Fall Out Boy performing at House of Blues

They titled their latest record “Save Rock and Roll.”

But what exactly did Fall Out Boy rescue it from?

Read on and find out:

Macho Posturing

Traditionally, rock stars have been expected to be musically inclined extensions of their genitalia.

Think about that whole “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll” cliche — there’s a reason “sex” comes first and the music comes last.

Rockers are idolized, at least in part, because they get to do all the things no one else can realistically get away with.

When Keith Moon drives a car into a swimming pool, it’s funny.

When Ozzy Osbourne snorts fire ants, it’s funnier still.

You try and do the same, and the one who will be doing any laughing is your cellmate as he cleanses his undergarments with your tears.

We like our rock stars to be human crash test dummies, sacrificing their livers and mental well-being while shagging everything in sight — except when it’s your mom.

The dudes in Fall Out Boy, on the other hand, have always been a decidedly different breed of rock star, unabashedly sensitive types, the kind of dudes who probably DVR “Girls.”

Yeah, bassist Pete Wentz went through a phase of putting photos of his junk on the Internet, but hey, that’s nothing compared to the type of headlines that Tommy Lee’s family jewels have made.

Because they’re so innocuous, these guys often get dismissed as nancy boys.

The thinking goes like this: You have the license to do pretty much anything you want and you’re acting like nice, relatively well-adjusted fellows?

Yeah, kind of refreshing, really.

Sure, they wear their hearts on their sleeves, but at least they have hearts to begin with.

Trolls

What happens when a punching bag punches back?

Trolls get knocked out.

Case in point: Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump’s recent righteously brutal Twitter take down of an online heckler.

“You’re trolling for barrels full of fish to shoot on message boards of bands you spend so much time hating, you might as well like,” Stump wrote.

“While we’re on the subject of voluntary irrelevance; Trolling itself is kind of over. It’s too transparently sad. You’re just a reality star nobody’s wasting the memory stick on. You went straight to washed up. ... Perhaps one could point out how I like pretty much everybody and even I don’t like you. ... See, those are all better insults because even my insults are more dignified than you are.”

Damn.

The lesson here, kids: If you don’t have something nice to say, say it to someone other than this dude.

Snark

Remember that scene from “Reality Bites” when Winona Ryder was asked to define irony only to stammer and sputter like a lawn mower running out of gasoline?

No?

Good for you.

The movie pretty much sucked, but that scene was a keeper, because it knowingly goofed on the notion that sardonic ’90s hipster types didn’t really understand the meaning behind the ironic poses that they were often using to define themselves.

Hence, it was just a bunch of empty gestures, by-the-numbers disaffection.

A decade later, Fall Out Boy began to get mired in a similar trap.

They tried so hard to be clever simply for the sake of being clever that it felt hollow and meaningless, like even they didn’t know what they were trying to say.

The band became a caricature of forced, aimless snark with cloying song titles such as “You’re Crashing, But You’re No Wave,” “I’m Like a Lawyer with the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You),” “I’ve Got All This Ringing in My Ears and None on My Fingers” and plenty more.

Worse, it inspired legions of other bands to follow suit as emo became one big inside joke devoid of a punch line.

Thankfully, Fall Out Boy has toned down the sarcasm and turned up the volume on the revelrous, invigorated “Save Rock and Roll.”

For the most part, the band plays it straight, which is why the record is worth playing again.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at
jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.