2. Rickety Cricket's Life Is Ruined
Many people have been affected by The Gang one way or the other, but no one has been affected more than ex-Father Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara. Cricket knew The Gang in high school, where he fell madly in love with Sweet Dee, and pops up in their lives on occasion. When he first shows up at Paddy's in the show, he is a priest who still has feelings for Dee who, of course, leads him on to get him to do stuff for her. He leaves the priesthood so they can be together but she denies him. The next time he's around he's homeless, and Dee and Charlie accidentally get him addicted to cocaine and the mob breaks his legs for taking their drugs. Then when Charlie mistakenly lists Paddy's as the prize in a dance-off competition, Cricket shows up hoping to win, but (of course) fails, only to be manipulated by Dee and then quickly dumped again. Later, when Dennis and Mac decide they want to try and hunt man, they choose Cricket as their target and they eventually catch and tea-bag him. He also wrestles for The Gang and ends up getting his throat cut, gets shot in the hand, steals from everyone at their high school reunion, has to clean dog cages at a shelter, and even asks The Gang to "put him down" at one point. The downward spiral of Rickety Cricket, or Street Rat as many know him, is one of the most entertaining running stories on the show. The Gang always finds a way to try and exploit him that ends up making his life permanently worse, and yet they never feel any remorse and are ready to take advantage of him again whenever they get the chance. Poor Rickety Cricket, never catches a break.