It’s fair to say that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is not a traditional sitcom. Its main characters range from a manipulative sociopath to a depraved millionaire living on the fringes of society to an illiterate lunatic who bashes rats to death for a living – none of them are familiar types like “the jock” or “the ditz” or “the nerd.”
Throughout its record-breaking run of 14 seasons and counting, It’s Always Sunny has upended all kinds of sitcom tropes. It doesn’t adhere to many of the established hallmarks of sitcoms, and in a lot of cases, it actively subverts them.
Likable Protagonists
One of the expectations of sitcoms is likable protagonists. When network executives are considering new shows, they’ll be more inclined to pick up a show with likable characters because audiences will want to tune in to see people they like for however many years the show is on the air.
But It’s Always Sunny has proven that sitcoms about unlikable people can be even funnier. Every main character in It’s Always Sunny is a terrible human being and none of them have any awareness of it, so they never change.
The Characters Learn Lessons
When Seinfeld began airing, Larry David famously instituted a “No hugging, no learning” policy that would prevent the main characters from showing each other affection or learning from their mistakes.
The writers of It’s Always Sunny are keeping this tradition alive with characters who have so little self-awareness that they don’t even realize they’ve made mistakes they need to learn from. It may have been done in Seinfeld but these shows are the exception, not the rule.
Will They Or Won’t They?
One of the most well-worn tropes of the sitcom is the “will they or won’t they?” dynamic between two characters with great chemistry. The most famous example is Ross and Rachel from Friends, but there’s also The Office’s Jim and Pam, How I Met Your Mother’s Ted and Robin, Frasier’s Niles and Daphne – and, of course, the original “will they or won’t they?” couple, Sam and Diane from Cheers.
Since the very beginning of its run, It’s Always Sunny has been subverting this trope with the disturbing stalker-stalkee relationship shared by Charlie and the Waitress.
Clip Shows
Clip shows are the laziest way to pad out a TV show’s episode count. Even some of the greatest comedies in TV history, like The Simpsons and The Office, have sunk to the low of producing a clip show.
In the Always Sunny episode “The Gang Does a Clip Show,” the series subverted the clip show tradition with the Gang misremembering events (including remembering something that happened on a totally different show as if it happened to them).
Voice Of Reason
Every group of oddballs at the heart of a sitcom cast needs a voice of reason to stand in for the audience and balance out the crazy. Seinfeld has Jerry, The Big Bang Theory has Leonard, The Office has Jim, etc.
In It’s Always Sunny, Dennis is supposed to be the voice of reason, but he’s also an unhinged sociopath and, in many ways, the most insane member of the Gang.
Just Say No
Traditional sitcoms went out of their way to advise audiences against indulging in vices. Almost every classic sitcom has an afterschool special-style episode warning against drug and alcohol use. First Lady Nancy Reagan appeared on such an episode of Diff’rent Strokes as part of her “Just Say No!” anti-drug campaign.
In It’s Always Sunny, the main characters are all alcoholics and in denial about it. Dennis and Dee try to get addicted to crack cocaine just to exploit the welfare system in one episode.
Characters Get Better-Looking Over Time
In most TV shows, as more people tune in and the budget gets bigger, the hair and makeup suddenly get a lot better and the characters all become more attractive.
Rob McElhenney sought to subvert this by gaining a bunch of weight for season 7 of It’s Always Sunny. The series has gone on for so long that McElhenney ended up making the opposite transformation and getting super ripped before season 13.
Laugh Track
Although it’s mostly a thing of the past now, every sitcom used to have a laugh track. It was pretty condescending to remind the viewer when to laugh, but at least they used to use authentic laughter recorded from a live audience watching the taping of a given episode.
The Gang explored the power of laugh tracks in the season 12 episode “Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy,” in which they turned footage of Charlie and Mac’s moms trying to kill each other from disturbing to hilarious with some canned laughter.
Sentimentality
From Friends to Parks and Rec to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Brooklyn Nine-Nine to How I Met Your Mother, most sitcoms carry heavily sentimental messages. The mark of a quintessential anti-sitcom is a flagrant disregard for sentimentality.
Whereas the casts of the aforementioned shows constantly reminded each other how much they cared about them, the Gang in It’s Always Sunny is a highly dysfunctional group on the verge of killing each other.
