply, though the band still manages to play in the dark and the crowd use flares

Flare (pyrotechnic)

A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signalling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...

 to light the scene. As the song ends, the prankster is suddenly hit by a bolt of lightning and dissolves.
Some think that when he is hit by the lightning he becomes the new "Original Prankster".

DVD appearances

The music video appears also appears on the Complete Music Video Collection

Complete Music Video Collection

Complete Music Video Collection is an extensive DVD by The Offspring. It was created to accompany the "Greatest Hits" CD released a month earlier, and shows all of the band's videos between 1994 and 2005...

DVD (2005).

Charts

Chart	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	70
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks	7
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	2
Australian Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	5
Canadian RPM Rock Report Canadian rock/alternative chart The Canadian rock/alternative chart was first published on June 11, 1995 by RPM magazine under the name Alternative 30. The song which held the number-one spot on this first chart was "More Human than Human" by White Zombie...	5
Mega Single Top 100 Mega Single Top 100 The Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales and legal downloads and composed by MegaCharts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutch Top 40 and the Mega Top 50. The difference is that these charts also include airplay data.The list is...	44
New Zealand Charts Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...	34
Swedish Charts Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	5
Switzerland Charts	20
UK Single Charts	6

Sales

The single went platinum in Australia in 2001. It was the third single by the Offspring to reach platinum after Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)

Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)

-Australia CD Maxi:-Europe CD Maxi:-Composition and lyrics:Beginning with a sample of the pseudo-German nonsense phrase "Gunter glieben glauchen globen" from Def Leppard's song "Rock of Ages," chanted as a replacement for the traditional "1, 2, 3, 4" to start the recording, the song ridicules a...

 and Why Don't You Get a Job?

Why Don't You Get a Job?

"Why Don't You Get a Job?" is a ska song by The Offspring. The song is featured as the 11th track on The Offspring's fifth studio album Americana and was released as the second single from the album. The song also appears as the eighth track on the band's Greatest Hits album...

. It was the largest selling single from the album.

Popular culture

References in the song include Janet Reno

Janet Reno

Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...

 and a line from the Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler

Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...

 comedy, The Waterboy

The Waterboy

The Waterboy is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler alongside Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameos...

: "You can do it!". The song also references David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz

David Richard Berkowitz , also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer and arsonist whose crimes terrorized New York City from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977.Shortly after his arrest in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and...

, the Son of Sam, and his arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

 crimes, and Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

; the father of psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

. The Original Pranksters referred to in the title allude to the original members of the Merry Pranksters

Merry Pranksters

The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon...

, who took a bus trip from California to New York in the '60s promoting what would eventually become the "hippie" drug culture prevalent of the period. The Offspring are from Huntington Beach, California

Huntington Beach, California

Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...

 where many of these "Original Pranksters" resided, and where Prankster leader Ken Kesey lived for a considerable time in his life.

The song was featured in the police test scene in the 2001 comedy film The Animal

The Animal

The Animal is a 2001 comedy film, directed by Luke Greenfield. It stars Rob Schneider, Colleen Haskell, Edward Asner, and John C. McGinley....

starring Rob Schneider

Rob Schneider

Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...

.

The band

• Dexter Holland
  Dexter Holland
  Bryan Keith "Dexter" Holland is the singer and rhythm guitarist for the California punk rock band The Offspring...
  
   - Vocals/Guitar
• Noodles - Guitar
• Greg Kriesel
  Greg Kriesel
  Gregory David Kriesel , best known by his stage name Greg K., is an American bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the punk band, The Offspring.-Biography:...
  
   - Bass
• Ron Welty
  Ron Welty
  Ronald "Ron" Welty is the former drummer for the American punk rock band The Offspring. Of all the band's drummers, Welty's tenure was the longest, as he was in the band from July 1987 to March 2003. He had replaced their original drummer James Lilja, and was only 16 at the time of his joining...
  
  - Drums

Other personnel

• Produced and mixed by: Brendan O'Brien
• Engineered: Nick Didia
• Mastered by: Eddy Schreyer
• Track 4 and Track 5 Recorded by: Russ Fowler at Wembley Arena