The 15 Best Episodes Of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Ranked

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" hasn't always been a critical darling or ratings hit, but since premiering in 2005, it's gone on to become the longest-running live-action comedy in TV history. The show was created by Rob McElhenney (now credited as "Rob Mac"), who stars on the show alongside Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito. The five of them portray a group of sociopathic Irish pub owners and operators whose various cons, get-rich-quick schemes, and ulterior motives destroy the lives of others around them.

In 2025, the 17th season premiered on FXX, proving that the show hasn't faltered in quality over the 20 years it's been on the air. As a result, some of the best episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" come from many different eras of the series, including the days before DeVito made his debut in the cast or just as recently as this past season. Here are our picks for the 15 best episodes of "Always Sunny," and let us know if there are any you think we missed! 

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" has had its fair share of meta episodes, but none are as brilliantly satirical as Season 9's "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award." After learning that Paddy's Pub has missed out on years of nominations at the Restaurant and Bar Association's Best Bar Awards, the Gang tries to emulate more successful bars to prove to voters that they deserve a win. It's all in reference to the sitcom's lack of attention from the Emmys, with rival bars parodying shows like "New Girl," from their will-they-won't-they storylines and use of Carly Rae Jepsen and Taylor Swift music. 

As you'd expect, the Gang is pretty terrible at forcing these more colorful, positive vibes on their bar. Instead, voters end up horrified by their foul language, their violent tendencies, and other acts of debauchery. However, the moment from this episode that really earns it a spot on the best of "Always Sunny" is the song performed by Charlie (Charlie Day) telling voters to go [expletive] themselves, leading the Gang to literally spit on them. 

"Mac and Dennis Become EMTs" is an episode from the 17th season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," and as far as more recent episodes of the series go, it's a classic premise for the Gang. Inspired by the hospitalization of a recent customer who ate a spicy pepper, Mac (Rob Mac) and Dennis (Glenn Howerton) decide to train to be EMTs. Unfortunately, their behavior in class results in them just buying a decommissioned ambulance and driving around impersonating EMTs. Meanwhile, Charlie goes full-on "The Bear" to help Frank (Danny DeVito) settle a lawsuit with The Lawyer (Brian Unger) by using spicy peppers in a burger recipe.

Ultimately, all the storylines converge beautifully when Mac and Dennis, also hopped up on spicy peppers, combine their ambulance scheme with Charlie's to create a portable burger restaurant. The final few moments of this episode are so chaotic, they very well might be among the very worst things the Gang has ever done, as The Lawyer ends up hospitalized and imprisoned for impersonating an EMT after they flee the scene. 

"The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore" aired at a time when MTV's "Jersey Shore" was responsible for some of the wildest reality TV moments of all time. Debuting as part of the seventh season of "Always Sunny," the episode has Dennis and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) encouraging the Gang to take a trip to the Jersey Shore in the hopes of capturing some childhood magic, only to discover that their memories are much more rosy than the actual place is. While the duo ends up following a partygoer to a liquor store robbery, Charlie spends the evening with the Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), who, unbeknownst to him, is tripping on Ecstasy. 

The real star of the episode isn't any member of the Gang, though: It's Rum Ham. Frank and Mac try to spend their Jersey Shore trip enjoying some rum-soaked ham on a raft, only to end up passing out in the middle of the ocean and losing Rum Ham a la "Castaway." By the time they get picked up by "guidos" who have fished Rum Ham out of the water, this Jersey Shore vacation feels a lot more celebratory for the duo than it is for Dee or Dennis.

Season 4 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" has far too many iconic episodes to make this list, but one of many we'd like to mention is its very first episode, "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters." The episode sees Dee and Charlie fearing that they've become cannibals after Frank convinces them they've eaten human meat from his fridge, forcing them to test their theory by satiating their hunger for human flesh. As if that's not a wild enough A plot, the B plot, as indicated by the title, sees Mac and Dennis teaming up to hunt the greatest prey of all: Man.

