A lot of people considerIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiato be one of the funniest shows on television. Much of this is down to the show’s preposterous storylines, its razor-sharp humor, and, perhaps more than anything,its fantastic characters. In Dee, Dennis, Mac, and, Frank, the show boasts a core cast whose inappropriate and vulgar antics rarely fail to raise a smile. The pick of the bunch is arguably Charlie, however; the rat-smashing, cheese-eating simpleton of the gang.
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More so than any of the other main characters, audiences are typically laughing at Charlie rather than with him. His simplistic and at times naive perspective offers up something that the rest of the gang just can’t, while his love of all things weird opens up a lot of avenues for the show’s writers to explore. As a result, there have been some fantastic Charlie quotes duringIt’s Always Sunny’s decade and a half on the air, the best of which can be found below.
7"Are you taking me for a spaghetti day?" (S06E10)
Reading and writing aside, Charlie’s grasp of the English language isn’t actually all that bad. For whatever reason though, he’s never come across the word “spa” before and so gets very confused when Dee announces that she’ll be taking him for a Spa Day to keep him out of the way while the rest of the gang plans a secret birthday bash.
Due to his one-track mind, Charlie becomes fixated on eating spaghetti, insisting that the pair go out and buy some right away. After smuggling some into a movie theater in a zip-lock bag, Charlie does eventually make it to the spa, where he proceeds to eat his spaghetti while sitting fully clothed in a sauna with Frank. With that in mind, it seems safe to say that he got his spaghetti day in the end.
6"Is your cat making too much noise all the time?" (S05E08)
The gang has come up with plenty ofbizarre productsover the years. A few of them, like the d*ck towel and fight milk, have actually sold pretty well. Most, however, ended up leaving quite a lot to be desired. Charlie’s Kitten Mittens fall somewhere in between, as although there is clearly a market for them (albeit a somewhat niche one), his naivety led to him failing to make a single penny from the idea despite an investor being found.
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As is often the case when the gang gets in front of a videocamera, Charlie’s promotional video for Kitten Mittens is absolutely hilarious. Some may prefer the one for Fight Milk (a mixture of milk and crow’s eggs that’s designed to help bodyguards bulk up) due to the amount of “crowtein” and bird sounds that are crammed into it, but Kitten Mittens arguably has the edge by virtue of having come first.
5"I’m a full-on-r*pist." (S05E05)
Due to his ongoing obsession with the waitress, Charlie doesn’t have much time for conventional dating. When the (unrequited) love of his life reveals that she’ll soon be getting married though, he begrudgingly accepts that he may now have to move on and so allows Dennis and Mac to set up anonline datingprofile for him. Amazingly, despite his hobbies being listed as “magnets” and his favorite food as “milk steaks,” he’s somehow able to get himself a date.
While waiting for Charlie’s date to arrive, Dennis and Mac provide a little coaching in the hopes of improving Charlie’s chances. Rather than telling his date that he’s a janitor, they decide that it would be best if he tells her that he’s a philanthropist instead. Unfortunately, however, Charlie doesn’t know how to say “philanthropist” and so, in a manner reminiscent of Tobias' “Analrapist” (a portmanteau of “analyst” and “therapist”) business cards inArrested Development, ends up making a huge mistake.
4"Do you think a pirate lives in there?" (S03E06)
Despite his constant assertions that he knows exactly how to read and write, Charlie’s illiteracy has been the butt of many jokes over the years. Whether writing a nonsensical speech for Dennis to read on camera or turning on the bar’s “closed” sign every morning because he thinks it says “Coors,” there are plenty of great examples to choose from. The best, however, arguably comes in season 3.
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In the season’s sixth episode, the gang head over to a rival establishment to find out more about the owner’s secret microbrew recipe. As Charlie and Dennis are standing at the bar sampling the beverage, Charlie spots a door marked “private,” and asks Dennis whether he thinks that apiratemight be living behind it. After being ridiculed, he then attempts to change the subject by trying (and failing quite miserably) to kick the door down.
3"We’re just here to eat some dude!" (S04E01)
Though the majority of the season 4 premiere is centered around Mac and Dennis' manhunting exploits, Charlie and Dee’s adventure arguably provides a lot more laughs. Fed up with the pair stealing his food, Frank tricks them into eating some mystery meat, which he later claims was human flesh. After sampling as many different unusual types of meat as possible and failing to match the taste, the duo eventually begins to believe him.
As the episode continues, Charlie and Dee begin to get cravings and soon find themselves in a morgue with a hot plate, a six-pack, and a pair of pliers. As they deliberate over which body they should tuck into, they start to wonder whether choosing to eat a white man over a person of color makes them racists. Eventually, however, Charlie comes to the conclusion that decisions over the morality of their actions “are better left to the suits in Washington.”
2"Wildcard, bi***es. Yeeehaaaaw!" (S04E02)
Understanding one’srole within a teamcan be very important and, in many ways, quite reassuring. With this in mind, it stands to reason that finding out that one doesn’t have a purpose can presumably be pretty devastating. To get around this, Dennis and Mac decide that Charlie will be the gang’s “Wildcard;” a position that Charlie seems more than happy to fill. As is often the case with the gang’s schemes though, things don’t quite go to plan.
While driving around in a van containing several trashcans full of gasoline, Charlie decides to play his card by cutting the brakes and then diving out of the van’s barn doors as it’s driving down a steep hill. Needless to say, there are some pretty explosive consequences. He actually tries the exact same thing a few years later in season 8 in the middle of a similar scheme, but Mac sees it coming this time and gets the brakes fixed without Charlie ever realizing.
1"Carol. Carol. I gotta talk to you about Pepe." (S04E10)
More than most shows,It’s Always Sunnyis full of meme-worthy moments, particularly its fourth season. The most memorable of these comes in the season’s ninth episode, in which Mac and Charlie get a (shared) job working in a mailroom for health insurance reasons. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, neither is particularly good at the job, with Mac goofing off in a vacant office upstairs and Charlie getting wrapped up in an imaginaryconspiracy theory.
Towards the end of the episode, Mac returns to the mailroom to check in on Charlie, who proceeds to tell him about several fictional employees. After hearing him out, Mac reveals that not only do Pepe and Carol exist, but that they and the rest of the workers upstairs have been constantly asking about their mail for days. He’s worried that they’re going to lose their job as a result of their incompetence, but Charlie puts his mind at ease by revealing that they already got fired a few days earlier.
