My analysis of @RMcElhenney’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and how it is the perfect example of American postmodernist absurdism. Thread. 1/?

Yesterday, as I went through my local used bookstore, I noticed a play entitled “The Iceman Cometh”. Being a Sunny stan, I noticed the similarities between The Nightman Cometh and it, so I decided to do more research. I found that this play was about a group of alcoholics 2/?

who are aimless, and their world is changed when the Iceman comes with a changed perspective on the world after he stopped drinking. Of course, while Charlie’s play isn’t exactly the same as this, the general plot follows the overall idea of the show; a group of alcoholics 3/?

who are aimless, simultaneously thinking that life has no meaning (classic absurdism). This isn’t the only time that Always Sunny has made a reference to classic absurdist plays, even; the episode “Waiting for Big Mo” is something of a parody of 4/?

Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot”, in which two men in the same place ponder the meaning of life as they wait for Godot, two other characters coming by in both act one and act two. At the start, Charlie even is in the same position as Estragon at the start of Godot. 5/?

The reason why Always Sunny is a piece of absurdist media is because, at its very core, it’s about how a group of terrible people,who wander aimlessly through life, going from one scheme to the next, try to find meaning in pointless things,or at least ones that seem pointless 6/?

In the 1940s, when Waiting for Godot first came out, a critic described the play as “a play where nothing happens twice”, in reference to both acts where nothing truly influential on any of their lives happens, and act two mirrors act one, with only Vladimir being self aware 7/?

You could say that Always Sunny follows this same pattern: throughout the show, we see that Dennis seems to be the most self aware of what they’re doing and the destruction they cause. In one episode, he asks the gang what’s become of them “moving from one scheme to the next” 8/?

while the other characters blissfully move along in their usual fashion. Each character has something that they find meaning in that the others don’t; for Dee, it’s her comedy and acting. For Mac, it’s faith. For Charlie, it’s dating the Waitress. For Dennis, it’s 9/?

the hope of finding someone who truly cares for him. And for Frank, it seems to change from episode to episode, the constants being wealth, drugs, and schemes. Each character finds meaning in these things, while simultaneously having the others not see meaning in them at all 10/?

As an example, the others don’t believe in God, and the gang doesn’t think Dee’s comedy or acting is any good and she should give up. By having these things in their lives, while also always harassing one another and fighting, they fall into the classic absurdist trope of 11/?

finding meaning in nothing and nothing in things society finds meaningful. In addition, this is why Always Sunny is a perfect representation of American society; how a group of seemingly nobodies can have such a large impact on a city with their actions, 12/?

such as the Eagles winning the Super Bowl episode (even though we know that isn’t how the real Super Bowl was won), how Frank got a terrorist organization to drink a soft drink he created/everything with Fight Milk, and 13/?

how, in Gun Fever 2, Frank goes on the air to talk about guns, and gun sales increase, as well as, at the end, he manipulates people into buying his water filters. 14/?

I’m not sure if I’m reading too deep into this, but I am an English major who wants to be a professor and loves the classics, so isn’t that what we do? Thanks for sticking around and reading what I have to say about this show I love so dearly. End of thread.

Off topic, but another classic that is referenced is the book Flowers for Algernon, in the episode “Flowers for Charlie”, and I just love the references to classics that Always Sunny has