Talk:You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison

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Here's an interview, they mention the song a few minutes in; about writing the song, not much on it though...[] Dizzydark 03:59, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

A word on greatest hits albums

The inclusion of promotional singles in greatest hits compilation albums is the norm. A great example of this is the case of pop-punk Reprise Records labelmate Green Day who have two "greatest hits" albums, both of which follow the same format as May Death Never Stop You, going through Green Day's successful albums in order and including singles from each.

Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band covers the singles from Green Day's albums from Kerplunk! (which is just represented by a random song from the album as no singles were released from it) to the at-the-time newest, Revolution Radio. The more popular albums get more representation, with all four Dookie singles plus the promotional single being included.

International Superhits! is the earlier and even more comparable Green Day compilation as it was released when they had only had four successful albums under their belt, and My Chemical Romance also released four albums. Thus, the compilation is able to include every single and one promotional single from each album, as does May Death Never Stop You with the exceptions of the singles "Headfirst for Halos" (even though "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" from the same album, and My Chemical Romance's one non-"Thank You for the Venom" promotional single, is included, showing the value they were placing on promotional singles) and "I Don't Love You" (which happens to have had a significantly worse performance on the charts than the other three singles released from The Black Parade, making the inclusion of non-singles "Cancer" and "Mama" in place of it more sensible than such a substitution usually would, since "I Don't Love You" wasn't really one of their greatest hits.

Similarly, "Thank You for the Venom" did not receive the recognition it normally would as a promotional single (like what "Vampires Will Never Hurt You", which was not a big hit but held to lower standards due to the first album's circumstances, got with its inclusion on the compilation) because it did not do well on the charts and so a fan-favorite and popular, notable song like "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" was a better fit for the compilation. PizzaStallion (talk) 05:34, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

@PizzaStallion: I am, frankly, confounded by your repeated assertion that there is some rulebook dictating how Greatest Hits albums should be structured. This is, first and foremost, a page about "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison". It is a fact that it was included on May Death Never Stop You. It is not a fact that whoever put together the tracklist here, whether execs or the band, decided to choose it over "Thank You For the Venom" because this one was a fan-favorite and the other one underperformed. The source suggests this as its reason, but it would be undue weight to include it in the article as though this is the "actual" reason. Hell, the source even wrongly calls "Venom" a single as part of its rationale. Maybe it's worth a line in the article for "Venom": something like "However, Evan Sawdey believed the song was omitted from May Death Never Stop You because it was "dry-sounding" in comparison to "YKWTDtGLUiP"". But it's not worth a line in this article.

Your argument comparing it to Green Day's greatest hits album is also flawed. For one, this is original research. There is no source suggesting that MCR based their greatest hits album off of Green Day's International Sueprhits!, and any attempt to compare the two thus has no place on Wikipedia. In addition, even if you want to bring other albums into this, there are also countless examples of greatest hits albums with non-single songs on it. Some examples: Greatest Hits (1983 Air Supply album) (includes "Bring Out the Magic" and "Chances", not released as singles), Greatest Hits (Blink-182 album) (includes "Carousel", not a single), Greatest Hits (Alice Cooper album) (includes "Is It My Body" and "Desperado", not released as singles), etc. Hopefully I've made my case clear here, and you can reconsider. Leafy46 (talk) 16:23, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

@PizzaStallion: Any response here? Otherwise, I'm going to undo the additions for the reasons I've listed above. Leafy46 (talk) 02:38, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

I was going to revert my edit and add your sentence to the Venom page but that's like, barely a page, and I ended up not bothering. I'll just revert it now. PizzaStallion (talk) 05:39, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Gotcha. Thanks for being a good sport about it, and thank you for the other improvements you've made to this article! Leafy46 (talk) 17:38, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Leafy46 (talk · contribs) 21:16, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: Zmbro (talk · contribs) 20:38, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Seems easy enough. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 20:38, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

• Hi zmbro, thank you so much for taking up this review! I'm a big fan of your work, especially your recent Springsteen FAs. I'll get to your comments soon :) Leafy46 (talk) 22:34, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
• I believe that I have addressed all of your points, though I've asked for additional clarification on some of them; please feel free to respond to them whenever you have a moment, and thank you so much for your prompt review! Leafy46 (talk) 00:21, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• Right, everything should be responded to. Let me know if you spot anything else! Leafy46 (talk) 03:15, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• Looks great to me! Happy to  Pass – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 14:33, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Comments

• Copyvio detector looks good at 29.6%. It's mostly just the song and album titles.
• Since the song is credited to the whole band, could we get away with just saying that in the lead? i.e. "The song was written by the band and was produced by Howard Benson."

