Catching Up With The Gang: An “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” Recap

The crassest comedy on television returned last night with two wonderfully depraved episodes that pay (dis)respect to recent movies.

In “The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby,” Dennis takes inspiration from Al Gore’s global warming warning An Inconvenient Truth and tries to join a group of environmental activists. After being chided by their leader for his lack of commitment, Dennis finds a new cause — sleeping with the treehugger’s girlfriend out of spite — but not before his half-assed Earth-saving efforts lead to the discovery of the aforementioned dumpster baby, whom Mac and Dee lovingly dub D.B. before attempting to exploit him as a child star.

Then, in a natural fit considering that Lincoln Financial Field is a fixture in the show’s opening credits, “The Gang Gets Invincible” takes a cue from former Funky Buncher Mark Wahlberg’s sappy sports flick Invincible as Mac, Dennis and Dee attend an open tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Dumpster Baby” provided some words of wisdom (“The road to stardom is paved with hard knocks and orange a**holes”) and a revelation (Frank is, in fact, Charlie’s dad as the result of an abortion that “didn’t take”), but “Invincible” is the episode the Gang should be sending to Emmy voters. It had everything — Green Man, the return of the McPoyles, and Geoffrey Owens (better known as Elvin from The Cosby Show) as a Donovan McNabb impostor hired by the Eagles to deliver a message to hopeless wannabes attending the tryouts (many in capes). That message? Real champs eat at McDonald’s. And as a valuable reference for aspiring female athletes, Dennis and Mac offer a list of sports that women can try out for: cooking, complaining to your friends about your boyfriends, playing at ballet, cleaning, displaying cars at auto shows in tiny bikinis and —when you get older — bridge. On second thought, maybe they ought to make sure Emmy voters don’t see this episode. They’d have to kiss the female vote goodbye forever.