VH-1's series
True Spin explains the song as simply an anthem of teen rebellion, but Snider appeared saying that he was happy that long after he is gone, "any time that the team is down by two, or somebody had a bad day at the office, they're gonna stand up and sing We're Not Gonna Take It". In March 2023,
Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 81 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list. In 2015, "Sleazegrinder" of
Louder included the song in his list of "The 20 Greatest Hair Metal Anthems Of All Time", placing it tenth.
Parodies • American singer
"Weird Al" Yankovic included a version of the song in his "Hooked on Polkas" medley from
Dare to Be Stupid. • American
ska punk band
Reel Big Fish used the melody to the song as part of their song "Everybody's Drunk" with lyrics altered to be: "We're all gonna get drunk! We're all gonna get drunk! Oh wait we're already drunk!" • In 1999, the US rock band
Lit parodied the opening scene in their video for "
Zip-Lock". • The song is popularly known as "Huevos con aceite... ¡Y limón!" ("Eggs with oil... And lemon!") in Spanish-speaking countries. Twisted Sister has sung it as "Huevos con Aceite" when giving concerts in Spanish-speaking regions. In a Primavera commercial in Mexico, there was a parody named "Huevos con Aceite" with the lyrics: Huevos como siempre, oh no, ya no queremos, ahora con Primavera, desayunarán (Eggs as always, no. We don't want them. Now with Primavera butter, you'll take your breakfast). •
ApologetiX, an American Christian parody band, released the song "We're Not Going To Canaan" on their 2014 release ''Loaded 45's''. • Spanish heavy metal band Gigatrón released a version of this song with different Spanish lyrics titled "Heavy hasta la muerte", as a parody of being a true metal fan.
In politics In 2012, Republican Vice-Presidential nominee
Paul Ryan's campaign used the song in
Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, until Snider asked Ryan not to play it anymore. Snider said that he did not support Ryan, and that he planned on voting for Obama. In the summer of 2015, the song was adopted as the theme song for
Donald Trump's
2016 presidential campaign. The song was played after all his campaign appearances where it was known unofficially as the Trump fight song.
Newsweek reported Snider gave Trump permission to use the song. Snider later changed his mind, saying that he had only allowed Trump to use the song because the two were friends, but then respectfully asked Trump to stop using it as he did not agree with many of Trump's stances. Snider did not want people to get the impression that he was endorsing Trump or his campaign. During the
2018 teachers' strikes in the United States, the song was used as a rallying cry by teachers striking in Oklahoma and Arizona. In Australia,
Clive Palmer altered the lyrics to "Australia ain't gonna cop it" in a national TV campaign for
United Australia Party ahead of the
2019 election. Twisted Sister condemned the unauthorized use of the song. Palmer disputed Twisted Sister's claim that they have any copyright over the portion of the song used in the advertisements, as he composed the lyrics and the melody was derived from "O Come, All Ye Faithful". In April 2021, Palmer was ordered by the
Federal Court of Australia to pay $1.5 million in damages for copyright infringement. Palmer was also ordered to pay legal costs and to remove all copies of the song and accompanying videos off the internet. On August 26, 2022, in response to use of the song by far-right activists, Snider tweeted: "ATTENTION
QANON, MAGAT FASCISTS: Every time you sing 'We're Not Gonna Take It' remember it was written by a cross-dressing, libtard, tree hugging half-Jew who HATES everything you stand for. It was you and people like you that inspired every angry word of that song! SO F**K OFF!"
In advertising In 1985, non-profit
United Way used snippets of the song and its music video to promote a program entitled "Changing the American Family". This was used as evidence during Snider's Senate hearing to indicate that the song was not violent or obscene, since United Way used "the video's introduction with the demanding father" as a "light-hearted way of talking about communication with teenagers".
Other uses In the wake of the
2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, supporters of association football
J.League club
Vegalta Sendai used the song melody for a chant to support the team, in which a video from November 2008 of fans at an away game against
Yokohama FC cheering, was highlighted on Twisted Sister's website. The song was used by Ukrainians protesting the
2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with Snider's approval. In November 2023, when asked after the
October 7 attacks whether he was okay with
Israeli soldiers using his band's "We're Not Gonna Take It" as a battle cry, Snider replied: Oh, hell yeah. You know what? Israelis, the assault on the Israelis, people are losing sight of something. People saying that, "Oh, the response is gonna be too intense for what happened". Well, you don't get to decide on the response when you do heinous things to civilians. You don't get to say, "Oh, that's enough, that's enough retaliation". No, it doesn't work like that. When you cross that line, you're burning people, you're slaughtering people, you're raping people, you're just killing people, after what happened at that festival you don't get to say, "Okay, your revenge can be this much". No. Payback's a mothereffer. And I come from that school. You cross that line, you know... Shit's gonna happen. Sing it out, boys. ==Personnel==