Paul Walter Ha Says Walking Into Paddy’s Pub Was Like Stepping Into ‘The Wizard of Oz’
As a massive fan of The Wizard of Oz. He must have been talking about the Diana Ross version of Dorothy.
Of all the Hollywood stars who have BlacKkKlansman, he had a one-episode performance as the bullied Juggalo Richie in the 2010 Always Sunny episode “Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth,” an experience he has since described as an absolute dream come true.
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If you’ve only watched Always Sunny on streaming services in the last few years, you’d think that Ha was actually dreaming when he went on the show. “Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth” has since been scrubbed from the major platforms due to its intentionally and pointedly tasteless depiction of blackface. Nevertheless, Ha went on the sports podcast Pardon My Take earlier this week and gushed about the surreal pleasure of appearing on Always Sunny as a huge Always Sunny fan himself.
“Dude, it was nuts,” Ha answered when asked about what it felt like to watch Always Sunny as a fan just to star in an episode that would later be locked in a vault forever. “I was dropping out of college … partying my face off, ballooning up in weight and writing a movie script for Key and Peele because MadTV had just gotten cancelled and my manager at the time repped them.
“So I’m writing this script for Key and Peele before they have the hit show, and I’m dropping out of college, and most of my days are spent watching Dirty Work and Wet Hot American Summer and episodes of It’s Always Sunny,” recalled Ha of the post-dropout days that introduced him to the hit sitcom that would soon come knocking on his door. “A year later, to be in the room auditioning for the show, it was crazy.”
Ha landed the part, but he wasn’t quite ready to give up his party boy lifestyle, bringing the party to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia instead. Said Ha, “I had a weird flex back in the day where I didn’t ask permission for anything. I would just bring one of my buddies to set, and he’d be hanging out with me all day without asking anybody, so like my buddy and I … walked into the set of It’s Always Sunny, and walking into that bar and seeing everything, it was like The Wizard of Oz or something.”
“We could not believe we were in the bar of It’s Always Sunny,” Ha said of his and his friend’s reaction. So it turns out Richie did have a posse — he was just missing the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion.
