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Friends are happy for me
Or they're honey-suckle phonies
They celebrate my medals
Or they wanna take my trophies
Some are loyal soldiers while these other thorns are rosy
And if you never know who you can trust, then trust me, you'll be lonely
"Hey Look Ma, I Made It"

Panic! at the Disco was an American pop rock band from Las Vegas formed by childhood friends Ryan Ross (lyrics, guitar and vocals), Spencer Smith (drums), Brent Wilson (bass) and Brendon Urie (lead vocals, various instruments).

The band's name comes from a line in the song "Panic" by Name Taken, but due to the relative obscurity of this reference, the more familiar "Panic" by The Smiths is usually cited, as the song contains the line "Burn down the disco" in its chorus. The famous exclamation mark in their name was reportedly a spontaneous decision; according to Brendon Urie in 2008, the band members "wrote it that way once, when we first started the band, and then ... people kept writing it that way, and it was a freakin' whirlwind." They notably dropped it for their second album Pretty. Odd., for which they went by Panic at the Disco — a choice that caused outrage among fans.

The project of the band started somewhere around March/April 2004. Initially starting out as a blink-182 cover band and eventually aiming to provide a lighter and more accessible counterpart to the heavier music scene of Las Vegas, they grew popular as an eclectic pop rock band and were discovered by Fall Out Boy's bassist Pete Wentz and signed to his vanity label Decaydance at the end of 2004.

The band was subject to numerous roster changes. Jon Walker replaced Wilson on bass in 2006, and Ross and Walker left the band in 2009 to form their own band, The Young Veins, being replaced by touring guitarist Ian Crawford (formerly of The Cab)note  and bassist Dallon Weekes (formerly of The Brobecks, now in I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME). Weekes officially joined the band as a full-time member in 2012 but ceased studio contributions in 2015note , and with Smith quitting earlier that year, that left Brendon as the only official member of Panic! at the Disco.

As a result, Panic! was widely considered by audiences, the media, and Brendon himself to be Brendon's solo endeavor, as he wrote/co-wrote all the songs and played all the instruments, with some contributions by studio musicians and music producers. In January 2023, Brendon announced that Panic! would be disbanding after the European leg of the Viva Las Vengeance Tour in order for him to focus on his family. The final performance was on March 10, 2023, at Manchester's AO Arena.

The live touring band consisted of Dan Pawlovich (the band's former drum tech and Spencer's immediate replacement after Spencer left, also a member of the band Valencia) on drums, Nicole Row (former live bassist for Miley Cyrus) on bass, and Mike Naran (former guitarist for Sparks The Rescue) on guitar, along with a horn section and string trio nicknamed the Horny Boys and the Wicked Strings, respectively.

Before Brendon assumed full control of Panic!, the band was known for their quirky fashion sense, rampant stage gay antics, witty lyrics, and longer-than-life song titles (which were initially made as jokes but later abandoned for more traditional-length titles after Brendon began forgetting them onstage). Later on, the band name as helmed by Brendon became more famous for theatrical performances and aesthetic and a general shift in sound towards danceable pop with jazz influences. One trait consistent through both phases of the project is Brendon having a vocal range to rival Freddie Mercury.note 

Despite having moved away from any technical connection to emo music, they were often grouped by their fans as part of the "Holy Emo Trinity" along with Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. They were also often included in the "Fueled-By Five" (five bands from their label, Fueled by Ramen), which also includes FOB, The Academy Is..., Gym Class Heroes, and Cobra Starship.

Popular songs include "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", "This Is Gospel", "Emperor's New Clothes", "Say Amen" and "High Hopes".


