Prevenge

I have no clue what this song is about, but I really like it. Probably my favorite off the new album. Just really catchy.

It has a good rythem, but makes almost no sence. What the f*ck is Prevenge anyway and how do you plan for it?

I think "prevenge" means something like "to take revenge before the the act that has made you want to take revenge has taken place" or in other words get back at someone before they actually get you. at least, that's what it's defined as at Urbandictionary: urbandictionary.com/define.php

"Can you tell that I'm planning prevenge? Read my mind, yes, I'm planning prevenge At the freak show In the front row Mi amigo lost in the sound"

A guy goes to a concert with a friend, his friend goes in first, he gets left behind likely because he's either underage or doesn't have a ticket, he can't get a hold of his friend because his friend can't hear him over the sound of the concert.

"Now you know that the girls are just making it up Now you know that the boys are just pushing their luck Now you know that my ride doesn't really exist And my name's not really on that list"

The girls get in easily because the ticket checkers are likely male. The boys line makes sense in the next verse, I have no idea about the ride, maybe his friend isn't actually there but he's trying to get in anyway by lying. His name isn't on the list of people to let in.

"Fully moto On the headfo Rock the info The micro-type king"

I have no idea

I also have no idea about the Pupkin part

"Tired of waiting Tired of watching Negotiating Parading around"

He's tried everything and still sticks around either waiting for his friend or waiting in hopes of the guards softening up

So, summary: Guy goes to a concert, is pissed that he can't get in, is already planning a way to get back at his friend for leaving him behind.

i'm cool with the popular interpretation of the song. i was thinking it was more of a "prevenge" on the doorman, than his friend. "Pupkin" is a reference to the Martin Scorsese movie "The King of Comedy". Robert DeNiro plays Rupert Pupkin who is an aspiring late night talk show host and mega, obsessive fan of a talk show host played by Jerry Lewis. You can read the synopsis online, but the sentiment of the songs' subject and the actions of Rupert Pupkin are very similar. I do highly recommend King of Comedy, it's my favorite Scorsese movie.

This song is about a dude who has been burned by his friends before, so he's all paranoid now...

So he is like invited to a party, where all his girl friends are "making it up" (liking him) and his "ride" to the party from his friends "doesn't exist".

Of course, not all of this is proven yet, the singer assumes that this is the truth. He is pissed about this thought, and is thus planning "prevenge" for these actions that are to take place in the future.

Believe it or not, I think this is sort of a sci-fi song that’s somewhat reminiscent of the original sci-fi tinged version of “First Kiss” (Severe Tire Damage). It might be stretching it, but it could even be a sequel to “First Kiss” told from the POV of a jealous rival that song’s main character.

The speaker is a waiter in the 1945 film “The Clock” (I’m not sure, but I think the character might be listed on IMDB as “Man Smoking Pipe” played by writer Robert Nathan).

Background info: In “The Clock” Alice Mayberry (Judy Garland) and Joe Allen (Robert Walker) meet and decide to marry over the course of two days. On the second day, they try to have a romantic dinner at a New York café. However, a waiter sits down uncomfortably close to them and hovers over their every word while smoking a pipe. Similarly, in the film “The King of Comedy” Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) and Rita Keane (Diahnne Abbott) have dinner at a Chinese restaurant in New York. While Rupert is trying to pick up on Rita, a mysterious man in the background if trying to interfere by, I suppose, flirting with Rita and mocking Rupert. Neither characters’ motives are revealed in their respective films. I believe Flansburgh noticed the uncanny similarities between these two odd scenes and came with a scenario to explain the appearance of the waiter in “The Clock.”

In “Prevenge” the waiter comes from the future and is involved in some diabolical plot to interfere with the relationship of the couple he’s watching. The couples’ two-day courtship is a “freak show,” and silently seated beside them, the waiter has a front row seat to their would-be intimate dinner. Convinced that relationships like this are a sham (girls just making it up; boys just pushing their luck), the waiter is intent on taking preemptory revenge upon the couple. Rather than an actual waiter, he is an interloper from the future who has brought himself onto the scene in order to carry out some selfish plan that he expect will change the course of the couples’ (and possibly his own) future. His “ride” is a time machine that hasn’t been invented in the timeline of Alice and Joe, and he’s only posing as the restaurant’s waiter (would a waiter be allowed to take such an intrusive break?) in order to meddle.

The puzzling slang of his internal thoughts (fully moto / on the headfo = very MOTivated, sitting with his HEAD FOrward) are indicative of the “waiter’s” “future speak.” Additionally, he invites a character from the future, “The King of Comedy’s” Rupert Pupkin, to join in on the plot to subvert the couple’s “love-in.”

p.s. I think the speaker might actually be inviting the unnamed character seated behind Rupert Pupkin at the aforementioned Chinese restaurant, but lyrics such as this would be horrifyingly cumbersome:

Calling my friend, whose name I can’t mention because no one knows it, but who sat at a table in a restaurant next to Ms. Mayberry and Mr. Pupkin To join us at the love-in…