In the annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll conducted by "The Village Voice", "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was ranked the fifth best single of 1985, where the editor wrote that it was "a pleasure to see the Ramones place so high after the intrepid Seymour Stein refused to release their most overt political act." In his review of "Animal Boy", "Rolling Stone"s David Fricke called the song "brilliant". He wrote that it "vividly captures the sense of helplessness and confusion felt by rock youth in the Age of Reagan". In his book ', Scott Miller includes it among his list of best songs from 1986, while "Salons Wyman retrospectively describes it as "the group's greatest song and [Joey's] greatest vocal performance".