According to Vapid, "Veronica Hates Me" started as a play on the Material Issue song "Valerie Loves Me". "At the time, I guess we were harboring ill will towards their singer, Jim Ellison, for ripping us off at a show he promoted", Vapid stated. While writing the song, Weasel said he "tried to take the standard chords used in old rock 'n' roll and updated by the Ramones and twist them around a little bit." Weasel stated that when he started writing the song, he made a rule that he would not "go outside of the standard four chords used in that style of song." "At the break, I used a traditional arrangement to give the listener what I assumed what they would want after I'd held out for the majority of the song" he said. Despite not being co-written with Vapid, Weasel said that he wrote the song "with him in mind", explaining that "some of my best songs from this time came solely out of my desire to write songs that would impress him."