Here Are All the Fan-Spotted Easter Eggs and Callbacks From the ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’/‘Abbott Elementary’ Crossover

Willard R. Abbott Elementary School and its students, teachers and administrators are now officially part of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia canon. We look forward to seeing what physical disfigurements and personal tragedies The Gang inflicts on them over the next 16 seasons.

In last week’s episode of Abbott Elementary, the highly anticipated “Volunteers” featuring Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Frank from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the combined writing staffs of Philadelphia’s two most beloved TV shows merged the characters, chemistry and sense of humor of the two drastically disparate sitcoms into a singular crosstown special that earned rave reviews from critics and fans of both shows. With the exception of Dennis’ unexcused absence (due to Glenn Howerton’s IRL scheduling constraints), “Volunteers” was a gold mine of classic moments from each member of the Paddy’s Pub Gang, and the writers took great care to properly introduce the Always Sunny characters to an ABC audience without upsetting the ABC censors.

But for those of us who are so deep on the Always Sunny lore that they could navigate the ventilation system of Paddy’s Pub with their eyes closed and a rubber gun to their head, “Volunteers” had numerous layers of deep cuts, references and Easter eggs just for the most observant and obsessive Always Sunny fans:

With respect to the Always Sunny superfan @boygeniusmac and the hard work they put into this list, some of these are less Easter eggs or callbacks and more just things people in Philadelphia do sometimes. For instance, “Go Birds” is more of a regional greeting than a running gag unique to a TV show.

Abbott Elementary executive producer Patrick Schumacker has also discussed a few of his favorite easter eggs baked into “Volunteers,” telling Variety of one of the first references that @boygeniusmac caught, “We don’t have title cards, but after the cold open, the very first line is somebody saying the day and time as like, a nod to Sunny.”

“There’s other little references like they make,” Schumacker explained. “It’s just very fun to figure out all the lore of Sunny, and then what is the lore of us. So both Janine and Dee have big feet. It’s like a very strange little thing, because they can line up on that and serve both audiences.”

But the largest, most literal Always Sunny Easter egg that Schumacker revealed was how Ava Coleman resolves the central conflict of her storyline in “Volunteers,” her struggle with her country club adversaries to get a new scoreboard put in the gym, by literally invoking bird law and having endangered bird eggs planted on the planned grounds for a golf course next door.

Once again, aviary attorney Charlie Kelly comes out on top in the courts. Royal McPoyle would be proud.