- [Michael] This video is brought to you by Noom.
(upbeat music)
Hey, Wisecrack, Michael here.
Today, we're talking about some of the most gross,
depraved losers ever to marinate a ham in rum.
- This is ham soaked in rum.
- [Michael] Whether they're running
a door-to-door gas scheme-
- Well, you're looking all sorts of good.
- [Michael] Or (beep) in the bed.
- You know you did it, fess up.
- I did not poop the bed.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, rewind
- The Paddy's crew are terrible friends.
Seemingly determined to force each other
to make the worst possible choices
and to live their worst possible lives.
But, no matter how bad things get for the gang,
they never seem to be able to escape one another.
It's worth asking the question:
Why don't they all just leave?
What is the strange glue that binds them together,
and what might their destructive tendencies
tell us about our own friendships?
Let's find out in this "Wisecrack Edition"
on "It's Always Sunny: How Your Friends Can Ruin You."
Now, before we dive into the gang's bad behavior,
I wanna give a quick second to shout out
this week's sponsor, Noom.
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Now, back to the show.
Sitcoms are often about people trapped together
by circumstance.
Whether that be work, familial relations,
or by virtue of being the last remaining humans on earth.
The comedy results from these situations
which bind the characters together,
whether they like it or not.
Conventions, of course, are meant to be broken.
For instance, "Seinfeld" is often described
as a show about nothing, in part because all
that binds Jerry and his friends together
is that they are neurotic, self-centered assholes,
with no ability to learn or grow.
- But I'm disturbed.
(car door closes) I'm depressed.
I'm inadequate.
I got it all.
- [Michael] "Always Sunny" could be seen
as a somewhat straightforward development of "Seinfeld."
Extensively, the gang is trapped together
because they co-own Paddy's Pub.
But, "Always Sunny" is in no way
a normal workplace comedy a lá Cheers.
- Don't- - Check.
- Oh my God, dude.
- Oh geez.
- Bro, I really, I just pissed in there.
- [Michael] Beginning with the arrival
of the absurdly rich Frank in season two,
the gang hasn't relied on Paddy's for income.
And so, the bar has come to function as a sort of clubhouse.
Running it is something the characters only bother to do
when it can serve as the site for one of their schemes.
And, though some of the characters are related,
this show is in no way, a family comedy.
- What you need?
- One please.
- One what?
- One rock of crack. - One crack.
- A crack rock.
- [Michael] This all lends the gangdom
a curiously arbitrary field.
Nothing in particular seems to keep them together.
In theory, any one of them
might depart the group at any time.
And occasionally, they've tried.
From Dennis moving to North Dakota
to be with his secret family.
- Goodbye, Philadelphia.
Goodbye, Charlie, Mac, Dee, Frank.
- To Charlie going to work as a school janitor.
But even when a member does get out,
it's never for very long.
Without the complete group,
something always seems to be missing.
For instance, in one episode,
Dennis was replaced as the gang's de facto leader.
The gang starts to function
much more effectively as a group.
And, in theory, should be a lot happier.
But they can't stop thinking about Dennis.
Not least, because Mac has a creepy sex doll
made in his likeness.
- Oh my God.
- [Michael] By the end of the episode,
when Dennis unexpectedly returns,
his replacement is unceremoniously discarded.
- You can go now.
- [Michael] We see this again
when the gang misses out on a cool boat party.
This failing leads Dennis
to disband the dysfunctional group.
- You know what?
I gotta get away from you people.
- [Michael] And each member sets out on their own.
- I got to get away from you people.
You're all insane!
- [Michael] But, Dennis's attempts
at being a solo player again quickly fall apart
when he tries and fails to sell his half-submerged
Range Rover.
Without the rest of the gang
to gaze upon him as their leader,
he quickly finds himself in a megalomaniacal rage.
- This car is a finisher car, a transporter of gods.
The Golden God!
I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds!
- [Michael] Mac, meanwhile, tries to become a party boy
who bangs hot chicks.
