Shaggy's Secret Schizophrenia Song
An iffy lyrical analysis of "It Wasn't Me."
Shaggy’s 2000 hit “It Wasn’t Me” spent a total of 25 weeks on the charts. Debate continues to this day over whether the song is pro or anti-cheating. What if both sides are wrong?
Perhaps the manic-like quality in the song is intentional. The thesis here is that “It Wasn’t Me” is about a boyfriend suffering from some form of schizophrenia.
In case you need a refresher…
For our purposes here, we will refer to the four “characters” in the song as The Boyfriend, The Mentor, The Girlfriend and The Girl Next Door.
The Girlfriend is real and discovers The Boyfriend is schizophrenic when she catches him having sex with an imaginary person, a.k.a. The Girl Next Door. The song is a “conversation” The Boyfriend has with another of his delusions, The Mentor.
Schizophrenia Signs
The tone and style of the song is consistent with a mental disorder. Katie Hurley summarizes schizophrenia symptoms on psycom.net in March of last year: 1
Disorganized speech in schizophrenia—sometimes referred to as clanging —can cause people to have difficulty concentrating and maintaining a train of thought, which manifests in the way they speak.
People with disorganized speech might speak incoherently, respond to questions with unrelated answers, say illogical things, or shift topics frequently. Signs of disorganized speech involve the following:
Loose associations: Rapidly shifting between topics with no connections between topics
Perseveration: Repeating the same things over and over again
Made up words that only have meaning to the speaker
Use of rhyming words without meaning
When cognitive disorganization is severe, it can be nearly impossible to understand what the person is saying.
She’s basically giving a review of the song itself, which features repetitive language (14 references to “It Wasn’t Me!”), rhyming without meaning and mind-boggling phrasing like “Whenever you should see her make the gigolo flex.”
Of course, there’s also the coup de grâce, “When cognitive disorganization is severe, it can be nearly impossible to understand what the person is saying.” Can anyone listen to Shaggy rapping as the The Mentor and not conclude this is what a voice inside the mind of a schizophrenic would sound like?
The Girl Next Door
We are to believe The Boyfriend was caught having sex with The Girl Next Door; should you require help in processing this information, you are prompted to picture them “both butt naked, bangin’ on the bathroom floor.”
First, who the hell has the bathroom floor as an ideal sex destination? It is impractical with the size of bathrooms in middle to lower income houses and typically icky in just about any bathroom environment. Shower, yes. Kitchen floor, sure. Walk-in closet, why not. But a bathroom floor?
Moreover, sex on any floor is impulsive. It is doubtful many people engaging in spontaneous intercourse would also manage to get completely butt naked when doing the deed. Bathroom tile can be very cold. At the very least, wouldn’t you want to keep your socks on?
You wouldn’t if you were actually having a psychotic break. Forrest Wickman writes: 2
Among those with mental illness, sudden and uncalled-for nakedness is most closely associated with catatonia. Catatonia is usually an expression of mental disorders like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, but it could also come from other medical problems, such as a brain tumor.
Another glimpse into what is actually happening are the actions taken by The Girl Next Door during the song. Namely, there aren’t any. She isn’t jumping to her feet or running away to put her clothes on. She doesn’t slap The Boyfriend or talk to The Girlfriend. Everything described are things being done to her instead of by her.
She caught me on the counter (It wasn’t me)
Saw me bangin' on the sofa (It wasn't me)
Saw me kissin' on the sofa (It wasn't me)
I even had her in the shower (It wasn't me)
She even caught me on camera (It wasn't me)
The Girlfriend
“It wasn’t me” is a refusal to acknowledge that everything happening involved him and him alone. This is further evident because The Girlfriend also doesn’t react to The Girl Next Door as he says, “All this time she was standing there, she never took her eyes off me.”
Even the pillow talk is singular. The Girlfriend “heard the words that I told her,” not the words that we said. Instead of hearing the screams get louder she only “heard the scream get louder.”
