Charlie Day Refuses to Name A Single ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Episode That He Would Strike From the Record
Despite how some streaming platforms view past episodes of Charlie Day would rather eat atomic hot wings than alter a single controversial plot line from the early seasons.
In the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fandom, the issue of satire aging disgracefully is a sensitive subject, much like how America as a whole is a little touchy on the issue of white comedians performing in Blackface, a constant topic of discussion in all of the show’s banned episodes. At its core, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is about the worst yet shamefully common beliefs and behaviors of White America, as The Gang serve as anti-role models who manage to get it wrong every single time they interact with any social issue. And, given that the series has been on the air for a record-breaking 20 years, The Gang has inevitably gone too far on certain topics from the perspective of some modern TV watchers or streaming censors.
But when Day, Glenn Howerton went on today’s episode of Hot Ones Versus, Day stood his ground on the show’s track record with touchy topics, choosing to eat a multi-million-Scoville hot wing instead of completing the challenge, “Two decades of boundary-pushing comedy doesn't always age well. Name an episode or plot line of Always Sunny that you would delete from existence.”
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While the Wings of Death certainly showed Day’s devotion to his show, don’t be too impressed with his literally and figuratively strong stomach — this man ate cat food like five minutes later.
With a scoff, Day dismissed the suggestion that any It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia plot line was so offensive that it deserves to be scrubbed from the record, saying of the challenge, “First of all, that’s impossible. I would delete none of them from existence. I will take on whatever hot sauce thing I gotta do.”
Day, whom McElhenney described as having “by far” the highest pain tolerance of the group, suffered mightily upon taking the flaming bite, but he didn’t back down from his defense of the Always Sunny back catalog.
Of course, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia itself did acknowledge its own complicated relationship with racial politics and poorly aged satire in the Season 15 episode “The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7,” which parodied the entire controversy surrounding the removal of past “Lethal Weapon” episodes from streaming in 2020. Shortly after the episode first aired, McElhenney spoke to Deadline about the issue, itting, “I find that my barometer is off for what’s appropriate sometimes in situations because, like, we’ve spent 15 years making a show about the worst people on the planet, and because it’s satire, we lean so heavily into this idea.”
“And then we are always, like, right on the razor’s edge, but that’s the only way that satire works,” McElhenney concluded.
While McElhenney never went so far as to say that he would delete any of the banned episodes from existence, I would warn Day against using words like “impossible” in his pragmatic friend’s presence. Through God, all things are possible, so jot that down.
