Watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been surprisingly healing for me. I was pretty young when it came out but it was always in the background of pop culture, so i was familiar with it, but hadn’t seen it for myself.
Then, when i was old enough to watch it and had people recommend it or just heard people reference the show, i adamantly refused because i was so jaded by men at a very early age due to some rather horrific personal experiences, especially that sort of straight “bro” culture- like american pie, the hangover, horrible bosses- that seemed to celebrate people just acting moronic and rude and misogynistic. That style of humor always seemed to me to have a power imbalance- the joke was always at someones expense and naturally, as someone who was abused by these type of men making the jokes, i identified with the feeling of powerlessness more than i saw it as a joke.
And since i’d only seen clips of IASIP i figured they were just a bunch of assholes and haha isn’t it funny to watch people be mean to each other for no goddamn reason?? I’ll admit, i was on a bit of a high horse, and my anger towards men tended to put anything that was advertised towards them as morally wrong.
Now, I’m finally exploring these spaces that seemed inherently male dominated because, well, i grew up, and i realized if i was going to criticize something, i should have a better understanding of why i was criticizing it. So, when my friend recommended IASIP a while back, i finally decided to check it out.
and it was nothing at all like i thought it was. Yes, these characters are assholes, and usually the joke is at the expense of someone (omg poor cricket), but what makes it stand out is that these assholes are their own worst enemies. This isn’t a show celebrating the act of being an asshole, it insists you laugh at them and their absurdity instead.
But also, it’s just so silly and ridiculous sometimes- which is not at all the humor i expected from them. At some points, they are straight up cartoonish and theres a healthy distance between reality and their behavior, while at the same time, these characters have such sad backgrounds that there is a certain level of recognizable humanity that makes you understand their behavior while not excusing it. Dee for example, grew up in a family where she was the damaged black sheep. No one loved her, in fact, she was straight up abused, but naturally, she was desperate to fit in and that became a key character trait. Dee needs to be liked, she needs attention, because she never got it growing up. Her motivation is relatable, even if her actions aren’t. Which is pretty much the premise of the show. Find a recognizable frustration and motivation and then have these extreme characters attempt to fix it through the most outlandish way.
I was (happily) very wrong about this show. I don’t think i can even classify it along with the likes of american pie etc. Im only sad that it took me so long to get into it, especially when they’re talking about possibly ending it next season. I’d watch the show until they were as old as Danny Devito and became a bunch of bickering old people swatting their canes at each other.
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