But, without the gang to help him repress his gayness,
he fails.
- He can't even get it up with me.
- Whoa!
That's because she's not even that hot.
- [Michael] At the same time,
Frank finds a new gang to bankroll,
but ends up destroying their dreams of running a bar.
Charlie and Dee, meanwhile, initially feel liberated.
Free from the psychological shackles
imposed on them by the gang.
- Beak! - No.
- No.
No.
- Regular chicken sandwich.
- [Waitress] That's it?
- That's it for him.
- [Michael] But, they quickly screw up
their newfound freedom by sleeping together.
And so, the gang decides that no matter how miserable
they are making each other,
being trapped together is still preferable
to the alternatives.
For some reason, it seems the characters need each other.
In fact, they seem to be giving each other something
that nobody else can.
So, what is this thing?
We can find the answer with the help
of a philosophical concept called recognition
or at least philosopher G.W.F. Hegel's notion of it.
Hegel's idea is as follows:
We would not know that we were ourselves
and that we were a distinct individual
if it were not for the fact
that others recognize us as such.
That is to say, we don't know we're really a person
until we find ourselves recognized by another person.
For Hegel, there's no authentic self.
Your identity derives almost entirely
from what other people make it.
And, this isn't simply saying that
if someone recognizes you as a nice guy or Dayman,
that you will subsequently identify
as a nice guy or a Dayman.
For Hegel, recognition is essential
in helping us become both thinking-beings and social-beings.
But, otherwise, if you were born into an empty void
and were never recognized by another thinking thing,
you're gonna have a rough time developing
any type of rational or social consciousness.
This can all help us understand what happens
when the gang disbands.
Their identities are thrown into a state of flux.
Dennis is no longer recognized as a leader.
He's just some weird angry guy.
Mac is no longer surrounded by people
who will happily ignore the fact that he's gay.
Frank no longer has anyone to enable his crazy schemes.
Charlie and Dee are no longer recognized as pathetic losers
and are now free to take responsibility
for their own lives, which is terrifying.
- Misery.
- Chains.
- Thunder.
- Rain.
- [Michael] Wanting their old identities back,
they all retreat to the only people they know
who can help sustain them.
This then is the situation which traps the gang together.
And it's from this,
which "Always Sunny's" comedy is derived.
It is a sitcom about the struggle for recognition.
(cheering)
♪ All the girls don't feel like this ♪
♪ A few times I've been ♪
"It's Always Sunny" isn't the only show
to deal with recognition.
The theme plays a big role
in more traditional sitcoms as well.
On your typical show, however,
the recognition shared by the characters
helps them become better versions of themselves.
Like, how, in an episode of "The Office,"
Pam may feel like a failure about her art show
only to be uplifted by Michael,
who recognizes her as a serious artist.
So, the gang is far from unique
in relying on one another for recognition.
What distinguishes them, however,
is the fact that they are so bad at it.
- Everyone knows who Superman is and they know it's not you.
- [Michael] Or you might get friends up in Scranton
who eventually can see positive traits in one another.
Down in Philly, recognition is used as a tool
for destruction and dysfunction.
But, what exactly is the gang doing wrong?
To truly understand their dysfunction,
we need to talk about
the three primary forms of social recognition.
These are: love, legal recognition, and social esteem.
At least according to theorist Axel Honneth.
We need to have all three and in the right way
or we won't be able to feel happy.
Instead, we would be subject
to what Honneth calls, misrecognition.
Which is what happens when recognition goes wrong.
If proper recognition leads to development
of a healthy sense of self
and the ability to participate in a democratic society,
misrecognition can lead to a distorted sense of self
along with some very unchill social tendencies.
Love is the sort of recognition associated
with family, friends, and romantic partners.
It is through love that we recognize each other
as creatures with needs and emotions.
Think Jim and Pam
or the friendship of Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins.
By being recognized as people who need love,
these folks end up becoming loving people.
It's a reciprocal process that benefits both parties.
