Panic! At The Disco: The Meaning

7. Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off

  The title comes from the movie Closer  where Natalie Portman says "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, but it's better if you do."  

The movie deals with Portman, Owen, Julia Roberts, and Jude Laws characters all sleeping around, lying, cheating, and so on to one another. Jude Law publishes a book titled "The Aquarium". Julia Roberts and Clive Owen meet in an aquarium. This song has a lot of influence from the movie.

The song seems to deal with cheating, as evidenced by the video, where everyone has fish tanks surrounding their heads. We see a girl walking down the street who notices a stray fish (representing a boy). She picks it up and puts it in her tank (representing sleeping with a boy). Her boyfriend finds out and dies. She discovers him, and does the same. The ambulance team, played by the band, puts them in the water, where they are reincarnated, never to surface again.

This, along with other songs on the album, was inspired by guitarist Ryan Ross' anger towards his girlfriend from home who had cheated on him, thereby ending their three-year relationship. He told the Guardian newspaper June 20, 2008:

  "At the time it felt like the world had ended. I hated everything. It affected that whole album. I guess it's good that I wrote it down. I might have stabbed somebody."  

Brendon Urie: For this song, we were watching that movie The Closer with Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. Natalie Portman was so sexy, she plays a stripper, and wears this pink wig. Her and Clive Owen have a couple of lines that they share. We thought that was so cool. Clive's character says "tell me something true, and she says to him "lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off." Then she says "But It's Better If You Do" 

  Is it still me that makes you sweat?
Am I who you think about in bed?
When the lights are dim and your hands are shaking as you're sliding off your dress?  

Brendon Urie: Our guitar player, Ryan's girlfriend cheated on him. A lot of this first verse came from conversations I would have with him. We would hang out alone, when he finally told me what had happened during a heart to heart. I asked him: What happened? How does that make you feel? Are you cool? And he was like, "No, you know what? I bet when she is fucking this other dude she is saying my name." So this song was more about having vitriol for another person instead of compassion. 

  Well, then think of what you did
And how I hope to God he was worth it
When the lights are dim and your heart is racing as your fingers touch your skin  

Continuing on what was said in the first half of the verse,  this section further reveals Ryan's thought process about his unfaithful girlfriend. He wants the memory of her sins  to ruin the fun she thinks she'll be having tonight.

"I hope to God he was worth it" refers to how the girl ruined her relationship with Ryan. He hopes she's happy, since she destroyed what they had and he is heartbroken.

  I've got more wit
A better kiss
A hotter touch a better fuck
Than any boy you'll ever meet
Sweetie you had me
Girl, I was it, look past the sweat
A better love deserving of
Exchanging body heat in the passenger seat
No, no, no, you know it will always just be me  

Ryan feels that he's the better choice for her in every way. He asks her to look past the testosterone, past the moment, at the long-run. Pull back the pretty boy exterior and realize this guy is nothing more than dull. He wants to know if the boy she cheated on him with was worth having sex instead of staying loyal to him. He believes she'll always love the narrator, and that she's blown it.

In his mind, he has a visual of them being intimate in a car. Imagining what your ex is doing with someone else is a dangerous situation many people find themselves in.

  Let's get these teen hearts beating
Faster, faster  

This line serves as a double-entendre. The cleaner meaning is basically describing an adrenaline rush – which could be referring to sex, love, or revenge. The "faster, faster" part is also a vaguely sexual; Brendon sings this in a slight falsetto with a sound of desperation.

  So testosterone boys and harlequin girls
Will you dance to this beat
And hold a lover close?  

These lines call out to stereotypical teenagers. 'Testosterone boys' refers to hormone-fueled teenage boys who aren't thinking clearly. A harlequin is a clown or buffoon, so 'harlequin girls' are girls who are covered in makeup and easily fall for the boys' romantic advances.

He's encouraging the oblivious lovers, like his ex-girlfriend and the new boy, to continue their blind affection. He's to the point where he could care less what others are doing – he's ready to focus on himself.

  So I guess we're back to us
Oh, cameraman, swing the focus
In case I lost my train of thought 
Where was it that we last left off? (let's pick up, pick up)  

  He's done talking to other young people, he wants to bring the attention back to his ex and himself. He wants the focus to be on them, like how a camera focuses. Furthermore, he's swinging his ex's attention back from "her and the other guy" to "her and himself."  

Once the figurative camera focuses, and he remembers where the story left off, he's ready to continue.

  Oh, now I do recall
We just were getting to the part
Where the shock sets in
And the stomach acid finds a new way to make you get sick  

He is confronting his girlfriend about her cheating. However, he isn't begging for her to come back to him. He doesn't feel sad or hopeless, but rather angry and wants to humiliate her by taunting her.

She never thought her boyfriend would find out about her secret, but he did and now she regrets sleeping with someone else. She has to deal with the guilt that comes after cheating and the fact that she must accept the consequences of her actions – it makes her feel sick to her stomach.

  I sure hope you didn't expect to get all of the attention
Let's not get selfish
Did you really think I'd let you kill this chorus?  

  Although his ex is the focus of the verses in the song, during the choruses, he focuses a little bit less on her and more on sending a message to the audience. He's not going to let her get on his nerves anymore, especially since she's the one still moaning his name.  

  Urie explains his role-playing in this lyric with Coup de Main: 

Brendon Urie: I like that. A lyric like that, a song like Hurricane , I like playing a cocky figure sometimes – like, you'd really think I'd let you get all the attention? Come on, buddy. It's like one of those cocky arrogant personas you can throw on and there is something fun about doing that. I have carte blanche [complete freedom] to play different characters.