Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American sitcom that first premiered on August 4th, 2005. Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, who play Mac and Dennis, created the show and Kaitlin Olson, Charlie Day, and Danny DeVito all helped produced and star in it as well. The show is about five unusual friends “The Gang”, who work and run a neighborhood Irish pub, called Paddy’s Pub, in South Philadelphia. In the Gang there is Charlie, Dennis, Dee, Mac, and Frank. Each episode viewers are taken on a crazy ride with the five friends that always seems to end up in some sort of trouble due to their self-centeredness and lack of politically corrected views.
The group of friends are not your typical set of friends that you may have, this group of friends are constantly conspiring against one another or coming up with elaborate schemes for their own selfish needs or entertainment. The Gang itself never has each other’s backs in any given situation and will do anything to get ahead of one another. Each member of the Gang doesn’t amount to much but still have high opinions of themselves and constantly obese over their public images.
Some of the Gang’s schemes involve cocaine, pretending to have mental disabilities, kidnapping, grave robbing, sleeping with each other’s romantic interests, and pretending to have a fatal disease. All of these schemes are done with manipulation to get personal gains for someone else.
Charlie Kelley was a co-owner at Paddy’s Pub but traded his investment for half of a sandwich. Charlie is not only a childhood friend of the Gang members but also Frank’s roommate. At the bar Charlie is know for his “Charlie Work”, where he does most of the maintenance and actual work at the pub. Charlie is an interesting character that is an alcoholic substance abuser, who can’t read, and eats things that no human should consume. Charlie lives with Frank in a rundown smelly apartment with one bed. Not only did Charlie have a very questionable childhood but his issues continue on into his adult life where he has this very unhealthy one-sided obsessed relationship with “The Waitress”. The Waitress is a woman that knows the Gang and can’t stand Charlie and clearly shows no interest in him. Charlie is best known for being the crown and the wild card in the group.
Frank Reynolds is the father of Dennis and Dee and possibly the biological father of Charlie. He is the lead owner of Paddy’s Pub and was a successful businessman back in the day due to his illegal dealings and investments. Since Frank is the one with the most money in the group, he is usually the sponsor for all of members’ crazy ideas. Even though Frank has the finical resources to live anywhere, he chooses to live with Charlie in a rundown apartment. Frank and Charlie are the closest in the group and share many weird interests together and many times are excluded from group activities.
Dennis Reynolds is a co-owner of Paddy’s Pub with his twin sister Dee. Dennis is a misogynistic, narcissistic, and abrasive character that believes everyone should follow under him. He has never been able to keep a steady relationship by constantly emotionally abusing his partners. Out of all the characters, Dennis is the most obsessed with his public image. Dennis would be considered the mastermind and leader of the group, that comes up with all their elaborate plans.
Deandra “Dee” Reynolds is the bartender at Paddy’s Pub and twin sister to Dennis. Dee has long to be a famous actress but lacks any sort of talent and confidence on stage. Her nickname on the show is Bird, which was given to by the other Gang members, because they feel that is she nothing but an awkward giant creature. Dee has his own apartment but never seems to be alone with the constant barging in from the other Gang members. In the group, Dee does not have a voice and is most often the butt of the jokes and mocked for trying to have an opinion. Along side her brother Dennis, she is most of the time the creator and participate in their schemas and often deals with the consequences of her Gang members’ actions. Even though Dee doesn’t have a voice in the group she would be considered the most angry and violent member.
Ronald “Mac” McDonald is a co-owner of Paddy’s Pub and a long-time friend to Charlie and Dennis. Mac is a son of a convicted felon, who he always tries to win his father’s love and affection. Mac seems to have body dysmorphia, where he believes he’s in incredible shape and can handle any physical situation. The truth is that he is not in the best shape and seems to run and hide anytime there is a situation that calls for physical requirement. The Gangs knows of his lack of athletic abilities and always uses it against him. Mac constantly has causal flings with multiple women but struggles with his own sexuality unable season 12 when he finally comes out as a gay man.
Each member of the group would be considered higher to lower middle class. Viewers are able to identify their class based on the bar this own, the places they live in, and the activities they participate in. The pub they own is not a high-end bar, it is a cold, damp, dim lighting bar that rarely has consumers. Instead of hiring professionals to fix problems in the bar, they use Charlie instead, a person that has no professional experience in pumping, electrical, or carpentry.
Out of all the places the members live in Dee’s apartment would be considered the nicest and explains why everyone is always over. Where Charlie and Frank’s apartment is the worst one and is constantly reminded of it by their group. Even though Frank is considered higher middle class he chooses and tries so hard to fit in with the Gang, especially Charlie, who would be considered lower middle class.
The activities and schemes the group participate in would be considered middle class activities such as pretending to need welfare, selling faulty produces to consumers, or drinking. The entire group is a middle-class group but believe in their own opinions that they are truly upper class. Since they view themselves are each members of the upper class, their views and how they are perceived by others, often clash with each other.
Marx and Weber come to mind when analyzing this show. Marx view on class was a separation between the bourgeoises and the proletariats. Frank would be considered the bourgeoise of the show because he owns main ownership of the bar and finically support his group members. Dennis, Mac, Dee, and Charlie are the proletariats in the group because they are constantly trying to prove and sell themselves to everyone else and to themselves. Marx and Weber have very similar views on class and why I chose both of them, but Weber also looked at class as a social stratification, instead a class division among social class conflicts like Marx’s views. Social stratification is categorizing people into groups based on their race, education, wealth, etc. Based on each member’s they all follow under middle class but each one ranks each other differently in their eyes. For instance, Dee is a woman that did not finish college and would be considered on the pyramid and the guys make sure she knows her place, when in reality she has accomplished more and have a higher education than some of the other members. Dennis on the other hand, is a white college education male and shows superiority over the others. Even though Dennis and Dee are related, twins for that matter, they still fall in different categorizes on the social class.
The series deals with variety in class in a unique way, by the actors believing they belong in a different class than they actually live in. Each member tries in many ways to associate themselves with others in the upper class a form of homophilous that they created but are quickly taught they don’t belong and fall back into their comfort zone of being around each other. The Gang has created their own social system that seems to function in their group, and when they try to branch out they quickly come running back their system that they are used to.
The series itself did a great representation of class for the viewers but to the characters in the show they felt it was misrepresented. It is clearly from our stand point that the characters in the show are identified as middle class but to them they see themselves are upper class and why they constantly find themselves in sticky situations.
In conclusion, the show Always Sunny in Philadelphia is about a group of misfit friends that constantly find themselves getting into trouble because of the clear social class issues among the members or the group and society.