Creativity Quote by Mark Hoppus

It lands because it weaponizes a reflexive pop-culture impulse - the cathartic "screw them" - then immediately pulls the pin back in with a juvenile, self-aware clarification. That whiplash is Mark Hoppus’s native tongue: punk bravado tempered by the anxious need to be liked, the joke arriving half a beat after the rebellion. The first two words offer an easy fantasy of dismissal, a clean break from critics, exes, gatekeepers, the whole buzzing swarm of people who get opinions and microphones. Then the pivot: "But not literally". Suddenly the swagger is revealed as performance, not manifesto.

The subtext is about permission. Hoppus gives you the emotional release of contempt without asking you to become a harder person. It’s a Blink-182-style rebellion that keeps its sneakers clean - anti-authority, but still eager to keep things light, safe, and socially navigable. The tag line, "I'm not advocating promiscuity", isn’t prudishness so much as a wink at the way language gets policed and misconstrued. He’s preemptively dodging outrage, tabloids, and the internet’s favorite sport: taking a phrase literally and acting morally superior about it.

Contextually, it reflects the era and scene that raised him: pop-punk’s impulse to deflate sincerity before it gets embarrassing. It’s not that he doesn’t mean "Screw them". It’s that he refuses to let the moment become grand. The joke keeps the mood buoyant while still letting the sting through.