| "I'm Just a Kid" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Simple Plan | ||||
| from the album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls | ||||
| Released | February 4, 2002 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:18 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Producer | Arnold Lanni | |||
| Simple Plan singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "I'm Just a Kid" on YouTube | ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "I'm Just a Kid" (Amazon Original feat. LØLØ) on YouTube | ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "I'm an Adult" parody by CHILIØ on YouTube | ||||
"I'm Just a Kid" is a song by Canadian pop punk band Simple Plan, written by Pierre Bouvier. It appeared on their first album, No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls, and was released as their debut single on February 4, 2002.
The song saw a resurgence in popularity in April 2020 on the social media platform TikTok, where the song was used in a challenge that involves family members re-creating childhood photos.[3] A version of this song featuring LØLØ premiered in November 2022 as an Amazon Original song.[4] A parody version titled "I'm An Adult" was made in 2024 by Calgary-based band CHILIØ, which rewrites the song from a grown-up perspective. Pierre Bouvier was part of the marketing for this version,[5] and the parody gained popularity on TikTok.
The music video is about how an awkward, average guy (DJ Qualls) attempts to impress a popular girl (Eliza Dushku) by attempting to perform dangerous stunts, but other, more popular boys (played by the band members) interrupt to take his place. They fail to succeed and are injured, and the main characters look on with pained expressions of pity and a certain amount of schadenfreude. Ending with the average guy simply speaking to the girl and her walking off with him while the heavily injured popular boys watch in disbelief. There is also a surreal sequence, in which the archetypal popular boy, played by rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Sébastien Lefebvre, is hit by a school bus. The video was made with actors from the movie The New Guy, such as Qualls and Tony Hawk. As such, it was released as an extra on the DVD and VHS of The New Guy. As well, in the video, there is a clip of Hawk taken from the final football game in the movie. Most of the scenes in the video were filmed at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California.
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[6] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[7] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[8] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
|
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | February 4, 2002 | Alternative radio | [9] | |
| February 25, 2002 | Hot adult contemporary radio | [10] | ||
| Australia | May 13, 2002 | CD | [11] |
editors
This is the start of the #editors chat. #editors is a chat channel to discuss collecting and organizing hub content.
