We Are 138 Video (MV)

The meaning of and inspiration for the song's lyrics have been subject to much interpretation.

One common interpretation is that the song was inspired by the 1971 science fiction film THX 1138, directed by George Lucas, which is set in a dystopian future wherein the emotions and desires of the human population are controlled by android police.

Misfits bassist Jerry Only and former Misfits guitarist Bobby Steele have reportedly supported this interpretation. Danzig's former bandmates have also recalled Danzig having created badges featuring a half-human half-android with the number "138" on its forehead. According to an email sent by Steele on July 1, 1996, to an online mailing list known as the Misfits Bible:

We used to have badges with a picture of a robot with 138 on his forehead. I wonder if Jerry has one, or remembers it... He [Danzig] used to tell us that if someone asked what it meant, we should just laugh, and in a mocking tone say 'What? You don't know?' and sound real snobby when you say it. Make them feel like every idiot but YOU knows what it means.

Only reportedly told a similar story to a fan after a performance on July 27, 1996, stating that the song "is like people being treated as androids where you have a number instead of a name... We had buttons made once, they were robots with '138' that looked like half human android kinda things".

However, in a 2000 interview with TWEC.com, Danzig stated that the other members of the Misfits "didn't write it, and they don't know what the fuck it's about. It's about violence."