1998 was an emotional year for us all. The UK hosted the Eurovision song contest and came second (marking a slow, embarrassing decline ever since), legendary crooner Frank Sinatra passed away, and mainstream crossover punks The Offspring released their fifth studio album Americana—which was nominated for “Best Album” at the MTV Europe Music Awards a year later but lost to Boyzone.
Amidst all of that, plus the fact that nobody as YouTube searched “The Offspring” in over five years, many of us either forgot or failed to notice that the video for fourth and final single from Americana—delicately titled “She’s Got Issues”—starred a teenage Zooey Deschanel before she was famous. It’s a non-singing role, which also makes it one of the few examples of Zooey Deschanel appearing on film in which her ability to sing quite well hasn’t been shoehorned into the narrative.
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In case it isn’t obvious from the title, “She’s Got Issues” is about some dude calling percieved bullshit on his girlfriend for… wanting to be with him? Harbouring general feelings of distrust towards men because her dad was shit? And that being really inconvenient? Something along those lines, which handles mental health problems with all the elegance of a horse eating a kebab.
The video follows a day in the life of CRAZY young Zooey with Myspace hair doing CRAZY things like making eggs for breakfast, dealing with loads of sleazy men at the job she hates, then coming home to find an entire band playing live in her flat. I know right?! I, for one, can’t see how her boyfriend put up with it all.
Watch and marvel:
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