Discography:

Studio albums:

  • A Fever You Can't Sweat Out (2005)
  • Pretty. Odd. (2008)
  • Vices & Virtues (2011)
  • Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! (2013)
  • Death of a Bachelor (2016)
  • Pray For The Wicked (2018)
  • Viva Las Vengeance (2022)

Live albums:

  • iTunes Live Session EP Exclusive (2006)
  • ...Live in Chicago (2008)
  • iTunes Live (2011)
  • All My Friends, We're Glorious: Death of a Bachelor Tour Live (2017)

Compilation albums:

  • Introducing... Panic at the Disco (2008)
  • Panic! at the Disco Video Catalog (2011)

I Write Tropes, Not Tragedies:

  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Listen to "Build God Then We'll Talk", particularly Brendon's pronunciation of "caricature".note 
  • Album Closure:
    • Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die finishes with "The End of All Things," a slow, longing love ballad that contrasts sharply with the rest of the album's heavy, upbeat Synth-Pop.
    • The last song on Death of a Bachelor is its slowest and saddest—"Impossible Year."
      There's no sunshine
      This impossible year
      Only black days and sky grey
      And clouds full of fear
    • Pray for the Wicked, theretofore an upbeat jazz-pop dance record, concludes with "Dying in LA," a heart-wrenching piano/violin ballad about how Celebrity Is Overrated.
    • Viva Las Vengeance not only concludes with "Do It to Death" as the album's finale, but as Panic!'s final song from their discography because it fades into the introduction of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out to emphasise on how the singer is going to forever be in a continuous loop they can't break out of.
  • Album Title Drop:
    • From "That Green Gentleman": "Things are shaping up to be pretty odd."
    • From "Say Amen (Saturday Night)": "I pray for the wicked on the weekend."
  • Alliterative Name: Vices & Virtues, as well as its track "Sarah Smiles".
  • All There in the Manual: The lyrics that come with A Fever You Can't Sweat Out expand on some of the songs, due to containing the original lyrics for the songs instead of the versions that ended up being used.
    They ended up... well, making love isn't exactly what I'm looking for. But. You. Get. The. Picture.
  • Appeal to Familial Wisdom: This is present in several songs, including "High Hopes":
    Mama said, don't give up
    It's a little complicated
  • Ballad of X: "The Ballad of Mona Lisa".
  • Better Partner Assertion: This argument is in "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off", where Urie compares himself against any other guy, putting himself on top.
    I've got more wit
    A better kiss
    A hotter touch, a better fuck
    Than any boy you'll ever meet
  • Body Horror: "Emperor's New Clothes" has Brendon sprouting . . . a few appendages. And while he's shifting, you can hear his bones cracking and see them moving under his skin.
  • Body Surf: In the video for "Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time", some sort of Cthulhumanoid Shapeshifter travels from a young woman's body to the body of Brendon Urie and returns to the bar in his body, presumably to find another host.
  • Book Ends:
    • The music video for "But It's Better If You Do" begins and ends in black-and-white.
    • Vices & Virtues. Both the opening song "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and the ending song "Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met...)" feature the line "Mona Lisa, pleased to please ya."
    • "Camisado" starts and ends with a minimalist piano accompaniment and the lyrics "The I.V. and your hospital bed / This was no accident / This was a therapeutic chain of events."
    • "This Is Gospel" begins with a Heartbeat Soundtrack and ends with the heartbeat slowing and stopping.
    • "The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know" begins and ends with the same quiet verse.
    • Both the opening song ("Viva Las Vengeance") and the ending song ("Do It to Death") of Viva Las Vengeance feature the line "Shut up and go to bed."
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: "We're So Starving" kicks off Pretty. Odd. with Brendon directly addressing the listener, assuring them that the three years since their last album were spent creating songs for their fans and promising that they haven't changed as a band despite a change in the lineup.
  • Break-Up Song: "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off":
    Then think of what you did
    And how I hope to God he was worth it
  • Call-Back: A reference to the "sky falling" appears twice, both in songs about Brendon's girlfriend/wife Sarah.
    • From "Sarah Smiles":
      I was just a guy living on my own, waiting for the sky to fall
    • From "Death of a Bachelor":
