It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: 10 Best Recurring Jokes
Which of Paddy's recurring gags gets you laughing?
The mark of a great sitcom is when you can keep returning to similar jokes and get a laugh every time. Each comedy show that tries to make a stamp on the market needs to have a specific set of gags that it returns to in order to give it identity and reward loyal fans who remember them.
That is something that Always Sunny achieves in abundance. It is home to a plethora of ridiculous recurring jokes based on language, character traits, or ideas that get a tonne of laughs whenever they appear.
Throughout the show's 14 seasons, the characters have gone through so much, and they've come out of it all the better - or worse, realistically speaking.
They've picked up a certain amount of habits and ideas that make their way into the show regularly, and this helps to form some of the best running gags in comedy TV history. The following ten entries are the best examples of this.
Honourable mentions include: Dee's nervous gagging, Charlie's affinity for inedible foods, Uncle Jack's "Tiny" hands, Guigino's and specific recurring roles like The Lawyer and The Waiter.
10. Charlie's Characters
Charlie Kelly is an easy fan-favourite for the show, and one of the best things to come from the squeaky-voiced janitor is his plethora of weird characters. The main ones being The Nightman, The Dayman and Green Man.
Firstly, Green Man is always a funny thing to see, as Charlie's green morph suit, which he uses as a sports mascot, has led to some great moments, such as Charlie fighting the Philly Fanatic and Cricket using it to gate-crash the gang's Superbowl adventure. It's a great recurring joke that only appears every so often.
However, the Day and Night man characters take this even further, as they don't seem to be roles he made up, but rather deep emotional presences in Charlie's psyche.
It's abundantly clear that Charlie is dealing with some traumatic emotional problems. Those always seem to manifest as The Nightman, a character who the gang clearly see as a person who assaulted him, as the lyrics of his song makes clear. While the reality of these characters is horrible, it's also hilarious as their constant mention shows how close Charlie always is to cracking.
Plus, who could ever forget "The Nightman Cometh"? Best musical episode ever.