Earlier this month I asked members of the fandom to answer a series of questions related to the concept of "Canon Macdennis" — does it exist and what does that mean, if so, or if not?
I highly appreciate everyone who participated and shared their thoughts, as the concept of ships being canon in something like Sunny is a complicated and fascinating idea to me, and it was a lot of fun to pour through the results!
In short, the fandom is almost evenly divided on the idea of Macdennis being canon:
And this really comes down to a fundamental difference in interpreting canon as something that in the intent of the show (it is canon because jokes and/or plot rely on the audience reading their relationship a certain way), or something that is true to the characters (it is not canon because the characters don't acknowledge the relationship as such).
For those who believe that, yes, they are canon, I asked for Respondents to pin point the earliest season in which they are canon, and found that while results were a bit scattered, the majority sees Macdennis as being canon since Season 5 or earlier
Mac and Dennis Break Up was the most cited episode for the early Seasons, as may be expected, with the later Seasons heavily citing Dines Out or Tends Bar. In all of these episodes, Mac and Dennis are written to be viewed as a couple, clearly intentionally, but the divide on when this makes them canon seems to be at the point in which the viewer believes the intention of pairing them together "like a couple" isn't purely for the joke. Whether or not they're still paired to tell or perpetuate a joke is mostly irrelevant, because such a continuation of that, across so many years, makes it clear that they're written to be interpreted as being in a [extremely dysfunctional and fucked up] non-platonic relationship (and, in fact, many jokes and plots just don't work as well if you aren't reading them as a couple).
Those who don't agree that Macdennis are canon didn't report much on the idea of whether or not they're intended to be read as a non-platonic relationship, but instead focused more on the fact that Mac and Dennis, themselves as characters, do not identify as being in a romantic and/or sexual relationship (either because they won't admit it or because they truly don't think they are), and that is what bars them from being considered canon.
I asked those who responded no to Macdennis being canon to provide me with an idea as to what would make them canon, and responses were truly across the board on this idea: everything from 'once Dennis makes his feelings about Mac clear' to 'they have to be in an official relationship for the rest of the show' was quite evenly split. Even when narrowing the ideas down into two set categories, the fandom seems divided:
For some, it's just about getting a physically consensual act between the two and for some it's just about getting Dennis' admitted feelings, but for many it's about both of these ideas being continuing and genuine, as many expressed that they see Dennis having admitted feelings as a minimum expectation, but the two of them hooking up as a minimum standard for canon. But, unless Sunny becomes a completely different show, it is pretty unlikely that both of these things happen (at least, not at face value or without some kind of "catch") and stay consistent for the remainder of the show.
So, in some sense, it seems like the Fandom will probably never universally agree on whether or not Macdennis is canon..... but I can confidently claim that a sloppy makeout is guaranteed to push us over the line for more yeses than nos!
There's a more in-depth and complete discussion/breakdown of the Fandom's idea of canon Macdennis on The Paddy's Pub Blog!
Is "Macdennis" a real thing? Or is it just a product of the fans reading into the pairing? What makes them canon in the eyes of the fans (or
episode where dennis finds out that mac actually never stopped going after the women he's hooked up with -- but now instead of wanting sloppy seconds, mac just approaches them in a gay best friend way and gets them to vent about the details of hooking up with dennis.
most of the women make a point of how bad the sex was, but mac is still into it somehow.
the fact that some people irl think the d.e.n.n.i.s system is cool and edgy instead of deeply, profoundly pathetic and the machinations of an extremely traumatized man is. very disappointing yet not totally surprising
tbh i don't think the golden bachelor episode is about macden or dennis at all. mac and dennis are like 20 years too young for the show. the golden bachelor is like for people who are retired aged, like 65+. i think it's way more likely that it's centered around frank, like maybe using it as a way to bang lonely broads.
On top of the age and retirement status of the Golden Bachelor, which is true, “The Golden Bachelor Live” is the season finale, which we know is the infamous “white board episode” from Rob’s tweet last year:
Just from what we can clearly make out from the *legible* parts of Charlie’s writing, the episode is centered around Frank, with Dennis and Dee paired and Charlie and Mac paired. There’s no doubt this is Frank’s episode/season finale
tbh i don't think the golden bachelor episode is about macden or dennis at all. mac and dennis are like 20 years too young for the show. the golden bachelor is like for people who are retired aged, like 65+. i think it's way more likely that it's centered around frank, like maybe using it as a way to bang lonely broads.
watching everyone speculate is so funny... i know entirely too much, and part of that is knowing that none of these eps are going to be anything like what they sound like HDKSSKDKSKS
however. the ONE thing that has consistently been on my mind since before season 16 had even aired, something that came from one of the podcast live shows is that they were fucking talking about frank being closeted like mac was, hinting that they might do something with that, and then as soon as that picture of the episode overview with charlie writing on the whiteboard dropped i said it again; i think the golden bachelor is going to be the queer frank episode.
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