Their choice of target is none other than Rickety Cricket (David Hornsby), a recurring character in the series whose descent into homelessness and financial despair is chronicled throughout its entire run (we'll talk more about Cricket's origins later). Not only is the episode rife with hilarious moments of Mac and Dennis' attempts to kidnap Cricket, who is then aided by a John Rambo-obsessed Frank, but Dee and Charlie's storyline is just as insane. 

Some of the best episodes of "Always Sunny" depict the Gang deliberately sabotaging situations that would otherwise change their lives. Such is the case with "Charlie and Dee Find Love," an eighth-season episode in which a fender-bender results in Charlie and Dee landing a double date with wealthy Philadelphian siblings Trevor and Ruby Taft (guest stars Josh Casaubon and Alexandra Daddario). Of course, Mac, Dennis, and Frank all become dead-set on ruining their friends' romantic prospects. 

Credit where credit is due, Daddario's performance in this episode as a rich girl who genuinely falls for Charlie is all the more heartbreaking once Charlie reveals (spoiler alert!) that he had been using Ruby the entire time to make the Waitress jealous. Meanwhile, Mac becomes obsessed with proving his masculinity to Dee's rich paramour, Trevor, only for him and Dee to become the laughingstock of the 1% when Trevor's friends watch a tape of their shenanigans.

More recent seasons of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" have delved into some seriously touching dramatic territory, such as the season 13 episode "Mac Finds His Pride," which unexpectedly made Mac an impactful LGBTQ+ TV character. However, as far as the more emotional "Always Sunny" episodes go, we have to give our flowers to the season 15 finale, "The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain," the conclusion of the season's four-episode stint in which the Gang goes to Ireland and Charlie meets his biological father, Shelley Kelly (Colm Meaney), who dies off-screen before the episode.

In the season finale, Charlie insists the Gang fulfill an Irish tradition of helping carry Shelley's corpse up a mountain and throwing him into the sea, but one by one, each member drops out of the mission. By the end, Charlie's alone, dragging Shelley's corpse in the rain, and has an emotional breakdown over his father's absence in his life. However, just in the nick of time, the Gang returns in a pick-up truck to save the day and help Charlie throw the corpse into the ocean. It's a rare moment in which the gang comes together for a good cause, even if that cause is chucking a dead body into the sea. 

Many early episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" explore hot-button issues of the late 2000s, with this Season 2 episode exploring the welfare system in the United States. "Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare" kicks off when, as you'd imagine, the duo quit working at Paddy's Pub and seek unemployment benefits, only to realize the yellow tape surrounding it is much more extensive than they'd imagined. When asked to provide proof of their addiction to crack cocaine, Dennis and Dee head to the streets in search of the drug just to get a little bit of it in their system.

As it turns out, crack cocaine is incredibly addictive, and Dennis and Dee end up falling down a dark rabbit hole of despair. Meanwhile, Frank picks up the slack around the bar by hiring welfare workers, and he sets up a bank account to protect his money from his wife, only for Mac and Charlie to use the money to go partying in limousines with sex workers. In the end, the only person who wins is Charlie, whose initiative to steal Frank's money is rewarded with a management position at Paddy's Pub.

The gang is typically obnoxious and difficult to root for, but never more so than in Season 5's premiere, "The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis." Frank ropes Dennis, Mac, and Charlie into his scheme of flipping a foreclosed house, only to discover that the family is still living there as per their 90-day window to vacate. After some threats of violence against the family, they decide the only way to salvage Frank's investment is to sell the property before this family can trash the place, resulting in Mac and Dennis inventing new personas as Honey & Vinegar Realty. 

There's not a scene in this episode that doesn't work, from Dee's B-plot of offering herself as a surrogate mother to a family, only to just take advantage of their backyard pool, while an embarrassing confrontation with The Lawyer causes Charlie to challenge him to a duel, which is surprisingly accepted. It's amazing the gang doesn't suffer more consequences for their actions in this episode, instead getting to relax in the pool of Dee's surrogate couple.

The early episodes of "Sunny" feel incredibly different from future seasons, thanks to its low-budget quality and the absence of Danny DeVito. However, some episodes from the premiere season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" make you feel like the entire show was fully formed right from the get-go, such as "Charlie Has Cancer." In the episode, Charlie breaks the news to Mac and Dennis that he has cancer, and being the "good" friends they are, they decide to help him get laid. 

