System of a Down: Chop Suey Meaning

Song Released: 2001

Chop Suey Lyrics

(Mumbles)
We're Rolling Suicide

Wake up(wake up)
Grab a brush and put a little makeup
Hide the scars to fade away the shakeup
Why’d you leave the keys upon the table?
Here you go create another fable
You wanted to
Grab a brush...

1. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 13th 2006 !⃝

   This song is about Jesus dying on the cross, and when he says self ''rightous'' suicide he means that its a rightous suicide because jesus died for our sins, When he says ''I cry when angels deserve to die'' its becuase someone in the crowed shouted to jesus ''if you truly are christ then call upon the angels to save you'' And when he says ''father In your hands I condem my spirt ect.... why have you forsaken me'' I think Jesus ment why didn't you come down to save me father? and then jesus bows his head and dies after a little bit. yes its a quite sad story.....
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 12th 2006 !⃝

   I'm not sure if anyone noticed this before but in the music vid somewhere in the middle there is a flag waving itself. Does anyone know what this flag is? Is it the Armenian flag?
   
   If so it may have something to do with the meaning of the song

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 11th 2006 !⃝

   you're all crazy; the song taken literally can lead one to believe it's about the father armeni poem and jesus; but when you simply think about the times, the song deals with the israeli/palestinian situation. Palestinians can be related to the self righteous suicide theme, and the israelies can be related to the angels who deserve to die.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 5th 2006 !⃝

   The song is clearly about a suicide victim. The victim, in the main verses, is thinking about what she would've done had this not have been the day she would end it. The suicide is self-righteous, because the person believes that she doesn't deserve to live. "when angels deserve to die" got me, but I figured that this person believed she would not be "saved", and she felt that she was unjustly given an empty life which she would now have to end.
   The passage from the crucifixion has stumped many a bibilical scholar. When Christ uttered these words, he was not only lamenting his injustice, he was also directly quoting Psalm 22, a psalm called the "lamentation of the innocent man" or something similar to that effect. In this sense, the suicidal woman is lamenting the absence of god's love in her life, and also proclaiming herself a victim, a casualty of a postmodern era.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 3rd 2006 !⃝

   I think the song has to do with suicide bombings. The whole "wake up ..." is this person getting ready for their final day, how people look nice for their final day. "why'd you leave the keys up on the table?" - because they aren't coming back home. The whole "self-righteous suicide" is him trying to convince god and himself it's what he has to do (maybe for his country; he could have even been forced into it). And perhaps the "angels deserve to die" isn't himself, but all the innocent he has to kill. and the whole "why have you forsaken me" part is that he knows what he has done is wrong but he wants god to understand why he is doing this. That's why he sings about "trusting in his self-righteous suicide". all-in-all this person is going to do a suicide bombing, and is trying to convince god that he shouldn't be judged, its what he has to do. its confusing maybe, but it matches everyline
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 1st 2006 !⃝

   this song can be taken in a few ways, 1: the bible like a few people have said, 2: could be the singer talkin to his father through lyrics, as if he intends to say that his father doesn't care about him, forsakes him, and the last way would be the singer or whoever wrote the lyrics really just losin faith in god, and he warns everyone about his suicide basically
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 20th 2006 !⃝

   I believe the part about the leaving the keys on the table is about whoever tried to hide the scars (hide the bad things in the world, done to them, or done by them), like the Turks in the Armenian Genocide, or the Media covering certain events, or someone abused by another. They tried to hide whatever it was, but they left some kind of clue to the truth in the open, the key to the secret and truth, and that line is asking why they leave the key to the truth out if they are trying so hard to hide it.
   
   I think this song is left open for interpretation on many levels. I think it has a basic theme of fakeness, or lying to cover something up. This could refer to the Genocide, Media, or someone abused by another or themselves. Chop Suey is a fake chinese dish, as it was created in the US, and it represents that basic theme. I also beleive it relates to religion in covering up certain things that make them look bad, and how religion plays in the world today. If someone commits a self rightious suicide, in whichever way you wish to take that, they can either be considered as a maryter to some, or a statistic to others. Their death could be used to prove the point of others, making it self rightious in a sense.
   
