One of my absolute favorite sitcoms on the planet isIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Its unique blend of dark humor, absurd situations, relatable characters, and willingness to tackle controversial topics make it a hysterical watch full of relevancy and entertainment.
In honor of The Gang’s return for their 17th season, allow me to share with you my 10 favorite episodes ofIt’s Always Funny in Philadelphia.
You canstreamIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiaon Hulu. This list is not ranked but instead is laid out by season. Outside of the U.S., the series is available on Netflix in the U.K. and Ireland, and on Disney+ in Australia and Canada. Other regions may need to use a VPN to access the show on these services or on FX Networks with a U.S.-based subscription.
10Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare (Season 2, Episode 3)
Dennis and Dee Go On Welfarewas the first time I met The Gang, and it still cracks me up to this day. It’s the one that got me hooked.
I love this episode because it’s one of the first times we see how privileged Dennis and Dee grew up: When they go to buy drugs, they request “one crack rock, please” and think nothing of the $200 fee.
By the episode’s end, Dennis and Dee admit their faults (everyone does), but this experience starts a series-long battle with an addiction to crack—constantly fighting not going to get crack throughout the rest of the series.
9Hundred Dollar Baby (Season 2, Episode 5)
Patterned after Clint Eastwood’s filmMillion Dollar Baby, thisSunnyepisode is a favorite because it features iconic 80’s actor, Eddie Mekka, who played Carmine “The Big Ragoo” Ragusta inLaverne & Shirley, who shows up as an antagonistic boxing coach, and makes a big ole mess.
After being mugged, Frank (Danny DeVito) teaches Dee to inflict punishment with boxing lessons, while Dennis and Mac (Rob McElhenney) teach Charlie (Charlie Day) to take punishment.
While learning to fight, Sweet Dee and Charlie go on steroids and lose their minds, and Dennis and Mac join an underground fight club, where Mac gets destroyed. Dennis, however, wins big after he bets against Mac. Frank, of course, runs when things go south.
By the end, we find they’ve learned nothing as they wind up right back where they started: with the same crackhead mugging them again, with no retaliation.
8The Nightman Cometh (Season 4, Episode 13)
So, I’m not a fan of musicals. At all. However,The Nightman Comethis one for which I’ll make an exception.
This episode features a Charlie Day Original Play and marks the first time we learn about his musical ability. It’s also the first time we see Charlie move from being the whipping post in the group to being the leader. He’s the director of the play, which is really one big romantic gesture for The Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), who Charlie has been in love with since season one. However, because he’s illiterate, the play doesn’t translate the way he intends, and no one understands it—least of all, The Waitress.
The Nightman Comethis Charlie’s retelling of his childhood trauma, which isn’t funny in the story at all but is hysterical in the way The Gang acts it out. It establishes why Charlie behaves the way he does and allows us to see him in a different light.
7How Mac Got Fat (Season 7, Episode 10)
I love this episode because it’s all about what happens when you don’t hold yourself accountable and instead blame everyone else for your problems.
How Mac Got Fattakes place primarily in a confession booth with Mac talking to a priest while eating a garbage bag full of food, as he systematically blames his weight problem on everyone in The Gang but himself. The episode features little vignettes of his storytelling from his perspective, which show us how distorted Mac’s view of reality has become at this point.
This episode is important because it features Mac giving us the alternate storyline that took place between seasons, finally offering catharsis to the conundrum of how he got so fat (and why).
6The Gang Gets Analyzed (Season 8, Episode 5)
If there’s one juicy scenario featuring The Gang, it’s them going up against a therapist, which actually happens inThe Gang Gets Analyzed.It leads to the type of chaos and shenanigans you’d expect.
When Dee forces The Gang to attend therapy, their deep-seated mountain of issues and toxic dynamics are hilariously exposed. While The Therapist (played byReno 911andThe Four Seasonsactress Kerri Kenney) might be used to dealing with Dee, she’s not used to Frank’s sensitivity, Mac’s obtuseness, Dennis’s deceit, or Charlie’s eccentricities.
I love this episode because, outside of their reactions to being exposed, the episode showcases each member’s inability to self-reflect. Doing so allows it to become a scathing satire of modern self-help culture and therapy stereotypes.
In short,The Gang Gets Analyzedfeatures dysfunction at its very finest and most hilarious.
5The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award (Season 9, Episode 3)
If this was a ranked list, there are twoSunnyepisodes that would share the top spot on my list, andThe Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Awardis one of them. It features the best Charlie Day song on the planet, which—let’s be honest—has become an anthem, at least for me, on certain days.
