Why would you hang a painting like this on your wall?
Well, it's the Historical Society, brother.
I have to hang it up.
Yeah.
Well, we got to suffer just because some old dude who
looks like Meryl Streep chopped down a cherry tree like 10
million years ago?
This is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Fella, how you doing?
A couple of flagons of ale for you.
So I just want to say we love what you're doing over here.
And this is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in 1776.
In the 11th episode of the show's fourth season, titled
"The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell,"
the gang takes their signature style of abrasive bantering
and terrible decision making skills back
to the time of the American Revolution.
This is arguably the worst episode
of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is weird
because it occurs in the same season
as arguably two of the best episodes of It's Always Sunny,
in "The Nightman Cometh" and "The Gang
Solves the Gas Crisis."
Wild card, bitches!
[SCREAMS]
Despite the cast's ability to deliver laughs
at the right time, "The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell" just
never really comes together, and it's
because it fails to do what makes the show so great.
Before we go any further, be sure to like
and subscribe to Nerdstalgic if you haven't done so already.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
is currently the longest running live action
American sitcom of all time.
The show began back in 2005 as an $80 pilot,
and since then has become a cultural staple
of American comedy.
The show features an ensemble cast of morally bankrupt bar
owners who cheat and manipulate pretty much every single person
they come into contact with.
In 2008, It's Always Sunny was in the middle
of its fourth season and was still
in the process of experimenting with its formula for success.
During these experimental periods of television shows,
writers began to take some risks by pushing
the boundaries of what they can deliver to the audience
without losing them entirely.
[YELLING]
Testing the boundaries in this way
isn't always done with the intent of breaking them.
Sometimes, it's just to see where
these boundaries are so they can avoid breaking them
in the future.
"The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell"
imagines Charlie, Frank, Mac, Dennis, and Dee back
in Philadelphia during the beginnings
of the American Revolution as a reenactment
of an elaborate con.
Mac, Charlie, and Dennis are telling
this completely fabricated historical inaccuracy to a city
official in an attempt to get Paddy's pub acknowledged
as a historical landmark.
This is the first problem with this episode.
You could argue that Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Rob
McElhenney are three of the funniest writers working
in television.
The characters that these three actors portray on the show
are not hilarious writers.
They are morally bankrupt idiots.
Since this episode is essentially
being written by Dennis Reynolds, Charlie Kelly,
and Mac, it plays out as if it were written by three
morally bankrupt idiots.
This would be fine if the episodes somehow
took an occasional moment to remind us
that this is a reenactment of a fictional yarn being
spun by the guys, which leads us to the second problem.
It never does.
Imagine comedy as a big balloon being filled with helium.
If we don't tether that balloon to something real,
it will float off into the sky until it destroys itself.
When you create a rather large comedic premise,
you need something equally strong with which
to anchor your idea.
This episode never really tethers itself
to anything real.
It just presents its fictional premise
and lets go until the final 30 seconds
when we cut back to what is happening in the real world.
While this closing moment is undoubtedly funny,
it just doesn't really achieve the desired effect.
There was a missed opportunity here
to build a heightening pattern of cutaways
that would have likely helped keep the insane
premise in perspective.
Drunk History is an example of a show
that uses these types of real world cutaways
to its advantage.
These moments allow us to break from the action
and take a breath in the real world before diving back
into the premise.
Resting your comedy is an essential pacing tool,
and when utilized correctly, it delivers some fantastic
results.
Oh, this is a great drink.
They thought that it made them, like, invigorated and aware.
People are basically drinking little cocaine and soda.
"The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell" never comes up for air.
It just-- well, it drowns itself.
The third way in which this episode fails
is that it doesn't treat the time period with any reverence.
This is likely an undesired hangover effect
from problem number one.
We can never truly immerse ourselves
into this world of 1776 Sunny because this episode only
steps halfway into it.
It's Always Sunny's comedy is driven
through unmitigated commitment.
But in this episode, everything feels like it's half measure.
Instead of playing toward the drama and seriousness
of the American Revolution and putting
our ridiculous characters inside of it,
this episode plays to an incredibly esoteric joke
that the writers are essentially telling to themselves.
The dialogue shifts between half-assed version
of 18th century English in one moment.
Pardon me.
Pardon me, good sirs, but which of you gentlemen
happens to be the highest ranking military officer here?
And calling British soldiers bro in the next.
Bro, it's 1776.
They don't have any rights.
You can just take them and force them to do whatever you want.
This is undoubtedly intentional, but without anchoring
it back to the three guys telling this story from time
to time, it doesn't really land in the intended way.
The thing that makes It's Always Sunny's characters pop
is the seriousness of the real world,
which leads us to the fourth and final issue with this episode.
We're never really emotionally invested enough to care
about what's going on.
The writers never tell us exactly why we as an audience
should care about this story.
We don't get that signature It's Always Sunny cold open
at the top of this episode.
That absolutely fundamental piece of puzzle
is completely absent from "The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell."
Without it, we never have any understanding
of what's at stake or why it's important.
The only real mention of any real world stakes
comes with a sort of throwaway line from Dennis
where he states that he wants to get the bar recognized
as a historical landmark so people can come and get
smashed.
They can come by, soak up some history, do some shots,
get blasted.
This episode is so lost in its own premise
that it ends with the main characters setting up
the premise again.
You know, just sit back, get comfortable.
This is going to take a little longer this time.
OK.
You ready?
It starts the same.
OK.
The year was 1776.
There's no rhyming, no connections,
none of that tight and concise writing that comes together
in the final moments of any great It's Always
Sunny episode.
It's just sort of ends exactly where
it starts, and in turn, makes us feel like our characters have
effectively gone nowhere.
"The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell"
is arguably the weakest episode of It's Always Sunny
in Philadelphia to date.
At times, this episode feels like it's
from an entirely different series.
It's one thing to take risks with the way you structure
your television show, but completely
eradicating every successful element of your show
goes well beyond just taking a risk
and into the realm of self-destruction.
Would you like a spot of tea?
You.
Yes.
On paper, taking the cast of It's Always Sunny
in Philadelphia and putting them in a different time period
sounds like it would be a home run.
But telling this story through the lens of a misinformed con
and process removes the structure
of what makes It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia so successful.
It's Always Sunny is at its best when it challenges
its stunted and arguably reprehensible cast
of characters to exist in the real world,
and in turn, these characters are
forced to face real world consequences for their actions.
When you put these ridiculous characters
into an equally ridiculous environment,
it becomes almost impossible for anything to really stand out.
This episode is all premise and no structure.
The end results in something that feels about as
flat as Mac's wooden teeth.
Yeah, well, all the Patriots are doing it,
including Washington, which is why it makes sense, OK?
If we're going undercover.
Writing long form comedy is like cooking a really fancy dinner.
You have to apply the right techniques at the right times
to deliver the desired result. You
need to know when to apply the heat
and when to let things rest.
And most importantly, you need a balance of flavors.
If you just pile the same ingredient on top of itself,
the odds are that you're going to be
left with something that tastes terrible and looks like a mess.
The key ingredient in this recipe is reality.
Comedy craves reality.
The absurd needs to be treated as if it were completely
normal, and in turn, the normal needs
to be treated as if it were completely absurd.
This episode does neither, and instead, it piles absurdity
on top of absurdity, and the result
is that nothing stands out.
This episode just sort of forces itself
to blend into its own weirdness until we can't really
see what's funny anymore.
When everything is crazy, craziness just becomes normal,
and normal is a place where comedy goes to die.
Hey, that's it for today's episode.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]