      I'm walking the long road, watching the sky fall
  • Chewing the Scenery:
    • After the video for "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" Brendon will be puking up scenery for weeks.
    • Brendon's multitasking in "Emperor's New Clothes": chewing the scenery whilst morphing into a demon before entering what seems to be Hell.
  • Circus Synths: A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, most notably the song "I Write Sins Not Tragedies," the music video for which has the band crashing a wedding of circus performers.
  • Cluster F-Bomb:
    • "Nicotine" features the word "fuck" at least four times along with the repeated usages of the word "damn", which is a bit jarring compared to a majority of their other songs.
    • As well as “(Fuck A) Silver Lining”, obviously. It's sarcastically bleeped out of the first line of the third chorus.
  • Concept Album:
    • AFYCSO is unified by hidden references and the theme of rebellion. It is also split into two halves; the first half is more traditional-sounding pop punk, while the second puts a unique baroque spin on the sound. The two halves are connected by the album's intermission, which starts with an energetic techno beat before transitioning to an old-timey piano interlude.
    • Pretty. Odd. is heavily Beatles-themed.
    • Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! is about drugs, sex, and Las Vegas.
    • Death of a Bachelor is about your life changing now that you're married.
    • Pray for the Wicked revolves around fame and wildest-dreams success — as well as their consequences. It's Rock Star Song: The Album.
  • Concept Video: Nearly all of them. Notable examples are the videos for "But It's Better If You Do" where the boys are musicians in an illegal strip club, and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", featuring a circus wedding filled with clowns in lingerie!
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The opening of "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" music video makes multiple nods to the video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". This includes the view of church pews, the focus on Brendon's hat, and of course, "closing the goddamn door".
    • The clocks in "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and "Ready To Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)" are all set to nine o'clock, referencing "Nine in the Afternoon".
    • Near the end of the music video for "That Green Gentleman", a group of old men appears dressed in the style of the band circa A Fever You Can't Sweat Out.
    • In the video for "Say Amen (Saturday Night)", the "ninjas" just walk into Brendon's house because left his doors (and windows) open. Hasn't he ever heard of closing them? He does, though, faces them elegantly and without panicking, or, as you might call it, "with a sense of poise and rationality".
  • Cover Drop:
    • For Death of a Bachelor on "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time."
      Saying "if you go on, you might pass out in a drainpipe"
    • The suggestion of one in "Roaring 20s":
      I'm on the rooftop with curious strangersnote 
  • Creator Provincialism: Too Weird to Live, Too Rare To Die! takes heavy inspiration from Brendon Urie's hometown of Las Vegas.
  • Creepy Monotone: The verses of "Lying Is the Most Fun"
  • Dark World: "Emperor's New Clothes" takes place here after Brendon gets denied access to Heaven and descends into a dark wasteland, where he turns into a demon and enters Hell.
  • Dead All Along: Used at the end of the music video for "Nicotine".
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The black and white variation is used in the videos for "Northern Downpour", "Nicotine", and "Death of a Bachelor", as well as at the start and end of "But It's Better If You Do".
  • Digital Piracy Is Okay: Brendon has gone on record saying that he's okay with fans ripping his music off of YouTube if they're unable to pay for it, even giving them a step-by-step tutorial on how to do so with a YouTube-to-MP3 website.
  • Downer Ending: The video for "Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time" ends with the protagonist transforming into a tentacle monster, killing Brendon by impaling him with a tentacle and throwing him out the window, devouring his body, assuming his form, and then wooing a girl at a bar before releasing its tentacles.
  • Emo: Panic! moved away from their emo-pop roots, with Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! assuming a more Synth-Pop sound and lyrical style.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: The bonus track "All the Boys":
    All the boys and I
    Love her madly
    All the boys and I
    All the girls and I too
