It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been delivering laughs for over a dozen seasons, but a few scenes stand above the rest as the funniest ever.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is a historically good sitcom that rarely misses the mark. Even after running for an impressive 14 seasons and with season 15 in the works, the show manages to stay fresh and keep viewers entertained. A major reason for this is that the main characters happen to be the worst people in Philadelphia.
Their lack of a moral compass offers flexibility; the gang can pretty much do anything they want. There’s no law they won’t break and no comment too offensive. This winning formula has provided countless hilarious scenes, making highlighting just ten was extremely difficult.
Chardee MacDennis is a diabolical board game invented by the original four members of the gang. It’s an amalgamation of almost every board game with an added brutality that could only come from the minds of the worst people in Philadelphia.
At one point during the game, Mac, Frank, and Charlie are throwing darts at Dennis’ hand, which is pressed against a dartboard, with the intention of making Dennis flinch. Frank nails Dennis’ hand right in the middle, only for Dennis to snatch away a seemingly assured victory by producing no reaction whatsoever. The man feels nothing.
In terms of dialogue, acting, and absurdity, there isn’t anything stand-out about this scene. In fact, there are plenty of superior well-crafted comedic moments. But none provide the shock factor of seeing Mac grossly overweight. Rob McElhenney gained 60 pounds for season 7, hoping to add a new dimension to the character.
It wasn’t a guaranteed hit, but it worked. Watching Fat Mac walk into the bar for the first time will forever remain iconic. The scene was further heightened by Mac’s nonchalance, as if his weight gain was nothing noteworthy.
With the return of “Psycho Pete,” Dennis and Dee visit a psychiatrist hoping to get medication. Dee attempts to act insane but fails because, well, because her acting is terrible. This triggers Dennis, who loses control and lets his actual insanity loose in a rage-fueled and violent monologue.
He threatens to put Dee’s head in a box and add her to his collection. They leave with the medication and Dennis leaves with a diagnosis. Finally, he’s a full-fledged psychopath.
Hit with the news that the waitress is getting married, Mac and Dennis decide to set up an online dating profile for Charlie. But don’t mistake this for a rare selfless act; the pair are just worried Charlie might lose it and kill everyone if he finds out about the waitress.
This scene perfectly encapsulates Charlie’s madness and the frustration it causes the rest of the gang. His dating profile answers include magnets as a hobby (just magnets), a fear of people’s knees, and that his favorite food is milk steak. Naturally, Dennis inputs his own answers, otherwise Charlie would never attract a woman.
Dennis is the ladies’ man of the gang, though it’s a low bar, and his pursuit of women magnifies his well-known psychopathy. Fans are only briefly introduced to Dennis’ ways of seduction without a full exploration, so it was exciting for the writers to dedicate an entire episode to the nuances of Dennis’ system, aptly named the D.E.N.N.I.S. system. Each letter represents the steps the golden god takes to win a woman’s heart before “separating entirely.”
Of course, the entire system descends into chaos when the rest of the gang get involved. Charlie unsuccessfully tries it on the waitress, whilst Mac and Frank devise their own system once Dennis closes the deal.
Dee’s sudden heart attack spurred the rest of the gang to think about their own health. Charlie and Mac get a job in a mailroom, meaning they now have health insurance. This is lucky because not long after, Charlie has a mental breakdown.
Unable to keep up with the inordinate amount of mail, coupled with his new smoking habit, Charlie manically describes to Mac how he keeps receiving mail for “Pepe Silvia,” yet the man doesn’t exist. Neither does Carol in HR. Don’t believe him? Just ask his imaginary friend Barney.
What’s worse than Frank Reynolds? Well, a naked Frank Reynolds. Trying to prove to Frank that everyone hates him, Dee, Dennis and Frank attend a Christmas party at the company where Frank used to work. They stitch Frank into the sofa (on request) so that he can listen to what’s being said without seeming obvious.
But it’s very obvious that there’s a man sewn into the couch. Frank then begins to overheat, ripping the couch open and emerging from it completely naked, like a gross baby entering the world. It’s fantastic physical comedy, reminiscent of Jim Carey emerging from the rhino in Ace Ventura.
Charlie’s illiteracy is funny for viewers but frustrating for the gang. It causes all sorts of problems, such as when he signed the bar up to host a dance contest and wagered the bar as the winning prize, thinking the word said “pride.” Similar to Dennis’ methods with women, we only see Charlie’s illiteracy in snippets, used for a quick laugh.
But in “The Gang Runs For Office,” Charlie writes an entire speech for the candidate, Dennis. Dennis’ reading of the speech is a hilarious scene. There isn’t a single coherent sentence, and Charlie obviously doesn’t know what the word “democratic” means.
Charlie Kelly is a talented musician. He’s a pro at the piano and wrote his very own musical. In “The Gang Tries Desperately To Win An Award,” Charlie writes a catchy tune in the style of Randy Newman. The song is brilliant but the cynicism of the gang meant they locked Charlie in the basement to prevent him from performing his smash hit.
Later on in the episode, Charlie escapes the basement and makes his way to the piano, but by now, the song has completely changed. Fueled by all of the glue he huffed, Charlie’s new song is a chaotic tribute to the spiders eating his soul.
If there’s one thing Mac is proud of, it’s his faith. The die-hard Catholic is constantly referencing God, attending church-goer cruises, and pontificating to an uninterested gang. His dedicated approach to Catholicism means he doesn’t believe in evolution. And in “Reynolds vs. Reynolds: The Cereal Defense,” Mac lays out a compelling argument against the science.
To summarize: all of the smartest people have been proven wrong before, so why not this time? This simple argument manages to sway Charlie, Frank, and Dee. Sure, it’s a low bar, but it was still impressive.
