Context

This line is from the song "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" by The Offspring, from the album Americana (1998).

What? Aren't white guys fly? Well, some might be, but we think it's kind of fly that we can have songs with lines like this without it being taken too seriously.

But the white guy in the music video can't really dance and doesn't seem very suave, so what makes him fly? He's a good-natured, friendly goof who's fun to be around. How fly is that?

Where you've heard it

Maybe you've heard it used as a sincere compliment before, but most likely you've heard it from a white guy who isn't really fly. At all.

Sorry.

Additional Notable References:

• This Jeff Goldblum parody of his movie, The Fly, puts a rather, um, interesting spin on the song.
• Weird Al Yankovic gave the song a makeover with his own version, "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi."

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

The point of the song is that the dude's not fly, and neither will you be if you quote this overplayed line.