Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” Is Here—and I’m Just Sitting Down Watching the Internet Explode
by Britney McVey | June 5th, 2025
I was just lying on the couch, aimlessly scrolling like always, when Sabrina Carpenter casually dropped a teaser video on June 2—and suddenly the internet hasn’t known peace since.
She didn’t even need to say much. A few seconds of video showing herself standing on the side of a road, hoping to catch a ride from a truck passing by. A quick glimpse of the aesthetic and an overlay of Carpenter saying, “Oh boy.” No caption. And that was all it took for the timeline to light up.
Then came the billboards—deadpan and perfectly timed:
“I swear they choose me, I’m not choosing them.”
No credits. No explanations. Just her. Just vibes. And maybe a little warning shot to a certain ex.
By the time the news hit X, chaos was fully underway.
User @zoerosebryant nailed it when they said:
According to Buzzing Pop, “Manchild” is now officially the most-watched teaser of the year on X/Twitter, surpassing Grand Theft Auto VI. That’s not a promo rollout—it’s a cultural moment.
There’s been no full snippet. No confirmation on who it’s about. But let’s be honest… we all know.
The song is widely believed to be aimed at Sabrina’s ex, Barry Keoghan. The new single comes almost a year after “Please Please Please”, where Sabrina begged her partner not to embarrass her—exactly what many fans think happened. While neither Sabrina nor Barry have publicly commented on their breakup, a source told People that their busy schedules and career focus led to their split. Still, Sabrina’s fanbase aren’t convinced Barry heeded those warnings.
If “Please Please Please” was Sabrina pleading for respect and understanding, “Manchild” feels like the next chapter—a pointed, no-holds-barred response to someone who let her down.
Now it’s the evening of June 5th, and “Manchild” is finally here in its full cheeky, scathing, and so undeniably Sabrina way.
Clocking in at three and a half minutes, the song doesn’t waste a second. It opens with a deceptively breezy “Oh, boy,” but what follows is a takedown with razor-sharp edges and bubblegum lip gloss. Sabrina’s voice floats through the verses with a kind of exasperated calm, calling out gaslighting, laziness, and emotional immaturity like she's reading off a grocery list of red flags. Every line hits with the precision of someone who’s had plenty of time to think about what she’d say.
“Why you always come a-running to me?” is both a genuine question and a devastating drag. And when she lands on “Man-child,” it’s not just a punchline, it’s a diagnosis. It's angry, yes, but also kind of amused. Like she’s done being sad about everything that happened.
The bridge? That’s where “Manchild” cements itself as pop canon. It's not just relatable—it’s painfully specific in its universality. “I like my boys playing hard to get / And I like my men all incompetent”? That’s going straight on stan Twitter bios, group chat names, and, probably, T-shirts by next week. When she flips “Amen” into “hey, men,” it’s clear she’s not just roasting one guy—she’s putting the whole species on notice.
But what makes “Manchild” so biting isn’t just the clever wordplay or punchy production—it’s how casually Sabrina delivers it all. She’s not yelling. She’s not crying. She’s smirking.
It’s the sound of a woman who’s done explaining herself. She already warned you once. You didn’t listen.
Now you’re a punchline in the most talked-about pop song of the summer.
And that… is your generational L.
