In 1995, Alanis Morissette released the song “You Oughta Know” as the lead single off her Jagged Little Pill album. The song is clearly a breakup anthem, fueled by lyrics like “And I’m here, to remind you / Of the mess you left when you went away.” Morissette has never explicitly said who the tune was about. However, there’s one actor in particular who suspects he might be Morrisette’s “Mr. Duplicity.”
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In an interview with USA Today, Full House actor Dave Coulier shared that he thinks “You Oughta Know” might be about him. According to him, some of the lyrics are a little bit too familiar, and not just in a déjà vu way.
Coulier and Morissette dated from 1992 to 1994, around the time when she would have been writing Jagged Little Pill. At the start of their relationship, Coulier was 33, and Morrisette was a young 18.
“There was a lot of familiar stuff,” he shared. “The one that caught me was ‘I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner.’ After we had broken up she had called…and I said, ‘Hey I’m right in the middle of dinner, can I just call you back?’ I remembered that line when I heard ‘You Oughta Know’ and it was like, ‘Uh oh.’”
Coulier himself even addressed the obvious, saying, “the guy in that song is a real a-hole.”
What Does Alanis Morissette Have To Say About “You Oughta Know” Now?
Apparently, back in the day, Coulier reached out to Alanis to see if she would confirm that the song was about him. Her response? “Well, you know it could be a bunch of people. But you can say whatever you want.”
Since then, Coulier has claimed the song as his own, which both he and Alanis can admit might not be the brightest choice.
So, what has Alanis Morissette had to say about the rumors, all these years later? On an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the then-45-year-old stood her ground.
“No revealing,” Morissette replied, “but I am intrigued at the thought—or at the fact—that more than one person has taken credit for it. I’m thinking, I don’t know if you want to take credit for being the person I wrote ‘You Oughta Know’ about.”
It looks like we’re not going to get any confirmed answers anytime soon.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
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