Songfacts®:

• When a phone number is dialed by TV and movie characters, it's usually a fake one starting with 555. The numbers 555-0100 through 555-0199 have been reserved by the phone companies in order to prevent prank phone calls to real people.
  
  During this '80s electro-inspired song, Jimmy Eat World uses someone attempting to dial a nonexistent number to illustrate the struggle to keep going when life isn't working out.
  
  Got the feeling I've been talking to a dead, dead line
  There's always a reason to let it change
  Is there anyone there listening while you cry, cry, cry?
  There's always a reason for the pain
• Frontman Jim Adkins explained "555" alludes to the phone number that people plagued by poltergeists were urged to call in the Ghostbusters film. He explained to Kerrang:
  
  "I remember watching Ghostbusters as a kid, that was the number to call on their commercial, and I remember trying it. So the concept behind 555 is basically feeling frustration that your prayers, for lack of a better word, are going to an uncaring universe. Like, 'I'm doing everything right. Why can't I get a win?' There's no hope in that song.
  
  I feel like it's a struggle for acceptance. You're not going to get anywhere unless you honestly accept the reality of where you're at. If you can take that step, things seem a little less scary and hopeless. And that's it, but it's still super hard."
• The song's sci-fi music video features Jim Adkins as a supervillain in command of a legion of followers. He explained in a press release:
  
  "'555' sees me cast as a galactic evil master, overseeing an army of cloned species doing my bidding – this is the only life they know, joining me in song in this post-apocalyptic dystopia."