"Flagpole Sitta" gained popularity after Seattle radio station KNDD put the song into rotation. Afterwards, London Records sent a copy of Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? to KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, who began to air "Flagpole Sitta" and received a positive response from listeners.[5] On April 27, 1998, the song was officially serviced to US rock radio, and a release to contemporary hit radio followed on June 9 of the same year.[6][7] The song gained further exposure when it was used as the music in theatrical trailers and TV spots for the 1998 film Disturbing Behavior.[8] The track subsequently charted at number 38 on the BillboardHot 100 Airplay chart.[9]
"Flagpole Sitta" is regarded as a power pop single by MTV and a post-grunge anthem by author Ericka Chickowski.[10][11]PopMatters describes the single as "a hyper-literate alternative rock dissection of the stupidity of the modern age".[12] Music journalist Rob Sheffield also considers the song as "nineties pop-punk rage at its loudest".[13]Rolling Stone ranked the track as the 25th-best song of the 1990s and the best song of 1998.[14][15]
"Flagpole Sitta" was used as the theme song for the British sitcom Peep Show for the second series through the ninth. In 2008, Harvey Danger singer Sean Nelson stated that Peep Show is "...the only pop culture item the song has been associated with that feels like a kindred spirit to the original attitude of the lyric."[32] In 2016, he said: "It's a joy to be affiliated with something that's so smart and so funny and so kind of rude and weird."[3] It was also included on the soundtrack to Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and was featured in a 2024 Taco Bell television commercial advertising the $7 Luxe Cravings Box's inclusion of 1990s menu item the Gordita Supreme.[33][34]
↑ Flagpole Sitta (UK & European 7-inch single vinyl disc). Harvey Danger. Slash Records. 1998. LASH 64.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
↑ Flagpole Sitta (European & Australasian CD single liner notes). Harvey Danger. Slash Records, London Records. 1998. LASCD 64, 570 261-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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