Television series

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Name: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2005
Cast: Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton, Danny DeVito

Dark comedy
Strange

Five friends run a bar nobody wants to drink at and treat every taboo — racism, addiction, disability, terrorism — as raw comic material, with zero sentimentality and zero character growth across nearly two decades. It escalates from petty scheming into gloriously unhinged set pieces: musicals, gang wars, courtroom farces. For people who want their comedy nasty, structurally insane, and completely unconcerned with being liked.

Hot takes

Jimmy Wales
When Danny DeVito arrives in Season 2 the series comes alive. Watch it if you have an irreverent sense of human and aren't easily offended!

TVMaze rating

4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like comedy that runs on characters who are monstrously selfish and never learn a thing, with the cruelty played so cheerfully that you end up laughing at yourself for it.

Skip it if you need characters to be likeable or want warmth from your sitcom, since nearly everyone here is awful to each other and the show rarely softens to make up for it.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about half an hour and moves fast, so you can binge several in a row, but the jokes come quick and rough and need you to keep up with the sharp, escalating schemes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Arrested Development2003

Same engine — gloriously selfish people (a family, not a bar crew) scheming against each other and themselves — but denser jokes-per-minute and a narrator who never stops needling them.

But The humor is more verbal and structural than physical; if you love Sunny's chaos and cringe, this can feel cooler and more cerebral.

Seinfeld1989

The show about nothing that proved sitcoms could run entirely on petty, selfish people with no growth arc — the blueprint Sunny took and pushed into filthier territory.

But It's tame by comparison — no controversy-baiting, no gross-out set pieces, just four New Yorkers being mildly terrible to each other.

Curb Your Enthusiasm2000

Larry David improvising his way into social disasters entirely of his own making, with the same appetite for escalating awkwardness past the point of no return.

But It's slower and more observational — long stretches of squirming discomfort rather than the manic set-piece plots Sunny specializes in.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

American Movie1999

Same comic engine as Sunny — a broke, delusional man talking his friends into a doomed scheme — except it's unscripted, and the tragedy underneath is real.

A real Wisconsin filmmaker chases a delusional dream project while everyone around him enables the disaster — Charlie Kelly's energy, except nobody wrote the jokes, they just happened.

But It's a documentary about real, struggling people — the comedy comes laced with genuine sadness that a scripted show never has to sit with.

Veep2012

Politicians as vicious and self-interested as the Paddy's gang, just armed with real power instead of a failing dive bar — the insults fly faster and land meaner.

But The satire aims at institutions rather than pure id; if you love Sunny's total lack of context, Veep's political specificity might feel like homework.

Peep Show2003

British, shot entirely in first-person POV, and just as committed to its two leads being pathetic, delusional and quietly monstrous toward everyone around them.

But It's a two-hander in a flatshare rather than an ensemble gang, so the scale and chaos run smaller and more claustrophobic.

Trailer Park Boys2001

A documentary crew follows small-time crooks who never learn, never improve, and never stop scheming — the same doomed-loop structure as Sunny, relocated to Nova Scotia.

But The mockumentary format and slower Canadian rhythms make for a different comic texture than Sunny's tight sitcom pacing.

Workaholics2011

Three stoner-idiot roommates sabotaging their own lives with the same manic, dumb-guy energy as Mac, Charlie and Dennis at their most feral.

But It's broader and dumber by design — less interested in social commentary, more devoted to pure man-child chaos.

Bob's Burgers2011

Same failing-restaurant setup and scrappy staff, but warm where Sunny is cold — good for when you want the format without the moral rot.

But It's genuinely sweet under the jokes; if you watch Sunny for the nastiness, this will feel like an entirely different show, because it is.

The Office2005

Gervais and Merchant's original cringe machine, proof that comedy about small, delusional people trapped together doesn't need a laugh track to be devastating.

But It's much gentler and shorter — twelve episodes total, and the cruelty is mostly self-inflicted rather than aimed outward.

In Bruges2008

Same nerve Sunny works — jokes built directly on top of cruelty and moral rot — but played straight as tragicomedy instead of a sitcom's safety net of no consequences.

Two hitmen stuck in a Belgian town, trading vicious banter while genuinely awful things happen around them — pitch-black comedy that never lets the laughs cancel out the consequences.

But It's a two-hour film with real violence and grief at its center, not an endlessly renewable sitcom you can dip into for twenty minutes.