High School Never Ends

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"High School Never Ends" is a song by American rock band Bowling for Soup. The song was the first single from the group's ninth album, The Great Burrito Extortion Case, and was released on September 19, 2006. The song deals with the frustration of graduating from high school and seeing that modern popular culture is very similar to the obnoxiously superficial and materialistic culture in high school.

The tune had a prominent outside songwriter, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and Tinted Windows, working with the band.

Video High School Never Ends

Song references

The song contains many references to the pop culture of the time. Specific celebrities mentioned include Mary-Kate Olsen (specifically, her alleged eating disorder - How did Mary Kate lose all that weight?), Jessica Simpson (you'll never guess what Jessica did), Bill Gates (Bill Gates, captain of the chess team), Reese Witherspoon (Reese Witherspoon, she's the prom queen), Jack Black (Jack Black, the clown), Brad Pitt (Brad Pitt, the quarterback) and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (Katie had a baby so I guess Tom's straight, also a reference to his litigation against journalists/paparazzi who questioned his sexuality). The song satirizes many aspects of today's society and its scrutiny of celebrity lives.

Maps High School Never Ends

Music video

Directed by Frank Borin, the video focuses on the band members going to their high school reunion. They arrive, instantly recognizing people from the past that bullied them. During a montage, the band gets revenge on their former bullies in situations similar to their high school past.

First, it shows a flashback of Gary Wiseman getting a wedgie by some bullies. Than they hang him by his underwear on the flag. Gary takes his revenge by taking the underwear of the bully and putting it over his head while he is still wearing it.

The next flashback is of Erik Chandler, getting a note reading "kick me" put on his back by a jock. Erik gets him back by putting the punch bowl sign ("Punch") on his back which starts a queue of people ready to take a punch, including a nun, a pimp and a knight in armor.

After a sequence mentioning celebrities of the time, Jaret Reddick invites on stage a kid who had embarrassed him at high school, by pulling down his trousers in front of a girl he was obviously keen on, revealing his pink underwear. Jaret pulls his trousers down on stage as an act of revenge. The popular guy then explodes in embarrassment after a strategically placed sign stating, "too small for TV" appears over his lower body.

Finally, Chris Burney has a flashback of him getting slipped a laxative by a cheerleader and manages to get his own back by downing (in no particular order) a massive sub sandwich, a chili recovered from his trousers, a goldfish, a white mouse, gasoline, and a match. After jiggling around he then confronts the popular girl and presents the contents of his stomach upon her--by projectile vomiting.

Jaret completes the video by sticking a pick to his rather sweaty forehead.

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Radio Disney edit

A separate edit of the song was recorded for Radio Disney, which altered the lyrics throughout:

• In the first verse, the line ".. all the total dicks" is changed to ".. all the popular cliques". (In most radio edits, the word "dicks" is silenced.)
• In the chorus, ".. who's having sex" is changed to ".. what's been suppressed", and ".. who gets the honeys" is changed to ".. who thinks they're funny". Also, the alternative version of the chorus which includes the line "Who's in the club and who's on the drugs, Who's throwing up before they digest" is removed entirely.
• "How did Mary-Kate lose all that weight?" is changed to "How does Mary-Kate always look so great?", and "Katie had a baby so I guess Tom's straight" is changed to "Katie's with Tom, OK, I've got that straight".

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Charts

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References

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External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Source of the article : Wikipedia