The Subject of Rob McElhenney’s New Docuseries Sounds Like A Killer ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Scheme
Rob McElhenney and Ridley Scott are collaborating on a docuseries about the controversial doping-friendly sporting event the Enhanced Games in a project that shouldn’t be titled anything but “The Gang Goes to the Steroids Olympics.”
The idea has been the subject of many stand-up bits since the BALCO scandal first rocked the baseball world in the early 2000s — what if, instead of cracking down on performance-enhancing drug use in professional sports with dubiously effective screening processes, we encouraged athletes to abuse anabolic steroids, HGH and whatever other chemical assistance they desire to truly test the limits of science-modified sports?
Well, next year, Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza hopes to find the answer to that former hypothetical when he hosts the Enhanced Games, a series of international competitions in track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and combat sports where doping isn’t just allowed, but is implicitly encouraged.
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Today, McElhenney’s More Better Productions and Scott’s company Ridley Scott Associates announced that they will partner with D’Souza and the Enhanced Games to document the behind-the-scenes story of the upcoming event that United States Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart called “a dangerous clown show, not real sport.” McElhenney himself couldn’t have given the competition a more It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia tagline.
The logline of the project reads, “Launched in response to what Aron and his partners view as a broken system, where cheating is too sophisticated to control, the new competition is set to become the most talked about sporting event of the century to date.” The yet-unnamed docuseries will follow Enhanced Games organizers and others close to the inaugural event and explore “the moral ambiguity that surrounds the endeavor,” according to the series’ write-up in Variety.
“More Better is honoured to partner with RSA to help tell the extraordinary story behind the Enhanced Games,” McElhenney said in a statement. “From the moment we discovered this competition was in the works, we knew this deserved a deep exploration through a thoughtful docuseries lens.”
Just as the Enhanced Games won’t ask any of its athletes if they’re using steroids, we won’t ask McElhenney if D’Souza got his start in the Always Sunny writers’ room.
D’Souza has stated that he hopes the Enhanced Games will grow to the point where it directly competes in popularity with the Olympics, and the steroid-friendly tourney has been heavily criticized by various members of the International Olympic Committee as well as by many of the world’s most prominent Olympians. Many athletes have expressed their concerns over the obvious and potentially lethal dangers of encouraging the abuse of PEDs, with three-time Olympic gold medalist and world record-holding swimmer Libby Trickett saying of the Enhanced Games, “I really, really, really hope that it’s done under medical supervision because that’s the only way I can kind of justify in my head something like this to go ahead.”
At its core, the concept behind the Enhanced Games is so reckless, so destructive and so stupidly simple that it’s hard to imagine D’Souza and his financiers ever coming up with the idea outside of a dirty Irish bar in Philadelphia where they serve themselves. And, just like every plan the Paddy’s Pub gang puts together, the probability that at least one person involved in the Steroids Olympics suffers life-altering or life-ending injuries must be a near-certainty.
For McElhenney’s part, it’s worth an investigation into whether or not he’s doing this as a sort of surreptitious vertical integration — leading up to the Enhanced Games, Fight Milk sales are sure to skyrocket.
