It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia/YMMV

• Complete Monster: Dennis has gradually been flanderized from a serial man-whore to a sociopathic sexual predator. Examples include:
  • In "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System", Dennis reveals that all of his long-term relationships are based off of him terrorizing/abandoning women so as to make them completely dependent on him.
  • He plans on taking women out in boats so that they get the impression that they'll be in danger if they refuse his sexual advances.
  • He takes it as a compliment when Charlie says he's methodical like a serial killer, calling it only a "minor exaggeration".
  • When Charlie calls him a complete sociopath, he just tells him not to interrupt.
  • When he gets married, he describes how bizarre it feels to suddenly experience emotions.

Mac: Dude, are you saying you don't have feelings?

• • When he's rejected by an old flame at his class reunion, he rushes out to his car to fetch his "tools," which are all binding implements, screaming that he needs to "bind and be bound".
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Literally, in "Frank Sets Sweet Dee on Fire", in which he does so twice.
  • "A Very Sunny Christmas", which crosses the line so many times it's impossible to count.
  • The "Does This Remind You of Anything?" Parts of "The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty Magoo".
• Dude, Not Funny: Happens a lot.
• Ear Worm: "Dayman (aaah-uhhh), Fighter of the Nightman (aaah-uhhh)".
  • "Flip, flip, flip-a-delphia! Flip, flip, flip-a-delphia!"
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Rickety Crickets and Artemis. Dennis and Dee's biological dad also counts.
• Fan Disservice: Completely naked Frank in "A Very Sunny Christmas".
• Growing the Beard: Arguably, Season Two can be seen as this. For one, Danny Devito joined the main cast as the show's breakout character (to the point where he is often mistaken for the series' protagonist). Sweet Dee was written into a more 'un'rounded out character (putting her morally on par with the rest of the gang). Also, the style of the show received a subtle change. Season 1 was slower and somewhat depressive. In season two, the show became faster paced in it's humor, and the score became more lighthearted, as the humor went the other direction.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Psycho Pete gets put on an Amtrak train in Philadelphia about three months before the train derailment that killed 8 and injured more than 200.
• Ho Yay:
  • Charlie and Frank have a very strange living arrangement in their apartment. They sleep in the same bed and apparently play "nightcrawlers" by wiggling around on the ground together. Frank also is also peeking at Charlie while masturbating. When Charlie leaves for a while, Frank creates a life-sized Charlie doll and pretends that it's him (and possibly has sex with it, according to Charlie). In a later episode, Charlie and Frank get a civil union, though only for the insurance. When Frank briefly leaves, Charlie is distraught and makes a plan to get Frank "back into [his] arms". He tells his mother that she doesn't know Frank like he does, and calls her a man-stealer.
  • In "The Gang Sells Out", Dennis shows a detailed understanding of gay culture and terminology. In "The Gang Gets Racist", he seems to have had sex with several men while blackout drunk, though the thought terrifies him.
  • Mac is obsessed with muscular men and watches action movies specifically to view the physiques of the stars. He's also obsessed with Chase Utley. Mac admits to loving him, but insists that it's a fraternal love, not romantic.
  • Lampshaded in "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters" by Frank, who just can't understand this tea-bagging, male-nipple-rubbing generation.
  • Frank has no interest in hanging out with the female models vying for a spot on the billboard. He prefers hanging out with the male models and getting them to degrade themselves.
  • Between Mac and Dennis, especially in the episode "Mac and Dennis Break Up" where the two decide to "take a break".
  • In the episode before it, Dennis wears a thong while telling Mac he's wearing it for him while Mac presents a towel that insinuates his ass and his enormous penis, and in a later scene Mac pumps a shotgun up and down before firing its liquid into a kneeling Dennis's awaiting mouth.
  • In "The Gang Gets Whacked (Part 1)", they repeatedly refer to getting killed by the mob as getting "whacked off" by the mob.
• Idiot Plot: Most of, if not all, of the plots. It helps that they're all just the kind of idiots the plot requires.

Dennis: I'm just saying that the plan was genuinely dumb! ...As many of our plans are, I now realize.

• Jerkass Woobie: Charlie, Dee, and Mac.
• Mary Sue: Averted. Though two of the writers play characters named after themselves, their characters are a complete departure from any Author Avatar. A third writer distances himself from his character by avoiding The Danza.
• Nightmare Fuel: It comes with the Black Comedy.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Charlie's song "Nightman" makes it sound like he wants to be raped by a burglar, but Charlie is baffled and offended by the accusation. When the song gets expanded into the musical in "The Nightman Cometh", the cast assumes that practically everything in the musical is a metaphor for rape, which further infuriates Charlie.
• Tear Jerker: You wouldn't expect it on a show like this, but Charlie's face at the end of "Mac Bang's Dennis' Mom" pulls at the heartstrings.
• The Woobie: Charlie. He was a failed abortion attempt, grew up with an overprotective and clingy prostitute for a mother, while getting molested and raped by not one but two different men when he was a child. Besides Mac, his "friends" basically use him and treat him as a Butt Monkey to improve their own self esteem. His first and only sexual experience with a woman was implied to be traumatic for him. A slew of lifelong emotional and physical traumas may or may not have affected his mental and emotional functioning as an adult. If this wasn't a comedy, Charlie's story alone would make him a Tear Jerker character.
  • • Charlie gets a break in the high school reunion episode: he accidentally knocks himself out while trying to huff chemicals so he is unconscious when he given a wedgie and more so, only deals with the humiliation of having Schmitty interrupting him before he could take up The Waitress's offer to have sex with the first man who talks to her.
    • Not exactly. He does have to live with Plan B.
  • RICKETY CRICKET.

---

Back to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia