‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Fans Make the Argument That ‘The Implication’ Is Valuable Sex Education
According to fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Paddy’s Pub Gang has a valuable lesson to teach to America’s youth that’s somehow more school-friendly than their movie night field trip.
Everyone who watches Always Sunny knows about “The Implication,” Dennis’ “seduction” method from the Season Six banger “The Gang Buys a Boat” that was probably a lot closer to what was actually going on during Diddy’s yacht parties than Dennis realized at the time. According to Dennis, the best way to secure “consent” from a seafaring woman is to take her out into the open ocean before propositioning her, that way she won’t even consider turning down his advances. After all, if someone doesn’t say the words “No, I won’t have sex with you, please take me back to shore,” that’s the same thing as a “yes,” right?
No! Of course not!
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The absence of a “no” doesn’t constitute enthusiastic and freely given consent, and any sex educator will tell you that. But not every sex educator knows how to make the sensitive and nuanced conversation about consent funny and entertaining for a young adult audience. That’s where user Level_Hour6480 from the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia subreddit comes in. They recently went viral in the fan forum for their self-explanatory post, "’The Implication’ Should Be Taught in Sex-Ed Classes.”
Just so long as those classes are taught on dry land…
“I am completely serious: It is very obvious to any viewer that Dennis is wrong in this scene, and I genuinely think it would be a good teaching tool for consent,” Level_Hour6480 argued, envisioning the scene in a seventh-grade health class perfectly: “'Now class, who can explain why a ‘yes’ given under ‘the implication’ is not consent?’ Incredibly simple.”
In fact, Dennis Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia touched upon an underdiscussed aspect of the complicated and clearly insufficient national discussion about how consent is taught to young people, and especially to young men. The slogan of “No means no!” is so engrained in our sexual politics that even fully grown adults like Dennis believe that it’s the sole responsibility of the recipient of a sexual advance to clearly define their boundaries, when, both in reality and on the Gang’s party boat, coercive circumstances can frighten a victim of abuse from giving an overt and verbal rejection that’s liable to invoke anger in their aggressor.
Consent is a two-way street (or, I don’t know, canal) and it’s not enough for one party to assume the other’s compliance without clear communication in a safe environment. For this reason, Dennis Reynolds is actually a great instructor for exactly what not to do in a potentially sexual encounter. But let’s hope that “The Implication” isn’t on the lesson plan in the second part of the Abbott Elementary crossover.