  • Fading into the Next Song:
    • It occurs multiple times on A Fever You Can't Sweat Out:
      • "Introduction" → "The Only Difference...".
      • "Lying Is The Most Fun..." → "Intermission".
      • "But It's Better If You Do" → "I Write Sins Not Tragedies".
    • "We're So Starving" → "Nine in the Afternoon" on Pretty. Odd.
    • Almost every song from Vices & Virtues takes this up to eleven, especially when "Ready To Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)" transitions into "Always", which then transitions to "The Calendar" and ends its arc with "Sarah Smiles". If you think about it, these four songs connect to make up a 15-minute short story.
    • Averted from Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!, up until Pray For the Wicked.
    • Viva Las Vengeance not only plays it straight with "Something About Maggie" and "Sad Clown", but it even inverts this at the end, too, as the final song from the band's discography, "Do It to Death" loops itself back to the introduction of "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out".
  • Faux Yay: A favorite tactic during performances in the early years, beginning with Ryan and Brendon and continuing with Brendon and Dallon. Features anything from intentional Almost Kisses to simulated blow jobs. Made up one-third of their act, to the delight of fans.
  • Female Gaze:
  • Finger on Lips: In the video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", Brendon covers his mouth for the words "whore" and "goddamn", on one instance making a cross with his index fingers, apparently in reference to the issue of taking God's name in vain.
  • First-Person Perspective: The video for "Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time" is shot in this manner from the perspective of the protagonist, who turns into a tentacle monster.
  • Genre Shift: Each album has been a pretty significant change from the last.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: This is present in the "director's cut" version of the "Girls/Girls/Boys" video, which features two female models in underwear making out.
  • Gratuitous French: A children's choir opens "Nearly Witches" by singing its chorus in French.
  • Groin Attack: Just before Brendon's girlfriend knocks Brendon out in "Say Amen", she kicks him in the crotch, allowing him to hit the high note toward the end of the song.
  • Guyliner: Common in the music videos between Fever and V&V.
  • Happy Ending Override: If you count Brendon escaping into the afterlife at the end of "This is Gospel" as a happy ending... too bad. "Emperor's New Clothes" lands him in hell.
  • Heartbeat Soundtrack: A few times in Too Weird, most notably in the beginning and end of "This is Gospel".
  • Homage: The "Girls/Girls/Boys" music video is a recreation of D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does it Feel)" music video.
  • I Am the Band: Since 2015, Brendon Urie has been the only official member of the band.
  • Implausible Deniability: One very famous line from "Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time":
    I'm not as think as you drunk I am.
  • Intercourse with You: A common theme in many of their songs (quite possibly Author Appeal).
    • "Hurricane" most definitely counts.
      I led the revolution in my bedroom
      And I set all the zippers free
      We said "no more war, no more clothes, give me peace"
      Oh, kiss me...note 
    • Also "New Perspective":
      No more need be said
      When I'm inching through your bed
      • Brendon even lampshaded another line at the SDCC performance:
        Brendon: Can we fast-forward till you go down on me? That means a blowjob!
    • One of the bonus tracks for Vices & Virtues, "Kaleidoscope Eyes":
      I swear to God, I'd never heard a better sound coming out
      Than when you're whimpering my name from your mouth ...
      I've got an insatiable desire
      For your
      Insides
    • In "The Calendar":
      At night your body is a symphony, and I'm conducting
    • "Casual Affair"
  • Ironic Echo: Occurs on Pray for the Wicked. The chorus of "Roaring 20s" jokingly remarks, "I don't even know me". At the end of the album, "Dying in LA" repeats the sentiment—stripped of its humorous twist and obfuscating upbeatness:
    But nobody knows you now
    When you're dying in LA
  • Large Ham: Brendon's performance style is deliberately hammy.
  • Lead Singer Plays Lead Guitar: After Ryan left the band, frontman Brendon Urie took up the role of lead guitar in the studio and sometimes in live performances. Even when Ryan was in the band, Brendon usually played co-lead guitar, as seen in songs like "The Green Gentleman".
  • Location Song:
    • "Vegas Lights", about Urie's hometown of Las Vegas.
