The Nightman Used to Be a Real Job That Definitely Would Have Been Charlie Work
Interestingly, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia didn’t invent the Nightman any more than it invented the humble janitor.
Out of the entire Paddy’s Pub Gang, there’s no question that Charlie Kelly has the worst job of the bunch. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that the bar's janitor is the only Always Sunny character who does any amount of work on a regular basis, even if the bar is still swarmed with rats, the basement is flooded with carbon monoxide and the toilets still need to be cleared of all of Frank’s shoes.
Considering the immense amount of filthy responsibility foisted upon Charlie, his ability to find the time to write fantastical songs and entire musicals about the duality of man and the never-ending dance between the light and the dark within the human spirit is remarkable.
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Given his workload, we'd forgive Charlie if he found a little historical inspiration for his creation of the titular character from “The Nightman Cometh,” especially considering that, if he lived in 19th century London, there's no doubt that Charlie would have been a literal, professional nightman, a master of the potty and cesspits for everyone.
Prior to the widespread adoption of indoor plumbing, cities needed a way to transport human waste outside of densely populated areas to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and curtail the disgusting stench that typified places like London for centuries. Enter the nightman, a nocturnal waste removal specialist who, for a modest toll, would shovel out cesspits and clear outhouses of “the necessary,” as Englishmen of the 1840s would euphemistically call their piss and shit.
After emptying the tubs of festering, fetid waste into his cart, the nightman would then transport the sewage to the nightman’s yard where he would mix it with other organic waste like rotting vegetables (and maybe a crow egg here and there) to make a hyper-stinky, fully organic fertilizer that he would sell off to local farmers.
Though they served a necessary, life-saving purpose during a time when diseases like dysentery, cholera and typhoid decimated urban populations, nightmen were looked down upon by the more refined classes due to the dirtiness of the work. Now, ask yourself, which member of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast works the most with sewage, smells the stinkiest and struggles the most to fit in with sophisticated society?
Charlie Kelly may be the closest comparison to a modern-day nightman as has ever existed on television, but the historical precedent for Trundle’s artistic creations begs the question: What happened to the daymen of the 19th century, and how did they handle the, uh, “sexing from behind” scene when the nightmen cameth?
