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In case you’ve been living under a rock, everybody watches It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The raunchy comedy is like the Seinfeld of our generation. And, when the show premiered the first episode of Season 15 in 2021, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia became the longest-running U.S. sitcom in television history. The show has also won the People’s Choice Award in 2016 for Favorite Cable TV Comedy. Interestingly, though, it’s never won a Primetime Emmy Award. However, when it comes to shows you might hear referenced in a social gathering these days, It’s Always Sunny is rivaled only by The Office. And that’s some pretty good company.
If you’re familiar with the show, you’re aware that all of the show’s main characters (often referred to as “The Gang) are complete and utter morons. However, among them, one character stands out as the biggest doofus of them all: Charlie. Charlie is an illiterate janitor with a deep emotional connection to rats and an avid consumer of cat food. And, except for Frank, none of the other members of The Gang show him any respect whatsoever.
However, there are certain times throughout the series when Charlie shows brief glimpses of genius. And his character really points to the fact that, although some of us may not possess conventional intelligence, there are other types of intelligence that “normal” people have a difficult time understanding.
So, in this article, we’re going to take a look back at # times that XCharlie was actually really smart in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
1. Charlie Rules the World
As the title of the episode “Charlie Rules the World” implies, Charlie really separates the wheat from the chaff (or maybe it’s the chaff from the wheat?) when it comes to online gaming. When The Gang gets involved in an online role-playing game (think League of Legends or World of Warcraft), Charlie establishes himself as the single most powerful player in the game while Mac’s character is reduced to the role of the “soiled fool”.
Not only does Charlie dominate the virtual world, he uses his power in cyberspace to procure favors in the real world as well. Unfortunately, all of Charlie’s power is swiftly extinguished when Dennis deletes all of their online profiles. How was he able to do so? All of their passwords were simply “paddyspub”. Still, the fact that Charlie was able to dominate this video game shows that he possessed whatever sort of intelligence was required to succeed in the game.
2. Charlie Is Good at Dominoes
In the very first episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (titled “The Gang Gets Racist), Mac and Charlie visit a college campus in an attempt to prove that they aren’t racist by befriending some Black students. The two of them then encounter a group of Black students playing dominoes in a campus common area and Mac manages to prove that he is even more racist than they originally thought. Charlie, on the other hand, wins the approval of everyone there for his amazing skill in dominoes.
The fact that Charlie is able to defeat all of his opponents in dominoes demonstrates that he possesses the ability to think ahead and at least a basic understanding of algorithms. Not only that, but his ability to win at dominoes also catches the attention of a beautiful woman named Jennell. Unfortunately, Charlie uses Jennell to try to prove to The Waitress that he isn’t racist, which is pretty damn racist.
3. Charlie Wrote a Musical
One of the most iconic episodes of It’s Always Sunny ever made was undoubtedly “The Nightman Cometh”. In this episode, Charlie persuades The Gang to perform a musical that he wrote all by himself. Unbeknownst to the cast, Charlie’s entire motivation was to impress The Waitress and convince her to marry him.
The musical is a catastrophic failure as many of the musical numbers that Charlie wrote allude to pedophilia, incest, and other horrible themes (aided by the fact that Frank has a serious issue with pronouncing the words “boy’s soul). And, unsurprisingly, The Waitress refuses to marry Charlie when it’s all said and done. However, having the bandwidth to write an entire musical, complete with a storyline (albeit a very strange and disturbing one), musical arrangements, and choreography, is an impressive feat that requires a certain level of intelligence.
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4. The Charlie Work Scheme
One of the finest displays of Charlie’s secret and unconventional intelligence is the “Charlie Work” episode from Season 10. In this episode, we get an inside look at the lengths that Charlie must go to every year to ensure that Paddy’s Pub passes the health inspection despite the fact that the bar is anything but up-to-code. This episode also featured an uninterrupted 10-minute shot, which led many to believe that it was an homage to the film Birdman (which employed a similar technique). We do know that Charlie is a fan of birds and, specifically, bird law.
The entire scheme that Charlie devises is meant to trick the health inspector into giving them a passing grade. At one point, Frank covers himself in black paint, hides in the dark basement, and plays a note on the recorder to imitate the sound of a functioning carbon monoxide detector. There is, in fact, loads of carbon monoxide in the basement, though, which Charlie has intentionally redirected down there to kill any vermin that try to enter the bar – another part of his scheme. In the end, Charlie is able to secure a passing grade on the health inspection using his unorthodox intelligence, thus saving the bar. Would it be easier to just conform to the health code? Probably.
5. Charlie Almost Convinced The Waitress to Sleep With Him
In the “Mac Bangs Dennis’s Mom” episode of Season 2, Charlie devises a scheme to get The Waitress to have sex with him that’s so complicated that it’s pretty hard to follow. Let’s try it anyway. When Mac goes to Dennis’s mom Barabara’s house to pick up Frank’s toupee, Barbara discovers that Frank is dating again and tries to seduce Mac out of jealousy. Meanwhile, Dennis attempts to blackmail Charlie by threatening to bang The Waitress. Out of spite for Dennis, Charlie convinces Mac to sleep with Barbara, which he does.
When Mac gets down having sex with Barbara, Charlie and Dennis watch him leave her house from a car nearby. Charlie then convinces Dennis that the only way to get back at Mac is to have sex with Mac’s mother. Dennis then goes to try to seduce Mrs. Mac, but she isn’t attracted to him. However, Dee takes The Waitress to watch as Dennis tries to seduce Mrs. Mac, which shatters The Waitress emotionally. Dennis then also tries to seduce Mrs. Kelly (Charlie’s mom) as The Waitress watches from afar. Dee convinced The Waitress that the only way to get revenge on Dennis is to sleep with Charlie. Unfortunately for Charlie, The Waitress decides that sleeping with Frank is an even better way to get back at Dennis. Now, while Charlie didn’t actually get what he wanted, you still have to admit that it was one hell of a scheme.
