Is She Really Going Out With Him?

The speaker watches women with men he considers unattractive and cannot understand their choices. His attention shifts from a woman he once knew to Jeanie at a party, while he tries to look confident himself. The repeated question shows his disbelief and jealousy, which grow into anger and possessiveness.

The “gorillas” are an insulting comparison: the speaker sees the men as rough or unattractive, though this also reveals his own judgmental attitude. His coffee going cold suggests he is so absorbed in watching that he neglects what he is doing. When he says a man is “marked down as dead” if looks could kill, he uses an exaggerated expression to convey hostile jealousy, not a literal threat.

The lyrics can be heard as comic because the speaker’s confidence in his own opinions seems absurd, especially when he admits he “kid[s]” himself about looking smooth. But the humor has an uncomfortable edge: he talks as if the women’s choices are a mistake and tells a man to take his hand away from a woman. The song leaves open whether he is mainly mocking social ideas about looks or exposing his own insecurity—and perhaps both.