    • "LA Devotee", more about a person who represents Los Angeles than the city itself.
      The black magic on Mulholland Drive
      Swimming pools under desert skies
      Drinking white wine in the blushing light
      Just another LA Devotee
      • Its Spiritual Successor on Pray for the Wicked, "Dying in LA", inverts this: it seems at first to be more concerned with its rock star protagonist, but the post-chorus calls this into question:
        Oh, the power, the power the power ...
        Of LA
  • Love Is a Drug:
    • "Nicotine" from Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die.
      'Cause your love's a fucking drag
      But I need it so bad
    • "Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met)" also has elements of this.
      Ever since we met
      I only shoot up with your perfume
      It's the only thing
      That makes me feel as good as you do.
  • Love Is Like Religion: Usually averted, oddly. They have many love songs and many songs incorporating Biblical Motifs, but "This Is Gospel" and certain interpretations of "Hallelujah" are the only places where the two meet.
  • Lyrical Dissonance:
    • Most of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. "Camisado" is a notable example, being an upbeat dance song about a person who gets regularly hospitalized.
    • "Hey Look Ma, I Made It". The style is a catchy big band-esque song. The lyrics are about a star who makes it big and falls hard.
  • Male Gaze: The "director's cut" version of "Girls/Girls/Boys" is a rather jarring example of this, which isn't present in the official release.
  • Mr. Fanservice: It's rare for Brendon to finish a show fully clothed, and the early years saw him at the center of the band's Faux Yay antics. And then there's the "Girls/Girls/Boys" music video.
    • Brendon discusses this in one of his vines, where he sings about not liking to wear shirts (!!video contains NSFW language).
  • New Sound Album:
    • Pretty. Odd.'s psychedelic/indie-influenced rock is a far cry from the techno-y baroque pop punk of AFYCSO, which led to it receiving a less than unanimous positive reaction.
      • Perhaps the best example is the lead single "Nine in the Afternoon", an upbeat track in every sense of the word with no less than nine references to "feeling good"... and this from a band known to be popular with Emo Teens.
    • Vices & Virtues was more in line with A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, however.
    • Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die is roughly 90% dance pop, with techno and dubstep influences, and a complete departure from anything they did before, barring "New Perspective". The closest song to any of their previous sounds is the piano and string ballad "The End Of All Things".
    • Death of a Bachelor introduces power pop and Sinatra-esque jazz into the mix.
  • Non-Appearing Title: All of the songs on A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, but seen less and less with each successive album. Brendon has said this is because he had a hard time remembering the titles of the songs.
    • "Emperor's New Clothes", in which the inspiration is only hinted at.
      I'm all dressed up and naked
  • Noodle Incident: Part of the What Did I Do Last Night? in "Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time":
    Memories tend to just pop up
    Drunk pre-meds and some rubber gloves
  • Of Corpse He's Alive: Friend of the band Shane Valdés did a short called "A Weekend at Pete Rose's" starring Brendon, Spencer, and Pete Wentz, with this trope as a premise.note 
  • Off with His Head!: Featured in the "Miss Jackson" music video.
  • One-Man Army: Brendon in the music video for "Say Amen (Saturday Night)". 30 masked men come to kill him; he kills them all. In the most ridiculous fashion possible.
  • One-Woman Song: "Sarah Smiles", "Miss Jackson"
  • One-Word Title:
    • AFYCSO: "Introduction", "Camisado", "Intermission"
    • Vices & Virtues: "Hurricane", "Memories", "Always"
    • TWTDTRTD: "Nicotine"
    • Death of a Bachelor: "Hallelujah"
  • Opposites Attract: "When the Day Met the Night."
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • Added one of these into their cover of ""Karma Police" at a live performance in Denver.
      This is what you get when you FUCK WITH US
    • There's also one in "Crazy = Genius":
      If crazy equals genius
      Then I'm a fucking arsonist
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Why, the name of the band, of course! as well as Pretty. Odd.
    "No, I! Wouldn't! Be! Caught! De-e-ad in this place!" (But It's Better If You Do).
  • Rearrange the Song: ...Live in Chicago ends with a rearrangement of the Subdued Section of "The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know" which is identical to the original except a new Brendon vocal track gets added every two bars, leading to a layered effect where multiple Brendons are singing atop each other.
