Annotations for You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison

Lyric: Now, now, now, now (I can’t explain)
 Now, now, now, (I can’t complain)
 Now, now, yeah, yeah
Annotation:
Our protagonist is explaining that he feels as if he’s been left without a voice. Although criminals are often wrongly treated in prison, it is generally unheard of due to the fact that the prisoners have simply lost their right to be heard. Society no longer wants their opinion after they’ve committed to their crimes. In other words, he feels that he completely deserved what he was given in jail. In  Life on the Murder Scene during this line, guitarist  Frank Iero can be heard saying, Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait That’s not what I- No!

Lyric: But nobody cares if you’re losing yourself
 Am I losing myself?
Annotation:
The protagonist describes his feeling of loneliness while imprisoned. He begins to question himself, ranging from his  sanity to his  sexuality, which can be seen later in the song. This line could also be referring to the storyline of the album, where a man must kill 1,000 others in order to be reunited with his lover. The protagonist could be wondering why he’s going to such violent measures, and if it’s taking a toll on him.

Lyric: They all cheat at cards and the checkers are lost
 My cellmate’s​ a killer
Annotation:
This line shows how undesirable our protagonist’s situation in jail is. No one  wants to be here, so no one’s going to act like it. Following the concept of the album where a man must kill 1,000 others in order to be reunited with his lover, the individual is doing time for the same reason as his cellmate which shows how dangerous they both are. The description of the lost games could possibly be showing how he thinks there’s nothing to do in jail, or it could be referring to how the protagonist is itching to be released so he​ can complete his end of the deal.

Lyric: Too much, too late, or just not enough of this
 Pain in my heart for your dying wish
 I’ll kiss your lips again
Annotation:
Our imprisoned protagonist dreams of his dead lover, wondering if he can still save her. This line follows the  plot of the album, which is that in order to be reunited with his lover, a man must bring 1,000 evil souls to the Devil. The “dying wish” here is most likely her wanting to see him. He promises that he will, which brings us to the next line of kissing her “again,” which they can’t do now as one is dead and the other in jail.

Lyric: Now, but I can’t, and I don’t know
 How we’re just two men as God had made us
 Well, I can’t, well, I can, yeah
Annotation:
Shortly after his arrival at prison, the album’s protagonist finds himself falling for another inmate. He questions his sexuality, since he had assumed he was straight — he even has a wife! He doesn’t initially understand how someone he recently met can evoke something like this. He juggles this idea around before determining it is possible. This song was allegedly written about  The Used frontman, Bert McCracken. Bert and Gerard were close around the time the song was written, and Bert was also featured on the track. When  asked about the song, Gerard said the ‘prison’ aspect came from being crammed in a van on tour. It smells like jail; that’s for sure. Sometimes it feels like a prison, but sometimes even the guys in prison, as fucked up and rough as it is, they buddy up and stick through it together. I think that’s definitely one of the reasons I wanted Bert to sing on it, because he’s one of the few people that I’ve met on the road and really connected with. Gerard also said that Bert was one of his closest friends, and their relationship  “blossomed by being bad together.” When asked about the homosexual aspect, Gerard answered that the song  “obviously touches on lost masculinity.” I think that just comes from being around dudes so much, and you actually start to lose your masculinity. Especially because we’re not the kind of band like  Mötley Crüe, where we fuck around with groupies or anything. In that respect, we’re very monk-like, in a way. But the song’s pretty homoerotic. Gerard clarified directly after that—although the album contained many homosexual references—he himself was not homosexual. Alternatively, Bert McCracken  said that “You Know What They Do…” was about a night he and Gerard spent together while they were both “wasted.”

Lyric: To wage this war against your faith in me
Annotation:
A metaphorical war, by continuing to be criminal and by continuing to do bad things, he’s eroding the faith of his loved one, as she waits for him to come back to her.  This seems counterintuitive, but it should be assumed that the protagonist's​ lover is unaware that he made the deal he made with the devil.