No matter how amazing imaginary sex is, you still only hear one person moaning.
Finally, we are asked to accept that she stood there, eyes focused exclusively on her boyfriend, while The Boyfriend and The Girl Next Door continually relocate during intercourse. They go from the bathroom floor to the counter, to the sofa, and she even caught him on camera. Logistically speaking, how is that even possible?
Science Daily explains. 3
Persons suffering from schizophrenia have a different perception of time than healthy individuals. There is far more variation in the way that a time interval is perceived by people with schizophrenic disorders than by those who do not have the condition. Patients with schizophrenia are also less precise when it comes to judging the temporal order of events.
The Mentor
Following these events The Boyfriend knocks on the door of a friend to seek advice. While we are to assume The Mentor is a source of great wisdom, he begins by repeating words and thoughts back at The Boyfriend like a human feedback loop.
(Open up, man) What do you want, man?
(My girl just caught me) You let her catch you?
The Mentor instructs that “To be a true player, you have to know how to play.” The Mentor is supposedly well versed in how to be a player but he follows that advice with “If she say a night, convince her say a day.”
This is in direct opposition to the player doctrine. You should want her to only stay a night; pleading with her to stay the whole day is illogical. Any casual consult with player mythology would confirm this.
And when I find myself a-fallin' for some girl
I hop right into that car of mine and drive around the world.
(“The Wanderer,” performed by Dion, 1961)
The modus operandi of a true player is to play without shame or remorse. They tell women “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” In contrast, The Mentor advocates for blatant denial of what happened, playing the gaslighting card faster than a White House Press Secretary. As Dion again tells us:
Oh, well, there's Flo on my left and there's Mary on my right
And Janie is the girl, well, that I'll be with tonight.
And when she asks me, which one I love the best?
I tear open my shirt and I show her "Rosie" on my chest.
The Mentor cannot be a realistic or distinct voice because he is merely an echo chamber, a delusion The Boyfriend engages in “conversation” with to cope with what happened at the house.
The Mentor voices the kind of paranoia often found in schizophrenics.
“You better watch your back before she turn into a killer”
He also momentarily slips into truth with he says, “Seeing is believing so you better change your specs.” Here, he’s talking about believing in the delusions experienced by The Boyfriend while “change your specs” is a reference to changing your outlook or adjusting your medication.
Yet most damning is a single line where The Mentor is fully candid.
“Trespass and a-witness while you cling to your pillow”
That was no girl next door that he was clinging to, he was clinging to something made by this guy –
Final Revelations
It is clear that The Boyfriend has been keeping his mental condition secret from The Girlfriend and is left with no options now that she has found out.
I had tried to keep her
From what she was about to see
Why should she believe me
When I told her it wasn't me
As the song nears an end, he becomes more lucid, acknowledging that none of this makes sense.
Gonna tell her that I'm sorry
For the pain that I've caused
I've been listening to your reason
It makes no sense at all
There is one final nod to the hidden truth behind the song.
We should tell her that I'm sorry
For the pain that I've caused
“We” should tell her? The Boyfriend would not need The Mentor to go with him to apologize to The Girlfriend. In this line, he finally abandons any pretense that they are two separate people.
While the truth behind the lyrics of “It Wasn’t Me” may be shocking, there is one last question, a possible final plot twist that could keep you up at night.
What if he also imagined The Girlfriend?
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https://speaktruthtoflour.substack.com/p/christmas-cuckold
https://www.psycom.net/disorganized-schizophrenia-hebephrenia
”Disorganized Schizophrenia (Hebephrenia),” Katie Hurley, LCSW, 03/01/2023.
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/nation-world/2012/05/31/why-do-psychotic-people-go/49611810007/
”Why Do Psychotic People Go Naked?” Forrest Wickman, May 31, 2012.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170711124321.htm
”Erratic Time Perception in Schizophrenia,” July 11, 2017.