• I also noticed this is the only time songwriters or the producer are mentioned in the article. I would at least add it to the body with a source.
• ? Sure, that works. There's no harm in being more specific imo, but I don't mind removing the band members. To your other point, all the songwriter info is in the 'Credits and personnel' section already; is that not sufficient?

• Usually I tend to have both songwriter(s) and producer in the body, especially if said producer had input in the writing/recording process. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 01:50, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• Alright then, added to the 'Composition and lyrics' section

• Add a year (or span of years) to the reunion tour

• Y Done.

• Any recording information on the song available? (like studio and date). A range is present on the album article but nothing here. It's no biggie if there's nothing available I'm just wondering

• I took a look around, but I couldn't find a date. As for the recording location, I couldn't say for sure either. The book (and, accordingly, what is in the article) says that the vocal take of the song was recorded in an attic, but there's no say as to whether it was recorded in Bay 7 or Sparky Dark.

• Ok that's not an issue then. If the info isn't available, it isn't available. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 01:50, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• and their fans;[10] My Chemical Romance → "and their fans.[10] My Chemical Romance"

• Y Good call, changed.

• Add some WP:ALTTEXT to the image; maybe add a side-by-side image of Gerard Way?

• ? Done for both. I'm not sure I like the side-by-side image, though; what do you think?

• I personally don't mind it. It makes sense to me to have an image of one of the band members, especially the one relevant to the song. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 01:50, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• For consistency's sake, add years to the Black Parade World tour and the reunion tour

• Y Done

• Not FAC but would an WP:AUDIOSAMPLE be appropriate?

• I'll need to consider what the best part to sample is, but I'll see what I can do. Leafy46 (talk) 00:21, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
• I've added one in from the start of the song, since that is the part primarily discussed in the

• This isn't a major deal but Consequence was still Consequence of Sound when the source was published. I'd acknowledge it as that.

• N Eh... they're the same website, and since their former name is not mentioned at all in the source, I don't think it's worth making a separate note about it here. Lmk if you still think otherwise.

• Not a big deal. I just know that for older music articles we like to acknowledge things like the Billboard 200 by its name at that point in time, i.e. Top LPs & Tape, since it wasn't called the Billboard 200 til the 90s. But again, not a major issue. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 01:50, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• Swap the AllMusic links in composition and reception; you also don't really need to fully name Johnny Loftus of AllMusic again

• Y Done, good catch!

• with the staffs of Spin and Billboard have included the song in their lists → "with the staffs of Spin and Billboard including the song in their lists"

• Y Done.

• Sourcing looks good! All reliable and laid out well. I would only change Apple Music to the publisher rather than in the title of ref 33

• Y Done.

Overall a nice article! One could make an argument about notability (as it was deleted back in 07), but I think you have enough list rankings and a book source to warrant it notable.

• Thank you :) That's definitely my rationale behind this page's notability, so I'm glad that you agree.

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here.No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by TarnishedPath talk 10:51, 21 September 2025 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that Gerard Way played pornography while recording the vocals of "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" as a form of method acting?

• Source: Tom Bryant, Not the Life It Seems (2014), pg. 93. " 'The method acting,' [Way] explained [...] "It's something that I've done time and time again while I've been recording. For example, when I sang "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison", I was running pornography in the room.

• • ALT1: ... that "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" was inspired by a kiss shared by Gerard Way and Bert McCracken during a game of truth or dare? Source: Tom Bryant, Not the Life It Seems (2014), pg. 95. "It seemed fitting that McCracken should sing backing vocals on the high-kicking, flailing stomp of 'You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison', a song inspired by the two singers sharing a kiss in a game of on-the-road truth or dare."
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Step by Step (Braxe + Falcon song)
  • Comment: Other suggestions for hooks (or ways to phrase these two hooks so that they are more hook-y) would be appreciated!

Improved to Good Article status by Leafy46 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 7 past nominations.

Leafy46 (talk) 16:13, 21 August 2025 (UTC).

• GA on August 21 and is of sufficient length. Earwig comes up as 29.6%, mostly from the lengthy song title. Both hooks are supported by offline hook references accepted in good faith. I personally find the original hook more interesting. QPQ is done. Good to go. Damian Vo (talk) 16:24, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

@Leafy46 and Damian Vo: AGF approval is deprecated. I can see the quotes and can confirm the hooks are in the article, so ticking this off myself.--Launchballer 22:47, 30 August 2025 (UTC)