  • Retro Universe: Pretty. Odd. and Take a Vacation are very sixties inspired.
  • Revenge Ballad: "Let's Kill Tonight", where the singer vows to destroy an ex-lover's reputation to get revenge.
    Let's kill tonight!
    Kill tonight!
    Show them all you're not the ordinary type
  • Revolving Door Band: Until Pray for the Wicked, no two albums had the same lineup, and that's only because Brendon is (by that point) the only member left.
    • A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was recorded by Spencer, Ryan and Brendon. note 
    • Pretty. Odd. added Jon Walker. note 
    • Vices & Virtues was Brendon and Spencer, with a few session musicians for trumpets, and choir vocals
    • Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! was Brendon, Spencer and Dallon.
    • Death Of A Bachelor and Pray For The Wicked appear to only be Brendon note 
  • Rock Star Song: The Central Theme of Pray for the Wicked. Most of the songs on the album qualify somehow, but "Hey Look Ma, I Made It," "Roaring 20s", and "Dying in LA" are explicitly this.
  • Sanity Slippage Song: "Emperor's New Clothes" is an example. Even without taking the album's overall story into account, the song's music video makes the theme pretty clear.
  • Satan: Demonic Brendon comes face to face with the Prince of Darkness himself in the end of the "Emperor's New Clothes" video.
  • Siamese Twin Songs: "We're So Starving" and "Nine in the Afternoon," but the latter is usually played by itself in live shows.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Fever:
      • Many of the album's songs are named after lines from Chuck Palahniuk novels.
      • "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage" comes from Palahniuk's Survivor (1999).
      • And the lyrics of "Time to Dance" are one big long reference to Invisible Monsters.
      • If you haven't read Invisible Monsters, "Time to Dance" seems like a song about teen pregnancy, and some of the lines that reference the book seem to have little meaning in the scheme of the whole song (namely "hiding in estrogen and wearing aubergine dreams").
      • "Build God, Then We'll Talk" has a shout out to The Sound of Music.
      • "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" and "But It's Better If You Do" are lines from the movie Closer—spoken in the same breath, no less.
      • "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines" has a bridge which references lines from Palahnuik's Diary ("just for the record, the weather today..." is a reference to a line the main character often says), and the title references the Douglas Coupland novel Shampoo Planet ("Torrid tunage from London beckoned—songs about money written by machines.")
      • This one may be unintentional, but the title also references Pink Floyd three times; the band is English, and they have songs titled "Money" and "Welcome to the Machine".
      • "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" also refers to Shampoo Planet ("I am writing a list of tragic character flaws on my dollar bills with a felt pen. I am thinking of the people in my universe and distilling for each of these people the one flaw in their character that will be their downfall—the flaw that will be their undoing. What I write are not sins; I write tragedies.")
    • Pretty. Odd.:
    • V&V:
      • The chorus of "Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met)" was inspired by Patrick Süskind's Perfume.
      • Take one look at the chimney sweep part of the video for "Ready To Go". Mary Poppins, anyone?
      • "Kaleidoscope Eyes" is part of a line from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds":
        Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
        A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
    • Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die:
      • The album title is a quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
      • The music video for "Girls/Girls/Boys" is a direct homage to the music video of D'Angelo's "Untitled".
      • "Vegas Lights" starts off with a number-counting jingle from Sesame Street.
    • Bachelor:
      • "Emperor's New Clothes", title and lyrics, is self-explanatory.
      • "Crazy=Genius" mentions several members of The Beach Boys.
      • The music video for "Hallelujah" features perspective tricks from M.C. Escher.
      • "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time" incorporates the guitar riff from "Rock Lobster".
    • Wicked:
      • "(Fuck A) Silver Lining" starts with a pitched-down sample from the 1969 version of “Oh What a Night” by The Dells and later name-drops Beyoncé:
