Lyrically, Billie Joe is pretty underrated. I mean, he's not phenomenal or anything, but I'd go so far as to call "Longview" lyrical genius.
Not in like a "deep" Pink Floyd kind of way, but the song is clever, and I think if you're a teenage male, at some point in time that song very well could have been your theme song. Dookie wasn't like these new banRAB like All Time Low, where they're just catering towarRAB their obnoxious teenage audience. Green Day really were just apathetic ****ing losers with nothing better to do than masturbate and smoke pot. All day long.
It came through in their songwriting in the best kind of way. Of course, then they grew up and their music took on new forms, but you gotta love Dookie.