What does But It's Better If You Do mean?

Panic! At The Disco: But It's Better If You Do Meaning

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Album cover for But It's Better If You Do album cover

Song Released: 2006


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But It's Better If You Do Lyrics

Now I'm of consenting age to be forgetting you in a cabaret.
Somewhere downtown where a burlesque queen may even ask my name
As she sheds her skin on stage
I'm seated and sweating to a dance song on the club's P.A.
The strip joint veteran...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Aug 15th 2006 !⃝

    This song is about a man who is trying to get over a girl. So, he goes to a strip club to get over her but while he is there he realises that being in there isn’t going to help him because it’s just not him, and the only thing he wants is the girl, “well, that's right, well I may have faked it, and I wouldn't be caught dead in this place”.

    Also while he’s there he becomes aware that the girl is just playing hard to get and that he was being stupid, “and isn't this exactly where you'd like me, I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know, praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety”

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jun 15th 2006 !⃝

    I agree with the person who said they are all interconnected...cuz they are, why would they have like "intermission" and stuff like that...anyways...i don't think they are throwing him a bachelor party, I think after she cheats on him at the wedding he goes to a strip joint "looking for love in a lap dance" because he's depressed..."this is exactly where you want me 2 be" like she wants him to be miserable looking for love in a lap dance from the stripper..etc.and then in its time to dance...the whole...shot gun wedding...they are all intertwined...kinda cool

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 21st 2006 !⃝

    Yeah, the three run together. It works like this:
    The first part is 'lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off'
    If you add 'but its better if you do' to the end of that it forms a quote from the movie closer. [pretty risque movie if you ask me. nonetheless great.]
    also if you listen to but its better if you do and I write sins not tradgedies in sequence you'll notice that the instrumentals at the end//start run together.
    I have a basic idea of the story. basically I think the narrator has pretty bad luck with unfaithful girls. He's gotten over the girl from the first song [or forgiven her maybe?] and found himself a girl he wants to marry. now this is an honest and all round great sort of guy, but very naive.
    he doesn't want a bucks night as he feels it would be disrespectful to his bride to be, but his mates have thrown him one anyway, and he really does not want to be there. Hence the 'I wouldn't be caught dead in this place'. He fakes having a good time but feels terribly uncomfortable the whole time.

    >next part of the story: 'I write sins not tradgedies'

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 22nd 2020 !⃝

    Here’s what I think

    #1 Lying is the most fun.. so two little love birds are dating and everything is great until the man figures out the girl is cheating

    #2 But it’s better.. instead of breaking up with her he and his friends go to a strip club to blow off some steam but he retreats it and goes back to her

    #3 I write sins.. they decide to get married but his friends don’t agree with this and show them evidence she is still cheating after they get married

    #4 There’s a reason these tables are numbered.. so instead of divorcing her and her getting a lot of his money he decided to murder her by lacing her cigarettes but she found out and switches their cigarette packs so he ends up dying

    #5 The ballad of Mona Lisa.. Then she hosts a funeral in spite of being the murderer and gets his money even though he tries to warn his friends from the dead

    Sorry if this theory sucked but I just randomly thought of it

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 10th 2012 !⃝

    The song is excellent, using familiar another familiar song to emphasize the point of a caricature of intimacy.

    It opens on a dilapidated motel, smelling of asbestos and formaldehyde, that is "decomposing in front of your eyes. "

    Inside a "virgin" and lawyer are meeting for "strictly business". She sleeps with him for his money and the promise of a job. The lawyer's wife is aware of his "moonlighting", but stays with him for his money.

    After the lawyer leaves a constable breaks into the room. The "virgin" who was fixing her face in a compact, drops her purse and bag onto the floor and is given a proposition from the constable. She performs fellatio in order to avoid being arrested. (When referencing a "purse" of a different kind, it refers to the constable's scrotum).

    The minor key in which the song is sung indicates a dystopia. Combining with the words, it highlights that these interactions are a caricature of intimacy.

    We give up our morals to succeed and get by in this world. What we were taught as children "My favorite things", becomes slanted with the reality of the world. We do things that appear to be intimate, but in fact are only superficial.