        Quick charade, Beyoncé, Lemonade
    • And there's the name of the band itself, inspired by the song "Panic" by The Smiths, which the band ended up covering live in 2011.
  • Spell My Name With An S:
    • Panic! At the Disco vs. Panic at the Disco.note 
    • It's also spelled "Brendon", not "Brandon".
  • Spoken Word in Music:
    • The sample that occurs exactly midway through the AFYCSO intermission, interpolated from Orson Welles' War of the Worlds.
    • "Nearly Witches" opens with a conductor of a children's choir addressing them before they start singing.
  • Stealth Prequel: "Say Amen" appears to be this to "This is Gospel", given Brendon is knocked out and bruised in much the same way he's introduced in the latter, and the end of the song plays a heartbeat—a motif maintained in "Gospel". The presence of the Devil's Key on his person could also explain why he transforms into a demon in "Emperor's New Clothes".
  • Steampunk: The fashion and the items used in "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" are clearly influenced by the genre.
  • Step Up to the Microphone: Ryan sings the chorus on "Northern Downpour" with Brendon harmonising.
  • Strapped to an Operating Table: The first minute or so of the video for "This Is Gospel."
  • Studio Chatter:
    • In an unusual variant, it shows up in the middle of "Miss Jackson".
    • Also shows up at the beginning/end of most of the songs on Vices & Virtues.
  • Surreal Music Video:
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: "We're So Starving," where they assure the listener that they are still the same band.
  • Take That!:
    • "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines" is one aimed towards the then-fledgling scene community (back when it was an offshoot of emo). This, of course, went over the heads of the MySpace crowd.
    • "There's A Good Reason These Tables are Numbered..." can be interpreted as a Take That to the subject of the song.
  • Take That, Audience!: They made a few efforts during the Pretty. Odd. era to alienate the fans who liked Fever better, most noticeably the video for "That Green Gentleman", ending with old men coming out of a Russian doll wearing their old Fever-era circus outfits.
  • Take That, Critics!: Aside from firing shots at the scene community, "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines" also preemptively sticks it to the press and potential critics of the band, outright sarcastically acknowledging how the press has the power to either make the band "hip" or disavow them entirely.
    Just for the record, the weather today
    Is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of
    A) Indifference, or
    B) Disinterest
    In what the critics say.
  • Talking in Your Sleep: "All the Boys":
    All the secrets that you keep
    Might get spoken while you sleep
  • Title-Only Chorus: "Girl That You Love"
  • The Lost Lenore: Implied in the music video for "Nicotine".
  • The Show Must Go On: In 2006, Brendon was knocked unconscious by a thrown bottle only minutes into a show, thankfully only for a couple of seconds. After recovering he got back on stage and finished out the band's entire set, picking up right where he left off.
  • Whodunnit to Me?: How the video for "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" plays out. Mary did it.
  • Title Track: "Death of a Bachelor" and "Viva Las Vengeance", which are rather notable because none of their other albums have a title track.
  • Uncommon Time: "Build God, Then We'll Talk" switches between 4/4 and 3/4 with reckless abandon.
  • Undercrank: "Emperor's New Clothes" makes liberal use of it for its music video, with the video sped up to match the beat of the song.
  • We Interrupt This Program: AFYCSO transitions from its traditional electronic punk sound to its more individualized baroque pop style within its transmission, which starts with a standard techno song that is suddenly cut off by radio static, at which point a man announces that "due to circumstances beyond our control", no more dance music will be provided.
  • What Did I Do Last Night?: "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time."
    Who are these people?
    I just woke up in my underwear
    No liquor left on the shelf
    I should probably introduce myself
  • Would Hurt a Child: The cultists in "LA Devotee" are fond of giving children psychological and Electric Torture.

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"Hey Look Ma! I Made It"

"Hey Look Ma! I Made It" illustrates the highs and lows of celebrity through a Muppet version of Brendon.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (3 votes)

Example of:

Main / CelebrityIsOverrated

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