Cigarette Ahegao by Penelope Scott Lyrics Meaning – Unpacking the Deeply Personal Anthem of Gen Z Angst
Lyrics
So like
I guess they call it the sophomore slump
Always crying and always drunk
A few dead, more gone
And the rest well on their way
Thanks! (I hate it)
So everyone I love is stuck
Because this that, the other
And the state fucked up
We covered it in a class that I’m about to fail
Well, I feel better now (ooh-woo)
Cigarette ahegao (uh-huh)
I hadn’t had another episode
Except last night it was touch and go
No need to cry about it
Ooh-woo
Ooh-woo
Hey incels? Just have sex (duh)
Trash on the walls
And trash on the floor
Liquid eyeliner stuck to the door
Screwing everything up
And doing everything wrong
In my defense
I wasn’t supposed to be around this long, so…
Well I feel better now (ooh-woo)
Cigarette ahegao (ooh-woo)
No need to cry about it (ooh-woo)
Oh, I don’t smoke, I just like how it smells
Get thin on smoke and coffee
Get fat on pie and biscuits
God bless this perfect shitstorm I-
Hope that it takes me with it
I have a soft small body
Strawberries make me happy
Someday, I’ll leave the country
I hope to have you with me
Get wrecked on becherovka
Get fucked on smoke and wine
Someday, I’ll have my own life
I’ll leave this all behind
Penelope Scott’s ‘Cigarette Ahegao’ is not just another track in the ocean of indie music. It is a hauntingly raw expression of the jaded zeitgeist of a generation at its breaking point. At first pass, the song could be mistaken for a disjointed collage of modern woes and personal confessions, but it’s precisely in this unfiltered honesty that the heart of the song beats.
Every line is a brushstroke in a darkly vivid painting of youth disillusionment, where the humor is as bitter as it is genuine, and the aches are real. Scott captures a moment in time for many young adults—a culmination of the pressures, absurdities, and the quiet quest for meaning in a world that often appears void of it.
The Sophomore Slump: An Echo of Despair
Scott references the ‘sophomore slump’, a term typically associated with a period of inevitable decline following a successful debut. But here, it’s repurposed to reflect the general stagnation and emotional turmoil of her peers—’Always crying and always drunk’. It’s a powerful admission of the collective state of existential dread among her generation, one that resonates with the anxious and the lost.
The sense of being stuck, with dreams deferred or derailed by structural failures and personal battles, is palpable. With a brutal honesty, Scott constructs an anthem that doesn’t just express these frustrations but embodies them in every note.
Unapologetic Revelations and the Scent of Rebellion
Cigarettes and ahegao—the latter being a term from Japanese anime culture referring to an exaggerated facial expression of pleasure—form an unlikely symbiosis in Scott’s chorus. ‘Cigarette ahegao’ is less about smoking or sexual gratification and more about an attempt to find blissful escape, however fleeting, from the pressure cooker of everyday existence.
This peculiar choice of metaphor serves not only as rebellion against societal norms but also a defiant embrace of individual coping mechanisms. The line ‘Oh, I don’t smoke, I just like how it smells’ speaks volumes of finding comfort in unconventional places.
Provocative Satire and the Satiation of Irony
Scott doesn’t shy away from biting cultural commentary, offering a snarky aside to incels—’Hey incels? Just have sex’—that drips with millennial and Gen Z irony. It’s a line that mocks not just the incel community but the oversimplified solutions offered to complex problems, a recurring theme in the tapestry of her songwriting.
The strategically placed ‘duh’ at the end is a linguistic eye roll, a nod to conversations swathed in sarcasm, borne not out of genuine malice but a coping mechanism to buffer against the bleakness of the societal and personal landscape.
The Hidden Meaning: An Ode to Transient Escapism
Throughout ‘Cigarette Ahegao’, there’s a thread of escapism that weaves itself into each verse. Whether it’s getting ‘thin on smoke and coffee’ or ‘getting wrecked on becherovka’, Scott uses substances as metaphors for the transient highs that punctuate an otherwise somber existence. These are not endorsements of unbridled hedonism, but rather candid admissions of yearning for something to break the monotony.
The real hidden meaning, however, lies in the juxtaposition of frailty against resilience. Scott acknowledges her ‘soft small body’ and finds joy in the simple pleasure of strawberries, a showcase of vulnerability and the small joys that help preserve her through the chaos.
Memorable Lines That Echo Long After The Song Ends
‘Get fat on pie and biscuits / God bless this perfect shitstorm’—these lines strike a chord with their blend of wistfulness and dark humor. They capture the essence of a generation that has learned to find a bittersweet solace in the acceptance of a world riddled with paradoxes.
The song concludes with a potent mixture of determination and hope—Scott speaks of a future where she claims her ‘own life’ and leaves the tumult behind. It’s a promise that carries the weight of dreams, a horizon that listeners, alongside Scott, strive towards in the weary dance of life.
