With its 14th season recently released, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia has been airing for 15 years and it doesn’t look like it’s about to stop anytime soon. What makes the show so endlessly funny and successful is that its main characters are made to be hated more than loved.
The premise of the show is to focus on horrible, selfish and ignorant people who the audience can laugh at. The wrongdoings of these protagonists may seem glamorized, but it’s not – the show only ridicules and criticizes the actions and mindsets that these characters represent. They don’t just bully others, but each other too – in fact, Charlie is one the most disrespected member of the gang. Let’s take a look at the 10 worst things the gang has ever done to him.
They Took His Work For Granted
Charlie may seem like he is not smart or organized enough to be successful, but he is undeniably good at his job, which he calls ‘charlie work.’ On health inspection days, Charlie always ensures that the bar is in perfect condition to ace the test. He manages this even when, only a few minutes before the inspection, he discovers that his friends have filled the pub in chickens to carry out a scam.
That day, he is the one to take care of everything and make sure the bar passes the health test as they always do. And yet, in the end, not one of his friends recognizes his efforts.
They Used Him For Their Own Benefits
Charlie is known for being the one to do the dirty work around the bar. He takes cleans toilets, takes the trash out and sweeps floors. It seems that his dirty work extends further than this; he often finds himself carrying out various tasks for members of the gang and helping them out for nothing in return.
Dennis and Mac go as far as forcing Charlie to fix the TV in the bar, something which causes him to get small electrocutions as he tweaks the cables and wires. Instead of expressing gratitude, Mac and Dennis only yell at him for not going fast enough to their liking.
Dennis Didn’t Care About Him Having Cancer
Thinking to be in and out quickly, Dennis stops by Charlie’s apartment one day to borrow a basketball, but once there, Charlie discloses that he has cancer. Dennis offers help and support, which Charlies gladly accepts, only for Dennis to tell him that now is not a good time. On top of that, he insists on getting that basketball he wanted.
Creator and writer of the show, Rob McElhenney revealed that this premise, in fact, came to him in a dream, and gave him the inspiration for the entire show. Knowing that Charlie did something equally bad by lying about having cancer makes Dennis’s behavior easier to digest, but he remains one of the most insensitive and selfish characters on the show.
Mac Didn’t Care About Him Being Molested
One of the greatest things about the show is its ability to shed a light on serious world issues with humor and satire: in a way that makes it easier to talk about it. This is exactly the case with molestation, a heavy topic that is approached when the gang suspects Charlie was molested as a child. While Dee and Dennis decide to investigate their friend’s well-being and inform his parents, Mac reacts differently.
Instead of being horrified, Mac is jealous that his friend got molested and he didn’t. Stupidly enough, he claims that he was cute and smart enough to have been molested too. Thankfully, Dennis and Dee do not hold back in calling him out on this irrational thinking.
Dennis And Frank Slept With The Woman He’s In Love With
It is no secret that the waitress is Charlie’s eternal crush and the woman of his dreams, even though he cannot even refer to her by her real name. With his countless attempts to win her over, it should be established that the woman is off-limits. Dennis especially, a man who seemingly can have any woman he likes, should not be going after her.
True to the show focus on despicable characters, Dennis does go after the waitress to blackmail Charlie. He even sleeps with her and keeps a recording of it, like the psychopath he is. To add salt to Charlie’s wound, Frank sleeps with the waitress as well; all only in the span of a few days.
They Replaced Him With Schmitty
Schmitty is an ex-member of the gang whom Dennis and Mac cannot remember why they’re no longer friends with. A few years ago, Charlie ran into some conflict with Schmitty, and somehow the latter ended up being thrown out of a moving car. History repeats itself when the boys decide to link up with Schmitty again and invite him back into the gang. Having unpleasant memories about being left out and made fun of by Schmitty, Charlie is obviously against the idea, but can’t do anything to stop.
Naturally, he ends up being kicked out of the gang once again, while Schmitty is asked to officially join. When the gang finally come to their senses and are reminded of why they had cut ties with Schmitty in the first place, they come crawling back to Charlie.
Frank Wanted Charlie To Die First During The Hostage
In “The Gang Gets Held Hostage” - a self-explanatory episode title - Mac first decides to make a pact with Frank for them to work together to get out of the hostage alive. Minutes later, he allies with Charlie instead, and pretends to keep up his pact with Frank over the radio through which they communicate.
Unaware that Charlie is also listening, Frank urges Mac to make sure that if anybody has to die, it must be Charlie first - something which is worsened considering that Frank wants to sacrifice Charlie in order to get his money. This episode really proves that despite their level of closeness, the gang will gladly turn on each other to save themselves.
Mac And Dennis Fired Him
In the first episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Charlie is seen negotiation a business decision with Mac and Dennis - the three of them being the bar owners. It seems that over the course of the seasons, however, Charlie has become increasingly submissive and Dennis increasingly harsh (while Mac is always fine following Dennis’s lead).
Subsequently, Dennis and Mac unite together to claim the bar as their own and fire Charlie. Frank even calls out Mac and Dennis’s unfairness to Charlie once; by pointing out that despite the three of them founding Paddy’s Pub together, they made Charlie a janitor while they got, arguably, better jobs.
Frank Left Him On The Streets
When the bar runs into some financial trouble, Frank immediately decides to quit to afford losing more money. To make some instead, he sells the apartment that he shares with Charlie, and keeps all of the profit. Granted, Charlie doesn’t pay rent, but surely a little warning was the minimum courtesy.
Because of Frank’s sale, Charlie is homeless. None of his friends help him out or allows him to crash at their place, and Charlie ends up living in a pathetic tent next to the river. Thankfully, he is picked up again by Frank and Dee when they try to build a new profitable company.
Dee Took Advantage Of Him
Seeing Dee and Charlie is surprising as it is, but discovering later on that Charlie didn’t exactly consent to it and that Dee ignored his ’no’s is downright shocking. The two seem like a cute pair when we see them enjoying an afternoon together and discovering that they only degrade and disrespect each other under the rest of the gang’s influence, but in hindsight, they are not good for each other at all.
Charlie only realizes that he was taken advantage of when the gang takes a class on consent and boundaries. The show treats the subject lightly and comically, as always, but it does darken the gang’s dynamic knowing that Dee sexually assaulted Charlie and got away with it because she’s a woman and he’s a man.