Lyric: In the middle of a gunfight
 In the center of a restaurant
 They say, “Come with your arms raised high”
Annotation:
Gerard opens the song by painting a vivid picture in the listener’s mind. The protagonist has been caught in the midst of a public shootout, and the cops are ready to arrest him, with the usual command to put his hands up to ensure he won’t try to shoot the police. They whisk him away to prison, where the song’s main story begins.

Lyric: Life is but a dream for the dead
Annotation:
Gerard is suggesting that the dead are able to remember and think back on their lives. But like a dream, their lives appear to have gone by in the blink of an eye. This leads to the conclusion that death is like an awakening from a dream.

Lyric: Do you have the keys to the hotel?
 ’Cause I’m gonna string this motherfucker on fire
 Fire
Annotation:
Bert McCracken of  The Used performs these lines, highlighting the split personality of the narrator. To notch up the number of people he’s killed, he decides to burn down a hotel. This section could also be a hidden reference to suicide. Bert may be talking about burning  himself down rather than a hotel. It wouldn’t be a stretch — the song also discusses suicide in the line  “swing from a rope if you dare.” These lines build up the idea that the speaker is questioning his sanity. This theme is  expressed in the second verse as well.  Gerard also mentioned in an  interview that a bender with Bert in 2003 was the inspiration for this song, and more specifically this line.

Lyric: And well I, I won’t go down by myself
 But I’ll go down with my friends, yeah
Annotation:
He doesn’t want to die alone. If you consider the concept of the album – a man trying to regain his life by supplying the Devil with 1000 guilty souls in return – and the name of the album itself:  Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, it’s possible he is expressing his idea to bring the so-called​ friends who betrayed him while he was alive down with him. Alternatively, this could be referring back to rape in prison. Gerard  described this as one of the more “homosexual” lines of the song. In the album booklet, this line contains an additional “take it like a man” before the next verse.

Lyric: Well, I don’t remember
 Why remember you?
Annotation:
The abuse is so frequent that it’s hard for the narrator to remember who did what to him. But, then again, why would he want to remember such a miserable event? This brutal treatment most likely traumatized him, and with trauma, people often don’t want to remember, or block out the memories of the trauma.

Lyric: Well, I miss my mom
 Will they give me the chair?
 Or lethal injection, or swing from a rope if you dare?
Annotation:
He’s in prison- he can’t complete  his mission, so he might as well die! In this line, our protagonist begins to consider all the ways he could possibly end it all. More specifically, he’s terrified of life in jail and just wants to go home. Inside, he wishes that he could be free from all the “troubles he’s seen”, or been through as suggested  later in the song.

Lyric: They make me do push-ups in drag
Annotation:
It’s  not uncommon for inmates to single out other prisoners they see as weak. They often force them to do things they wouldn’t want to normally do, one of which is to dress in drag. By forcing the narrator to dress in feminine clothing, the other prisoners are establishing their dominance over him. The inmates could also be using the speaker for sexual relief, since they can’t get much action while locked up.

Lyric: Your life will never be the same
Annotation:
If you get arrested, your life will never be the same. The fact that you went to prison will follow you around for your entire life through your records. Being arrested leaves a scar that no amount of community service can remove. People will never see you in the same light again, either. Your family will be disappointed in you, your friends will distance themselves from you, and strangers will talk about you. Once released prisoners re-enter society, they are struck with a harsh reality – they have to  rebuild their lives from the ground up. Many individuals freed from jail are given a small amount of money to help fund their necessities, like food and clothes. However, once these funds are used up, they’re on their own, but they can’t land a job very easily due to their troubled past.

Lyric: Well, they’re never gonna get me
 Like a bullet through a flock of doves
Annotation:
Gerard is speaking in the mind of most criminals who think they will never get caught. If someone were to shoot a gun towards a group of birds, the birds would just fly away. The person would probably never be able to successfully put a bullet through any of them. Similarly, the speaker thinks the cops will never get to him.

Lyric: To your room
 What they ask of you will make you want to say, “So long”
Annotation:
Rape is common in prison. Having to deal with that experience, especially on repeat occasions, could make someone consider suicide. During shows Gerard Way often acts out giving a blow job while singing this verse.

