Don't Trust Me

• 1. Introduction

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  "Don't Trust Me" by 3OH!3 arrived on the 1st of June 2008, as a lead single from the Colorado duo's second album, Want. Nobody predicted it would take more than a year to reach its peak. The song crept onto the Billboard Hot 100 at number 99 in November 2008, then kept climbing week after week until it hit number seven in its 23rd week on the chart. Along the way it sparked debate about humor, offensiveness, and where exactly the line sits between irony and misogyny. How did two guys from Colorado write a song that topped US radio, charted across three continents, and earned a five-times platinum certification from the RIAA fifteen years after its release? And what did they actually mean by a line that referenced Helen Keller?

• 2. Writing the Song

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  Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte wrote "Don't Trust Me" alongside Benny Blanco, with production handled by Matt Squire, 3OH!3, and Blanco. The track sits in G minor, runs in common time, and moves at 130 beats per minute. Foreman and Motte's vocal range across the song spans two full octaves, from F4 to D6.

  Some of the most contentious lines came directly out of Foreman's personality. The lyric "our tongues always pressed to your cheeks" was, in his own words, about a girl who always had her tongue in her cheek. The vegetarian punchline grew from the fact that Foreman was a vegan at the time, and the line about beef and being a vegetarian simply struck him as a good punchline.

  The Helen Keller reference almost didn't survive. Foreman came up with the line "Shh, girl, shut your lips / Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips" and asked Motte to sing it. Motte was worried it would generate significant backlash. Motte later revealed to The Denver Post that the song was nearly cut from the album entirely, and it only stayed after his father reassured him that listeners would understand it was a joke. Motte later told Paper that the duo "came up with this really funny line" and that at the time they believed people would get that it was tongue-in-cheek, adding that if they had known how many people would eventually hear it, they might have thought more carefully about those choices.

• 3. Critical Divide

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  Lou Thomas of BBC described "Don't Trust Me" as "lyrically disturbing," suggesting some listeners might go as far as calling it misogynistic and offensive. Whitney Pastorek of Entertainment Weekly zeroed in on the Helen Keller lyric directly, writing that it would take a lot more than some loincloths to make up for recording that line. Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy acknowledged a half-decent pop tune underneath the controversy but concluded that 3OH!3's parody, or misogyny, was so uninteresting and lacking in humor that most listeners would not notice the music.

  Paul Lester of The Guardian connected the song's approach to what he called "misogynist fratboy humour," comparing it to the style of rapper Asher Roth. He quoted the offending lyrics directly and added a wry aside: "Funny, we always found 'hos' to be pretty reliable as a rule."

  Not every critic came down against it. Bill Lamb of About.com called the song bratty, insolent, and irreverent, but said it actually works, suggesting listeners could be offended or could just dance instead. Paolo Ragusa of Consequence.net pointed to the falsetto-laden chorus hook as evidence the duo genuinely understood pop, describing each "woo-oo" as a playful assertion of pop-star status. Ragusa also placed the song's humor in its cultural moment, calling it a prime example of the edgy late-2000s Family Guy-style comedy that was still being celebrated at the time.

• 4. Chart Climb

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  The song's chart story is one of sustained momentum rather than immediate explosion. It debuted at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week ending the 15th of November 2008, nearly five months after the June release date. By the week ending the 7th of May 2009, it had climbed to number nine, selling 123,000 copies that week alone. Its peak of number seven came in its 23rd week on the chart.

  US Mainstream Top 40 radio told a different story: the song topped that chart for a week, making it the duo's first number one at that format. In Canada it peaked at number six on the Canadian Hot 100. Internationally the track did particularly well in Oceania, reaching the top three in Australia and the top ten in New Zealand. It also hit number five in Finland.

  The UK entry came later. The single entered the UK singles chart at number 21 on the 19th of July 2009, then re-entered at number 22 on the 26th of April 2010. As of June 2013, the song had sold 3,322,000 digital units in the United States alone. The RIAA certified it platinum in April 2009 and upgraded that to five-times platinum in July 2023.

• 5. Music Video

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  Filming began in September 2008, and the video premiered on the 20th of October 2008. The opening text sets up an absurdist premise: a global virus has wiped out the entire male population, and only two male models from Colorado survived. The screen then cuts to the duo in briefs at a photo shoot on a hotel-like set.

  The video moves through a series of staged photo shoots. One places the band in a setting resembling a high school wrestling match, with Foreman and Motte wearing neon-colored singlets. Another moves into a prehistoric era complete with caveman costumes. The final image is a mushroom cloud, followed by typed words reading "Transmission terminated" and then an apology.

  Motte described the shoot to Paper as the most tired he had ever been after any video. He said the crew went "crazy for 16 to 18 hours" and that there was barely any concept at all, just raw energy and raw strangeness. The video earned a nomination at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards for Best New Artist.

• 6. Legacy and Reflection

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  After signing with Photo Finish Records, 3OH!3 recorded "Don't Trust Me" as part of their label debut. The song appeared in the iPhone OS game Tap Tap Revenge and was licensed for use on The Real World, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, and The Hills. An official remix featuring Kid Cudi was also released.

  Foreman reflected on the song's place in the duo's catalogue in an interview with Alternative Press, saying that the two of them were different musicians now and that the changes in their music would show over time. He noted simply that the times had changed, and so had they as artists.

  The RIAA's five-times platinum certification in July 2023 was a reminder of how deep the song's reach had been. The year-end chart positions alone capture the arc: number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for 2009 and number 16 on US Mainstream Top 40, years before streaming platforms would have stretched those numbers further. The song ranked sixth on ALTop 20's list of the top 20 songs of 2008, placing it ahead of releases that generated far less controversy.