My Chemical Romance’s ex-guitarist Frank Iero had one of the most anticipated albums of 2014; Stomachaches left MCR fans feeling very nostalgic about the new material but many took comfort in this new sound. With videos for Weighted and Joyriding released not long after the initial album nobody expected Frank to release a video for Prettiest Girl at the Party and especially not about a love story between two bears.
The video begins with a male bear peaking on a young lady every day at the same time until he shaves his fur off to reveal a human and finally talks to the young girl, he creates a bond with the lady before parts of his body start to morph back into bear parts until once again transforming back into a bear. The girl sees this and reveals herself as a bear also and they both run off to have fun in a park while holding hands and kissing each other. The video is very simple to explain but it’s very difficult to figure out a deeper logic of the meaning of using bears to represent our inner selves.
When Frank was asked on twitter “Why Bears?” his response was “The messengers are trivial. It’s the message that matters. Bears simply stand in for our true selves.” Now when I question the use of bears I simply think why not bears, the story of love conquering the lie of being human is the message; she may not be the prettiest girl at the party to us but she is to him and she can prove it, why should we question it. Frank Iero has always been one for thinking outside the box and that goes for this very clever video, who knows what he’ll think of next but it will definitely be a work of art to match his career.