    Beautiful and Haunting Song.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 30th 2011 !⃝

    Okay, Lying is the Most fun isn't part of any trilogy. Because Theres a Good Reason these tables aren't numbered honey, you just haven't thought of it yet leads into Buts It's Better if you do leads into I Write Sins, I Write Sins leads into Ballad of Mona Lisa. It actually SAYS it in Wikipedia from an interview with P!ATD

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 25th 2011 !⃝

    Hmm.. well on the album the first song out of them all is Lying, then But it's Better if You Do, and then I write sins not tragedies.

    Lying is when he first finds out she cheated on him, he goes to the strip club in BIBIYD and in the video the lady he meets is unveiled to be this woman soooo maybe that's just a symbol of him not forgetting her and wanting her still, then on I write sins not tragedies he must have forgiven her, and her true colors have be revealed for the second time at their wedding.
    Just my thoughts.

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 25th 2011 !⃝

    I have two ways of seeing this...

    the first is like the music video. This guy's wife accuses him of cheating on her and going to a strip club, even though he hasn't. But, he decides to go anyway because she keeps accusing him of it. (Hence the "I wouldn't be caught dead in this place", and "This is exactly where you like me, you know")

    The second way of seeing it is that there's this guy who got cheated on (Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off), and he has bad luck with love, but finally he finds another girl that he's going to marry, however, she cheats on him, so he goes to a strip club, but while he's there he realizes that it isn't making him feel any better.

    Hope that helped! (:

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 16th 2011 !⃝

    ok he's trying to make the girl from "lying is the most fun a girl can have..." by SAYING that he went to a strip club etc etc but the bit where he's like "i may have faked it" it's him being all like 'yeah i didn't actually go there...' and he actually does love her - i may be wrong because i've only just got into panic at the disco but i think that the whole him not being in the strip club thing makes sense?

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 8th 2011 !⃝

    I have 2 ideas:

    1- "i write sins not tragedies" and "But it's better if you do" are two different storys that can be finished with "Lying ....."

    2- the 3 musics are just one story in the next order:
    1."But it's better if you do"
    2."i write sins not tragedies"
    3."Lying ....."

    I say this, because in the end of the "but it's better ..." the two people meet again, smile and make up; Then they going to married, and came brendon to stop it, because she's a whore and she is cheating on him. So when the groom finds he goes away. And in the end it's "Lying ....." .


    But it is just my opinion.

    Bye ^.^

  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 9th 2011 !⃝

    I believe..
    These narrator of the song and his wife are having problems . they seem to be newly weds (now im of accuming age)
    Both of them have been sneaking out to attend an illegal masquerade like strip club,(i wouldnt be caught dead in this place), to get the love and a lapdance to fill the pain
    In the end it turns out his wife is a stripper and when he reveal his identity she is hurt

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 20th 2011 !⃝

    1) Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off.
    it's his wife, and while they're married, she's cheating on him
    2) But it's better if you do
    if you put the two titles together they make up a famous quote from the movie closer-about strippers. his wife suspects him of cheating, and she's right. only reason he's cheating though is because he knows she is also. he doesn't feel comfortable there, and ends up seeing his wife as one of the strippers. they both get caught (by eachother and by the police) and arrested
    3) I write sins, not tragedies
    the music at the end of but its better and the beginning of this song merge together...but kind of mysteriously. this is the husband's flashback of his wedding. hearing/seeing his wife cheating on him, and then (in his mind) calling off the wedding to avoid the messy end of the marriage.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 17th 2010 !⃝

    I'm sorry but the whole CD is NOT intertwined AT ALL. The top rated one shouldn't be there because Time To Dance is written entirely after a book called Invisible Monsters, And London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines is about the label making them dress scene because that's what is 'in'. So really, how does this CD intertwine at all? You are Partially right though because the title of this song continues the title "Lying is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off". And when put together, it makes a quote from the movie "Closer" with Natalie Portman and Jude Law. Portman is a stripper in the movie. He gets his inspirations from masterpieces.

