With no clear summer hit in sight, Sabrina Carpenter has come to the rescue! On June 5, Carpenter released her latest single, “Manchild”. In the days leading up to the drop, promotional billboards appeared across Texas with the phrases “HEY MEN,” “AMEN,” “I SWEAR THEY CHOOSE ME I’M NOT CHOOSING THEM,” and “Manchild.”
In addition, Carpenter posted a photo to Instagram of her hitchhiking with the caption “This one’s about you.” With lyrics like: “Why so sexy if so dumb?/And how survive the Earth so long?/If I’m not there, it won’t get done/I choose to blame your mom/Man-child,” fans naturally began speculating who the alleged “manchild” was. After many jumped to the conclusion that the song may have been alluding to Carpenter’s ex, actor Barry Keoghan, she put some of that talk to rest after writing in an Instagram caption:
“I wrote Manchild on a random Tuesday with Amy and Jack not too long after finishing short n’ sweet and it ended up being the best random Tuesday of my life. Not only was it so fun to write, but this song became to me something I can look back on that will score the mental montage to the very confusing and fun young adult years of life,”
Keoghan and Carpenter split in December 2024, so the timeline doesn’t really line up. But if not her most recent public fling, who is “Manchild” about? Based on the song’s lyrics and accompanying music video, which dropped the next morning on June 6, Carpenter seems to be calling out immature men in general.
Directed by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, the video’s overall vibe is quite surreal and chaotic in the best way, jumping frantically from scene to scene, perfectly encapsulating the messiness of a woman let down by unreliable man after unreliable man. The video is also visually stunning, drawing heavily from the 70s, with Carpenter’s Dolly Parton-esque styling, warm color grading, and grainy look.
The video opens with a title card reading: “Sabrina Carpenter in Manchild”, evoking the aesthetic of a classic Hollywood film. Carpenter can be seen on a long road trip through the west, hitching rides with a string of guys, some in comical vehicles including, an armchair, a car with the helm of a ship in place of a steering wheel, a jet ski, and a motorcycle with a shopping cart attached to its side. Carpenter gets into hilarious mishaps with these cartoonish men throughout.
Among the other random things that happen in this video, Carpenter talks to two pigs in a bubble bath, sits in a diner with a huge elephant in the background (addressing the elephant in the room?), and in a particularly cinematic moment, rides with a herd of horses.
Similar to the music video for her hit “Taste,” “Manchild” is dense with film references. From classic road trip films like Thelma & Louise, Almost Famous, and Wanda to westerns such as No Country for Old Men and comedies like Traffic, Carpenter is nothing short of a visionary.
It’s not clear whether the release of “Manchild” is coming at the advent of a new era or if it’s a standalone single, but regardless, we’ll be streaming all summer long. Watch the video here!
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