The gang's main friendships are of course
only with each other because, frankly,
they're kinda intolerable.
The gang also rely on each other
to perform familial and romantic roles.
Dennis and Dee are twins even if they don't like each other.
- I would like to find you a man.
- Come on, yeah.
- A man to settle down with.
Now, I'm not talking about a smart man.
Not a handsome man, but a very, very average,
if not below average, man, to take you off
of our hands forever.
- [Michael] And they were raised by Frank,
who, along with being a terrible parent,
isn't actually their biological father.
- I was just told, excuse me,
that my horrible whore wife has tricked me
into raising two bastards for 30 years.
And I'm being asked to not make a scene.
- [Michael] Frank, however, may have fathered Charlie.
The two share a strange bond
which often resembles domestic couple.
- Oh, it's bleeding like a sin.
- Then use your sock, bro.
- Oh, don't waste a good sock at a tiny little cut.
I'll find you a candy wrapper if you give me a second.
- Oh.
- [Michael] Mac is Dennis's closest friend,
but he also seems to want to bang.
And often positions their relationship
as a domestic partnership.
- Somehow Old Mac pulled it together.
He cooked for you.
He cleaned for you.
In fact, that is everything I do.
I do it for you.
- [Michael] What's more, the gang seems utterly incapable
of forming meaningful romantic relationships.
Particularly Dennis, whose attitude
towards women is straight up sociopathic.
(phone rings)
(phone beeps)
- Hello?
- Welcome to hell.
- [Michael] The closest any of them really get
to loving another person is Charlie
whose relationship with The Waitress is one of the few sweet
and pure things depicted on the show.
If you look beyond the fact that he stalked her
for 15 years, ruined her life, finally dated her,
then decided he's just not that into it.
- Last night, I lived out one of my actual nightmares.
- The point is, when loving recognition
isn't really about love,
it ends up being a type of misrecognition.
And that makes it hard for people
to both give and receive love.
Which is to say, if being recognized as capable of giving
and receiving love makes you a loving person,
the opposite makes you more of a, well, Dennis.
- I'll kill you, you fat piece of sh-
- [Michael] Legal recognition is associated with,
you guessed it, the law.
Now, bird law, human law, to be clear.
Through legal recognition,
we recognize each other as independent adults
who are able to make responsible decisions
that ideally do not unduly infringe the rights of others.
You treat me like a free citizen deserving of rights,
and I do the same for you.
Throughout this series, the gang displayed
very little interest in the social order.
They're too selfish and too irresponsible
to accept that they have any duties
to anyone or anything other than themselves.
They do things like stage their own court cases in Paddy's
which are distorted reflections of the legal order
that exist in theory beyond them.
- And at the end,
whoever has the most gavels on their side, wins.
- [Michael] Charlie is obsessed with becoming a lawyer
despite being functionally illiterate.
- But I've done my research.
I got something with this bird theory
that's gonna blow the court right out-
- No, I don't think we should pursue this bird nonsense.
- Yes.
Look. - I'm well versed in bird law.
- When the gang is forced to engage
with extra Paddy's legal institutions,
their deviancy is front and center.
As seen through their repeated clashes with The Lawyer.
When you don't recognize a social order outside yourself,
it's a lethal cocktail of narcissistic delusion
and moral anarchy.
Coincidentally, that drink is called The Dennis
and it's a happy hour special at Paddy's.
But, again, the gang's inability to participate
in a system of social recognition,
further destroys their possibility
of becoming healthy individuals.
Finally, social esteem is what we get from our community.
It's what allows us to relate positively
to who we are as individuals.
Honneth calls this form of recognition, solidarity.
If we have solidarity with one another,
we'll all help each other live good lives.
As the Paddy's crew was unable to relate positively
to the world outside of the bar,
they're forced to get their social esteem
entirely from each other.
That's why they do things like stage special ceremonies
that are meaningful only to themselves.
But these ceremonies are not expressions
of genuine solidarity.