  14. anonymous
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    May 14th 2009 !⃝

    I think the song is nice and it could mean a lot of things.......but it's better if you do. That does not sound like a good song for kids under the age of I don't know 13 years old. It doesn't matter what the song means what matters is what children are hearing because guess what!! Kids are going to do whatever they hear!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 23rd 2008 !⃝

    First of all, BEING EMO SUCKS! And second, this song it's based on a line written for the script of the movie Closer, not a story of that gay going to some disco. That's bullshit.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  16. anonymous
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    Nov 8th 2008 !⃝

    My Interpretation in this particular song. Uhmm, the narrator in this story is basically a guy who has been fed up with his girlfriend which he had been taking seriously, but as normal couples, we all know that having fights is normal. but since, the girl in the particular story is has always been assuming that the guy always goes to some place wherein he can have fun, (sex) the guy thinks that since he's already fed up, sick and tired of the arguing thingy, he has decided to make the girl's conclusions true--where he went to the cabaret not to have fun but to somehow forget the girl, and kinda insult the girl whom he had taken seriously. :)

  17. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 3rd 2008 !⃝

    Ok people heres how it goes

    #1~lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her cltohes off: Ok this when they are teenagers hanging out ..ladeeda doing things. The girl ends up cheating on him and this is the fight.."it will always just be me", "think about what you did and I hope to god he was worth it". Then "the shock sets in" meaning......

    #2~"but its better if you do" Omigosh our two little love birdies break up and mr. exlover ends up in a strip club trying to forget about her. The cheating little.... ok ....anyway The poor naive little groom that he is goes into the strip club and starts to regret the break up "wouldnt be caught dead in this place" meaning he's only there to get his mind off of things

    #3~"I write sins not tradegies": The little soap opeara of the best cd in the world continues when...... They get back together! wohoo.... They end up getting enganged and we (us lucky people) get to listen in on the wedding (where the little bitch of the bridesmaid and waiter talk about his little wifey being a "whore"). He "would" chime in but he wants "the god damn door closed" and its good to face things " with poise and rationality" so he keeps his mouth shut. So he changes the subject and talks about how there "marrige is saved" meaning the breakup and how they are back together now .....PLEASE LISTEN TO THEM IN ORDERCONSIDERING WHAT I SAID AND IT WILL ALL MAKE SENSE!

  18. WaveQuestionMark
    click a star to vote
    Sep 14th 2008 !⃝

    "The most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off is lying" "But its better if you do" "I write sins not tragedies"
    I don't think any of them are related,
    and not in anyway have anything to do with brendons life/experiences (as ryan writes nearly all the songs :/) There all awesome songs though,
    and Panic have a nice way of f´king up our minds thinking about them xDD
    And in "its better if you do" In the movie clip at the start,Its not like they have broken up.
    I think it's about a guy,
    who has a secret job as a singer in the strip club
    "And isn't this exactly where you'd like me,I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know" that his girfriend/wife is dying to catch him out in his act.
    "Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety"
    Sarcasim.
    "And I wouldn't be caught dead in this place" Related to wearing a mask,and how he is "guilty" of comming there in the first place.
    Then a girl "his GF/wife" catches his eye,and drags him off for a dance and they then kiss (when the police bust in),I think she dressed up and made her way down there trying to prove that he's been lying and going off to strip clubs.
    If you look at her face when they kiss(after brendon takes of his mask)You can see she looks,in a way,excited yet very P´ssed,then she slaps him.
    And when she gets taken away,he fights the police (asin he cares for her) Then when there both in the back of the police car,he grins(maybe in a cheeky way,of seeing her as a lapdancer)And she smiles smugly asin ("oh yeah I just caught you")

    "I write sins not tragedies"
    Ok,
    Basicaly brendon is the grooms consions(Im 14 leave my spelling alone -.-´)And the circus people are his family (This has been proven that they are his family).
    His fiaance (the bride) is a whore(as stated) and she
    has cheated on him (with the guy sat in her familys deck and maybe more people) "Pour the champaingn" When the dude blows the glitter,the brides family open there eyes and the choas begins,the groom and the bride start fighting (as proving there's a lot of stuff wrong that they need to talk about) The bride runs away,and a guy (her bit on the side) follows her. Brendon grabs the groom "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?!"(sarcasim)
    No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality." Asin its time to face the music, They go outside and they see her kissing that other dude.
    Then basicaly, the groom takes brendons lead as the ring mastor (wich I think was his role before he fell in love with the bride)He then re-joins his family.
    Basicaly,the point is.
    The groom shouldnt marry the bride,beacause she is unfaithful,And that he groom belongs with his family doing his role as the ring mastor(the conductor/leader)
    And if you noticed,at the end brendon dissapers,and the groom is then wearing his suit(asin he was his consions[i know I can't spell ¬¬]And his family were just trying too show him , she wasnt the one and he belongs with them)

    -The end-

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