She's never identified him as the man who inspired it, but it's long been an open secret the ain't-sh*t dude in the lyrics of singer Alanis Morissette's career-defining hit "You Oughta Know" is none other than comedian and Full House star Dave Coulier.
Which has always seemed kind of strange to his fans. Who knew goofy, squeaky-clean Uncle Joey was the get-a-bj-in-a-theater type?
Anyway, if you've always been a bit surprised by Morissette's revelations about a man who has the public persona of a good-natured dad joke as a person, imagine Coulier's surprise when he found out.
Coulier recently opened up about the experience on Sirius XM's Faction Talk.
His reaction was just about what you'd expect if, you know, your ex suddenly rocketed to mega-stardom by telling you off in a #1 song.
See his comments below.
The Detroit-born comedian told hosts Jim Norton and Sam Roberts his initial reaction to "You Oughta Know" was basically the same as the rest of us back in 1995 when we first heard Morissette's deliciously enraged musical fu*k you to the ex who jilted her.
"I’m driving in Detroit and I’ve got my radio on, and I hear the hook for ‘You Oughta Know’ come on the radio. And I’m like, wow, this is a really cool hook."
But then he started really listening to the song.
Coulier started to realize this might be more than just a good hook.
"And then I start hearing the voice. I'm like, wow, this girl can sing."
"And I had no idea, you know, that this was the record."
"And then I was listening to the lyrics going, 'Ooh, oh no! Oh, I can't be this guy'."
So like practically everyone else back then, he went out and bought Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album.
And well...
"I went and I parked on a street and I listened to the whole record."
"And there was a lot of familiar stuff in there that her and I had talked about. Like [in ‘Right Through You’] ‘your shake is like a fish.’ I’d go, ‘Hey, dead fish me,’ and we’d do this dead fish handshake."
"And so I started listening to it and I thought, ‘Oh, I think I may have really hurt this woman.’ And that was my first thought."
Morissette has vowed to never reveal who the song is actually about, but given the timeline of their relationship it checks out Coulier would be the "Mr. Duplicity" from the song's lyrics.
The two met in the early 1990s just a few years before Jagged Little Pill's release when Coulier was 33 and Morissette was an 18-year-old Canadian pop star.
On Twitter, Coulier's comments definitely raised a few eyebrows.
\u201c\u201cYou know, you do that popcorn cup thing one time and it backfires on ya!\u201d\u201d— insearchof (@insearchof) 1658063147
\u201c@Jezebel Who is still trying to wrap their head around the fact that Alanis dated Dave Coulier? \ud83d\ude33\u201d— Jezebel (@Jezebel) 1657907614
\u201c@VanityFair He ought to have known. \ud83d\ude11\u201d— VANITY FAIR (@VANITY FAIR) 1658086781
\u201c@TheAVClub She says "you oughta know..." yet it took him a few listens to even know! Isn't it ironic?\u201d— The A.V. Club (@The A.V. Club) 1657903562
\u201cGod sometimes I forget that this story is actually real\nhttps://t.co/XsByoiRim6\u201d— Bean (@Bean) 1658015551
\u201cWoman: DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME, MR. DUPLICITY, I HATE TO BUG YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF DINNER \n\nMan, 27 years later: I think I may have hurt this woman\u201d— Laura Bassett (@Laura Bassett) 1658090516
\u201cYou probably think this song is about y -- oh.\u201d— Chris Steller (@Chris Steller) 1657894531
\u201c@DEADLINE This isn\u2019t the flex you think it is Dave.\u201d— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline Hollywood) 1657857289
\u201c@nypost LMAO I bet the whole time he was listening to it his face looked like this \ud83d\ude2c \u201cGee I musta hurt that lady\u201d LMAO YA THINK UNCLE JOEY?\u201d— New York Post (@New York Post) 1657854586
\u201c@jimandsamshow That's a real pill to swallow\u201d— Jim & Sam (@Jim & Sam) 1657847355
As befits Morissette's transformation into more of a spiritual Earth mother type once the furor over Jagged Little Pill died down, Coulier described Morissette as "lovely," going on to tell Norton and Roberts about how years later as his sister was dying of cancer, Morissette came to Detroit to visit her and sing to her in the hospital.