   But that's just my opinion. This has very open possibilities for interpretation as I said before, and that's what SOAD tries to do. They don't want to explain everything to you, it's more important to them what the song means to you then what it means to them.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 18th 2006 !⃝

   I think this song interprets SOAD's view on Jesus's , like " here you go create another fable. " I think in a way their saying that(I beileve this myself) jesus is some dude writing some fake stories with morals.. and " I don't think you trust in my self rightous " I think here theyre refering to when jesus died on the cross apperently he was "supposed" to die but then he "apperently" revived somehow and so this line of the song says that jesus thought he had to die but he thinks "his father" doesn't want him to die cos he revived him or something like that

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 13th 2006 !⃝

   I got told that serj had a 4 year old daughter and she was waiting for a lift from his dad and he had his keys on the table and she started sucking on them and died and he felt really bad and upset and wanted to kill himself because they were his keys that made her die but I don't know what when angels deserve to die would come into it but I don't know if that's true! I guess its better than monkeys throwing keys instead of shit at each other. funny though!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 2nd 2006 !⃝

    I believe this song doens't have to do mainly with suicide but ends up with the woman that's involved in the song committing suicide.
    
    "wake up/ grab a brush and put a little make up/ *hide the scars and fade away the shake up*/
    
    last line being the most important. It's about a girl that gets beaten, by whoever, her boyfriend father...and ends up in sucide from her own beatings.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Feb 14th 2006 !⃝

    I thought this song was about his girlfriend named angel, and when she left him, he began to notice all the little things, like she left her keys on the table and the way she did things

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Feb 3rd 2006 !⃝

    I think this song is about how one was driven to suicide by another's abuse. Maybe it has somehting to do with the guitarist's brother who commited suicide because he couldn't take their father's abuse.Somehow I think the entire song revolves around the abusive father and the son who has commited suicide. When the singer says "why don't you trust in my self righteous suicide, I cry when angels deserve to die" I think he's stating how the son's suicide had no affect on the father whereas the singer himself is sad for the guy's death as he describes the guy to be an angel.
    
    At the bridge when he scream father four times, I think he is desperately trying to get the father's attention to stop and pleading for his life. When the forsaken part rolled in, I think the singer is questioning the father's actions towards him.
    
    I think this song has been sung in 2 peoples perspective: one the person who had witnessed the abuse and the suicide and the other the person who was abused and subsequently commited suicide.
13. .SOLID.

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 24th 2006 !⃝

    I think that the reason for SOAD making this song is because SOAD is mad at god for not stopping all the bad things that have and are happening today.
    
    For example The Tianenmen sqaure incident on june 4 1989 which they clearly sing about in hypnotize were in which the chinese goverment killed hundreds of peaceful protesters
    and innocent people.
    
    They're mad because god is letting all these bad things happen he lets them happen for a reason that we cannot understand.
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 23rd 2006 !⃝

    The song is about monkeys who throw keys at each other because they ran out of poop. That is why it says grab a brush and put a little makeup. This makes no sense. But it made me smile.
15. ZvB

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 16th 2006 !⃝

    Somebody is getting ready for something he is planning to do in public. He is nervous but he doesn't want others to recognize. ("makeup", "hide the scars", "fade away the shakeup") He is going to do something relevant, something that is going to be remembered (a "fable"). He is not planning to come back, he maybe knows that he is going to die. That's why he leaves his "keys upon the table". If you leave your keys it means
    1. You forgot them
    2. You don't come back
    For 1. There is no other evidence in the lyrics. For 2. we find evidence: The suicide theme.
    
    I don't know about the armenian genocide, but what I read sounds quite interesting. Can anybody find the poem of Father Armeni? I also agree on the Suicide > Suey Cide > Chop Suey idea. Sounds like something that can happen in rehearsal rooms.
    
    Greez,
    z

Latest Articles

• 
  Forgotten Weird Music Videos of the Ancient 80s | vol 3
• 
  Forgotten Weird Music Videos of the Ancient 80s | vol 2
• 
  Forgotten Weird Music Videos of the Ancient 80s | vol 1
• 
  Let’s Chase Taylor Swift Rumors
• 
  When the Beatles Touched Off a Movie War
• 
  When Mike Bloomfield Composed a Soundtrack For Andy Warhol