"Pardon Me" is a song by American alternative rock band Incubus from their 1999 album Make Yourself. It was the first Incubus song to receive a considerable amount of radio airplay, reaching #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
The song describes a state of confusion, with allusions to spontaneous combustion. Lead singer Brandon Boyd says he was inspired to write the song after making a connection between images of spontaneous combustion in a magazine and "some turmoil in [his] life, both good and bad".
Musically, the song combines fast-paced, ambient verses with prominent DJ scratching and a hard-rocking mid-tempo chorus. However, the acoustic version of the song is also well-regarded by fans, and helped the song become a radio hit. Initial radio reception was lukewarm, so Boyd and guitarist Mike Einziger decided to perform the song acoustically at several radio stations that had been playing the song, including KROQ, and this acoustic version grabbed the attention of radio programmers and listeners. An acoustic recording of the song was released on the When Incubus Attacks Volume 1 EP.
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo covered this song on his album Covering the Bases.
