Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department has been out for over a week now, so of course, fans are dissecting the lyrics and trying to get every possible meaning out of a single line. Unfortunately, some fans may get the wrong message if they interpreted one line from "Down Bad" the same way as one TikTok user. His video is going viral as the internet reacts to what may be the wildest misheard lyric of 2024 so far.
If readers are in the group of Swifties who think The Tortured Poets Department is about Taylor Swift's former relationship with Matt Healy, they could be scratching their heads at this misheard lyric. The original line in "Down Bad" goes, "They'll say I'm nuts if I talk about," but apparently, some believe they heard a much more offensive and confusing lyric:
@itskellmartin ♬ down bad - overlays 💐
"They'll say I'm Nazi-fied Taco Bell" could be interpreted as one of those lines that either is absolute nonsense or a classic Taylor Swift reference with a veiled cryptic meaning. As blxstbeats said, a casual observer may genuinely believe this is something the singer put in the song:
Given her other lyrics, this is actually believable.
In an album where the singer allegedly starts a feud with Kim Kardashian, is it so hard to believe? Even those who previously knew it wasn't the lyric are now being fooled by the viral TikTok, as Miabella5203 confessed it's hard to hear the song any other way:
I genuinely cant hear anything else I have no clue what the lyrics are💀
Taylor Swift can take people down with her lyrics, though it remains to be seen what the power of her misheard lyrics carry. Time will tell, I suppose, if other upcoming Swift projects yield more misunderstandings – and I really hope that is the case. The discourse surrounding this one from "Down Bad" is fantastic and reminds fans like DiddleFresh of past misheard lyrics from the artist:
This is bringing me back to 'all the Starbucks lovers' instead of 'long list of ex-lovers'
One thing I love about the generation raised in the internet era is that fans and non-fans of Taylor Swift can still find ways to laugh at the joke, which seems to be the case. Some are even thinking about friendship bracelets, and Vanity_Child has already decided this phrase is worthy of consideration:
New friendship bracelet phrase unlocked 🔓
If nothing else, this misheard lyric has been a nice deviation from the wild speculation Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are secretly engaged, which is a rumor floating around Instagram. I'm not sure we'll get confirmation on that anytime soon, so maybe we should all head back to TikTok and busy ourselves with more memes like Ryan Gosling dancing to "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart."
The Tortured Poets Department is available wherever music is sold or streamed. Check it out, but please refrain from thinking the biggest singer on the planet has intentionally tarnished the good name of Taco Bell. Because, just to be clear, that is not officially the lyrics to the song.