Rather a distorted version of it.
The gang in fact has no intergroup solidarity
because they don't really want the others
to become the best versions of themselves.
Best case scenario,
they want to exercise control over one another
or use one another
for some fleeting hedonistic satisfaction.
And whenever they do happen to draw someone else
into their world, that person is invariably left
way worse off for their efforts.
Moral of the story,
if you don't recognize your good friends
as worthy of social solidarity and basic human rights,
you're gonna end up with lots of weird enemies.
These characters then are unable to love
because they have never really experienced love.
And because they are emotionally stunted,
they are too selfish to recognize that there is a world
outside of Paddy's, and this causes them to rely completely
on one another to sustain their identity.
But, they have no solidarity with one another,
because they are unable to love.
It's a truly vicious cycle of misrecognition.
The gang can only get recognition from the gang.
It's a masturbatory version of self-identity.
But the recognition they get from one another can only mean
that they are seen as being worse than they actually are.
Even though they are already very bad.
And so, being together can only serve
to make them worse, ad infinitum.
But because they need recognition,
they are never able to escape.
It's a Coors Light-soaked prison of their own creation.
So, is the gang completely doomed?
Most definitely.
But, there is at least some hope.
Our friend Honneth sees society as being structured
along the lines of a struggle for recognition
whereby progress is made by the extension
of recognition to some previously marginalized group.
Like the struggle for people to have their sexuality
or gender recognized by friends, family, or even the law.
Which, incidentally, is exactly what happens to Mac
whose sexuality was previously the subject
of perpetual jokes.
- I know we've never said this as a group, but-
- Mac's gay. - What, Mac's gay?
- Yeah, Mac's gay.
- He's gay. - Yeah, yeah.
- [Michael] In a recent episode, Mac is trying
to figure out how to express his sexuality.
He's out, but he doesn't know how he fits into society
as a gay man and thinks having his father recognize him
as gay, will help him accept his identity.
Meanwhile, Frank is trying to get Mac to dance
on Paddy's float for the upcoming gay pride parade.
Even though as he insist...
- I don't know where I fit in as a gay man.
And it's starting to get to me.
- [Michael] Mac also struggles to articulate his identity.
- And this woman and I, we start dancing
and we get very passionate
and then it's all very confusing.
But, in the end, something new is born.
- [Michael] He comes out to his dad
by expressing his sexuality in the form of modern dance.
His dad quickly leaves in disgust
but Frank stays and watches.
In one of the few genuinely sincere moments
the series has ever produced, an entranced Frank murmurs-
- I get it.
- This artistic expression of his sexuality
allows Mac to make something previously inexpressible
clear to himself and others.
In this moment, he has transformed
both his own personal understanding of himself
and how he is understood by those around him.
On top of that, Frank's recognition affirms Mac's identity
in a positive way.
Something new is born and it's actually shockingly good.
Now, if he can just share some of this recognition
with the four other sociopaths
he somehow wedded his life too.
Generally, "It's Always Sunny" relies on finding comedy
in chronic misrecognition.
But, in moments like this,
the show uses genuine recognition
to create a moment of heartfelt empathy.
And, in doing so, it offers a small glimpse
into the type of world that folks like Hegel and Honneth
think lies on the other side
of the struggle for recognition.
But, what do you guys think?
Are Dennis, Mac, Charlie, Frank,
and Dee bad because of the gang
or is the gang bad because Dennis, Mac, Charlie,
Frank, and Dee are just bad people?
Do we need to feel seen to be good people
or can we all just vibe?
Let us know in the comments.
And, if you liked this video,
be sure to check out all of our other "Always Sunny" takes.
We cover everything from its anti-sitcom roots
to how it's transformed over the years
to Mac's budding career as a philosopher of science.
A big thanks to our patrons for recognizing our work
and drench that subscribe button
like you're doing shots before breakfast,
then don't forget to ring that bell.
And, as always, thanks for watching.
Later.
(upbeat music)