When It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiered on FX in the summer of 2005, it did so with little fanfare and less attention. But the show quickly developed a cult following. Now the show is still going strong and gearing up for its 15th season.
With more than 150 episodes under its belt, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has a large pool of characters with extensive histories that make the series' internal lore surprisingly dense. Yet each of them has one iconic scene that best summarizes their years of character development — and insanity.
10 Charlie - Pepe Silvia
Over the years, everyone in the gang has grown from mildly amoral to completely debased and/or mentally unhinged. As the most soft-hearted of the gang — or at least less overtly sociopathic than the rest — Charlie's the most damaged and paranoid among them.
Never was Charlie's paranoia on more iconic display than in the season four episode "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack." When Charlie gets a job in a corporate mailroom, he develops an insane conspiracy around a mysterious man named Pepe Silvia. The episode never explains Silvia's identity, but fans aware of Charlie's illiteracy figured out that he was misreading the word "Pennsylvania" on all the mail.
9 Mac - The Dance
Season 13 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia may be its weakest season, but contains arguably its best episode. Years-long narrative constructions about Mac's latent homosexuality culminated in a truly magnificent dance sequence at the climax of the season finale episode, "Mac Finds His Pride."
In an about-face from the show's typical irreverence, the episode takes seriously Mac's approach to coming out to his father. Actor Rob McElhenny, who had in the past purposefully gained a tremendous amount of weight for the show, got into incredible physical fitness for this episode. Mac/McElhenny performed a genuinely moving ballet that depicts the character's struggles with his sexuality. Mac's artistic expression brought Frank — and viewers — to genuine tears.
8 Dennis - Untethered Rage
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is unabashed about its characters' Flanderization. And the show's writers are adept at spinning this narrative "problem" into comedy gold. Dennis spells it out in the season 10 episode "The Gang Misses the Boat": "I used to be a cool guy ... I fly off the handle every five seconds now."
Dennis then spends the episode bottling up his anger — "I'm gonna go back to being what I was before: a cool guy" — until it erupts out of him. After a "vile man" insults his beloved Range Rover, Dennis unleashes his fury "like the crashing of a thousand waves": "This car ... is a transporter of gods, the Golden God! I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds!"
7 Dee - A (Literal) Bird
Is it fair to name a scene as Sweet Dee's most iconic if actor Kaitlin Olson doesn't even appear in it? Perhaps not, but the bathroom scene from the season 6 episode "Who Got Dee Pregnant?" boils down to its essence the way the rest of the gang sees and treats Dee.
A long-running It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia gag has the gang forever mocking Dee for looking like a bird and shouting at her to "shut up, bird!" The running joke reaches its peak in this Rashomon-style episode. Mac describes a conversation with Dee from his point of view, and Dee appears in the scene portrayed not by Olson but by an ostrich, screeching and squawking at Mac nonsensically.
6 Frank - Going Depraved
In season 2, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia added Danny DeVito to its cast as Dennis and Dee's dad, Frank. Originally portrayed as a successful and wealthy businessman, Frank slowly transformed into a true member of the gang — he's not even Dennis and Dee's father anymore — and its most depraved.
Frank's descent into madness plummets to appalling depths in the season 5 episode "The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention." He dives into a beer-fueled stupor, tries to sleep with his sister-in-law and his niece, and smokes drugs at a family funeral. "I don't know how many years on this Earth I got left," Frank says. "I'm gonna get real weird with it." He's never turned back.
5 The McPoyles - Holding Paddy’s Hostage
The McPoyle siblings first appear early in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's run as rivals to the gang. The apparently inbred McPoyles usually dress in bathrobes and are always inexplicably clammy with sweat. But the subtext of their creepiness is made text in the season 3 episode "The Gang Gets Held Hostage."
The McPoyles, armed with guns, invade Paddy's Pub and make the gang their hostages. With the gang at their mercy, Liam and Ryan McPoyle, along with their mute sister Margaret, openly mack on each other at the bar. Even more disgustingly, they guzzle their favorite beverage: milk. Why is an adult drinking milk so disturbing? It just is.
4 The Waitress - Sleeping With Frank
Certain side characters on the show start out as foils to the main characters in that they are seemingly normal people who suffer the fallout of the gang's behavior. But these characters usually reveal their own internal chaos eventually.
The Waitress is the OG of this pattern. The sober, straight-laced object of Charlie's obsession (not that he knows her name) eventually reveals her own obsession with Dennis. It drives her to fall off the wagon and sleep with Dennis' father, Frank, in a self-destructive attempt to make Dennis jealous. It doesn't work, of course. And the Waitress has only found new rock bottoms since then.
3 Artemis - Sleeping With Frank
There's something unique about Dee's eccentric friend Artemis. Bizarre and borderline reprobate in her own right, Artemis is unapologetic and self-actualized enough to orbit the gang without allowing them to draw her into their whirlpool of chaos to the point of self-destruction.
Artemis and her strong personality achieve her funniest moments when she forms a sexual if not romantic relationship with Frank. Unlike the Waitress, Artemis actually enjoys her encounters with him, which are based in sexual food-play. This culminates in "makeup sex in a dumpster out back of Wendy's." According to Frank, no-shame Artemis was "going berserk; she loves that kind of stuff."
2 Maureen Ponderosa - Becoming A Cat Person
Maureen Ponderosa first shows up on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as an odd if not yet entirely bizarre character. She and Dennis briefly marry, but soon divorce for Dennis-y reasons. Later, Maureen regains Dennis' attention with a breast augmentation ("My, Maureen, you've... you've enhanced yourself.")
That proved to be only the beginning of Maureen's body modifications. In the season 12 episode "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer," Maureen fully embraces her long-running cat obsession. She drastically alters her appearance to become a cat person, and she changes her name to Bastet, after the feline Egyptian goddess.
1 Cricket - Choosing To Stay A Street Rat
No one has suffered at the hands of the gang more than Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara. Then again, isn't everyone responsible for their own choices in life? After all, even though Dee asked Cricket to leave the priesthood for her, he didn't have to do it. But he did it.
Going from a man of the cloth to a homeless "street rat" and hustler, Cricket's ever-evolving depravity makes the gang look like upstanding members of society. But in the season 12 episode "A Cricket's Tale," he appears to clean up his act and work toward a better life. In the end, though, it all turns out to be a drug-fueled hallucination. And though his father does still offer him a job and a path to normalcy, Cricket turns him down in favor of making out with dogs and smoking PCP.
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