The Top 5 Times ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Got Meta
If the Emmys had an award category for “Best Meta Episode in A Sitcom About Psychotic Pennsylvania Bar Owners,” they’d still find a way to snub It’s Always in Philadelphia.
When you’re the stars, producers and writers of the longest-running live-action sitcom in American television history, every now and then, you have to take a good, hard look at your own formula and see what works and what doesn’t. Then, you have to take that self-examination and turn it into one of the best episodes in the history of TV comedy. Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton understand this charge well, and throughout It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s record-breaking 16 seasons, they’ve created some of the finest meta comedy ever with enough meta episodes to make up an entire meta season.
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Here are the top five times It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia got meta, starting with…
“The Gang Does A Clip Show”
The first and easily most surreal entry on the list is this Season 13 experiment in sitcom deconstruction as the gang muddles their memories and parodies Seinfeld in a feverish send-up of traditional TV comedy and its most tired tropes. At the same time, the complicated plot structure lifted from Inception further blurs the line between delirium and reality, and the credits on “The Gang Does A Clip Show” close with about as unsatisfying a conclusion as the one from the film.
“Paddy’s Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia”
All the way back in Season Four, Always Sunny acknowledged a running theme in the cultural discussion surrounding the show that continues to this day — critics simply aren’t impressed by their loud, crass and chaotic operation, and the snobs are not afraid to express their less-than-enthusiastic feelings toward the show over a glass of white wine. In “Paddy’s Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia,” Charlie Kelly does what Charlie Day probably wishes he could do and forcefully invites one critic to change his tone after Paddy’s Pub gets a particularly nasty (and probably accurate) evaluation.
“The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7”
Every other Always Sunny episode and special concerning the gang’s additions to the Lethal Weapon series has been blacklisted by streamers over blackface concerns — unlike the film franchise’s actual star, Mel Gibson, who has never had a project pulled from Hulu and is famously so sensitive toward the Black community. In “The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7,” the gang tries, and fails, to make a Lethal Weapon movie that is both watchable and woke enough to be included in a library catalog. Just wait until Mac makes Lethal Weapon 8…
“The Gang Tries Desperately to Win An Award”
As the most obligatory entry on the list and the most overt meta episode in Always Sunny history, “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win An Award” is a hilarious send-up of the show’s status as an anti-awards-darling. Through the rival bar Sudz, Always Sunny fans get a taste of what the show would be like if Emmy voters ran the series instead of McElhenney, Howerton and Day, and, frankly, we prefer the grimier, grosser and much less romantic version better — spiders and all.
“The Gang Recycles Their Trash”
This Season Eight episode is such a self-aware masterpiece that even the title is a meta joke. When a sanitation strike gives the gang the opportunity to cut in on the garbage men’s operation, the Always Sunny writers simultaneously resolve to pull up their bootstraps, oil up some keyboards and do some garbage collecting of their own. There are so many references to past schemes and rehashing of old lines that it’s hard to pick a favorite. But for my money, you can’t beat Charlie pulling another “Wild card, bitches!” and jumping out the back of a second moving van only for Dennis to keep driving, brakes intact.