In the episode, The Gang tries to win a Best Bar in Philadelphia Award by stealing ideas from other bars instead of just being themselves. They plan to make Paddy’s more welcoming with cues they’ve gathered from a previous Best Bar Award winner—brighter lights, behind-the-bar romantic subplots, and misunderstood drink specials.
The journey of the episode is The Gang failing horrifically at trying to imitate others, until the end, when Charlie, who’s high on paint fumes, comes out and sings the scathing and emotionalSpider Song—hence, showing The Gang’s true colors.
Season 9 episode 3 boasts this beautiful epiphany moment for The Gang. They finally realize who they are as people (horrible people) and what they are as a bar (a horrible bar), and it is indicated in them spitting on patrons to clear out the space.
4The Gang Saves the Day (Season 9, Episode 6)
The Gang Saves the Dayis so much fun to watch. After a routine trip to a convenience store places them in the middle of an armed robbery, The Gang each imagine their individual reactions.
We see Dee’s dream come true as she becomes a talented actress—of course, the rub here is that she isn’t—and Dennis’s story reveals just how much of a psychopath he really is.
Mac does real karate for the first time when we know, in real life on the show, he couldn’t land a kick on a wooden dummy if it was bolted to the ground. On the other hand, Charlie’s reaction is sweet—it’s animated and mimics the beginning of the Pixar movieUp, featuring him and The Waitress living their entire lives together. Finally, there’s Frank, who does what he does best: steals and runs.
What’s great about it is that it presents us with four pretty deep microcosmic stories in one episode.
3The Gang Turns Black (Season 12, Episode 1)
That other topSunnyepisode on my list and the best musical ever?The Gang Turns Black. This episode, in my opinion, is one of the series’ best.
One stormy night, while watchingThe Wizwith their erstwhile group member Old Black Man, The Gang’s electric heating blanket shorts out, and they awaken to find that they’re Black. To get back to being themselves, they must go through the entire gamut of classic body-swap movie techniques.
The motif? When you’ve just turned Black and you can’t switch back, you’ve got to go and find out the rules, and that’s exactly what The Gang does, as highlighted in excellent song.
While the episode was timely in the wake of Black Lives Matter, it’s clear that Howerton, McElhenney, and Day wrote it to highlight the obliviousness of their characters and the present disparity between how races other than white are treated.
The answers aren’t always clear, as Charlie points out at the end of the episode, basically saying, if we could all just sit down and iron out this racial fear, it would be okay. Ironically, it’s the illiterate, most unintelligent person in The Gang who’s always saying the most socially deep, relevant things about race relations in America.
2Mac Finds His Pride (Season 13, Episode 10)
I don’t know about you, butMac Finds His Prideis the most poignant, tear-jerker episode of the entireSunny in Philadelphiaseries. It had me sobbing.
Mac has finally acknowledged his sexuality, but Frank realizes Mac will never be secure until he comes out to his father. Because Mac struggles to find the words, he puts what he needs to say into action with a heart-stopping interpretive dance piece that represents his struggle with accepting he is gay.
Rob McElhenney (who recently officially changed his name to Rob Mac) trained for seven months to perform the scene, and to pull it off with the chemistry he and his co-star did was just magnificent. The choreography is so well done that each viewing shows you something new, which is the hallmark of any classic work of art. The episode also highlights the struggle that our alternative communities face, not only in accepting themselves but also in finding acceptance from others.
1Time’s Up for the Gang (Season 13, Episode 4)
When Paddy’s Pub gets listed on a “S****y Bar List” online as an unsafe place for women, The Gang is summoned to attend a sensitivity training seminar.
Dee imagines herself exempt since she’s a woman and casually arrives, munching on popcorn, belting out a “time’s up!” chant. As usual, though, no member of The Gang can escape public scrutiny when it comes to their absurd behavior, and Dee winds up discovering she’s the worst of them all. Charlie just gets drunk because he doesn’t understand what’s going on, and Frank spends his time on the phone litigating to pay off women in his past. Meanwhile, Mac and Dennis do what they do best: make everything about them.
Time’s Up for the Gangis a favorite because of the Dee-Mac role-play exercise, which resulted in the single most explosively funny sight gag inIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiahistory. The fact that the entire episode is masterminded by Dennis makes this narrative much darker while also illuminating its #MeToo territory.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiais a supreme satire of life, with dirtbag characters that highlight the seriousness of human issues with their ridiculous behavior. They are, in essence, a societal mirror. As one of the most anticipatedshows returning with a new seasonthis year, it’s fair to say, expect the unexpected and the most absurd.
Hulu
Stream all 16 seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu.