With Charlie's heart set on the Waitress, Dennis attempts to convince the Waitress to sleep with Charlie, resulting in him sleeping with the Waitress instead. They end up bribing the Waitress to sleep with Charlie, but as it turns out, he doesn't even have cancer, and was just using it to get the Waitress on a date. The episode also features the debut of two future recurring characters: Dee's co-worker Artemis (Artemis Pebdani) and Mac's romantic interest Carmen (Brittany Daniel), a trans woman. 

The best "Always Sunny" episodes are the ones where Charlie Day hits, which is exactly how you could describe Season 2's "The Gang Exploits a Miracle." After Mac discovers a stain in Paddy's Pub that resembles the Virgin Mary, the Gang experiences a whole new wave of attention, exciting the devout Mac. Dee must seduce a former love interest of hers from high school, priest Matthew Mara (a.k.a. Rickety Cricket), to "bless" the stain. Meanwhile, Charlie steals the show playing televangelist for the enraptured elderly.

Not only does this episode have a lot of great moments satirizing the capitalization of religion, but it's also the beginning of a long downward spiral for Cricket after Dee regrettably convinces him to leave the priesthood for her, just to turn him down. Plus, Frank's attempt to get the stain blessed by another priest, Father O'Grady (Jack Axelrod), results in the drunken old priest peeing on the stain and washing it away, horrifying the visitors and ruining their entire plan.

"Always Sunny" may seem like the last show that deserves a light-hearted Christmas special, but "A Very Sunny Christmas" is anything but. The extra-long episode finds Dee and Dennis, fed up with Frank's humiliation of them every Christmas by buying their most wanted gifts for himself, trying to re-enact "A Christmas Carol" by roping in Frank's former business partner, Eugene (David Huddleston), to haunt Frank and force him to change his ways. Meanwhile, Charlie and Mac try to teach each other about their own Christmas traditions, only to learn what dark secrets each of their families holds.

Though it contains a scene in which Charlie bites a mall Santa and a naked and sweaty Danny DeVito emerges from the inside of a couch, it's easily one of the best Christmas episodes of the past 20 years, even featuring a memorable Claymation sequence in the style of the Rankin/Bass Christmas movies from the 1960s. If you're a fan of the show, this episode is probably already on your yearly holiday rewatch list, but if you're not a fan of "Always Sunny," it's probably not the thing to make your family watch. 

Few episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" feel like a better distillation of the group's sociopathic tendencies than the sixth season episode "The Gang Buys a Boat." After self-financing the purchase of a run-down houseboat, the Gang has wildly different expectations for the nautical endeavor. In one of the show's most that-didn't-age-well jokes, Mac and Dennis insist on turning "The Drowning Sailor" into a "P. Diddy-style" party boat, despite Charlie and Frank being interested in using the boat for shrimping a la "Forrest Gump."

Of course, none of this ends up coming to fruition. Dennis disturbs Mac with his plans to lure women to the boat to sleep with him because of the "implication" in the event they refuse, while Frank loses the boat keys in the water, and Charlie becomes obsessed with digging up what appears to be treasure; this just turns out to be trash that Dee's been cleaning from the inside. By the end, they've accidentally set the boat on fire, and along with it all the money they spent on a plan that was doomed from the get-go. 

Of all the episodes of "Always Sunny" to invade the public lexicon, "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" is probably the most troublesome. The first half of the episode depicts Dennis describing his foolproof method of seducing women: Demonstrating his value, Engaging physically, Nurturing dependence, Neglecting emotionally, Inspiring hope, and Separating entirely. The sequence of Dennis narrating his own usage of his system on Caylee (played by Glenn Howerton's real-life wife, Jill Latiano) could earn this episode a spot on this list all by itself. 

However, after failing to win back Caylee, Dennis has to face the reality that, rather than keep numerous women on the hook, his system has, in all likelihood, precluded himself from ever getting any of them back. That's where this episode goes from good to great, revealing that Mac and Frank already have their own systems for getting Dennis' sloppy seconds, while Charlie struggles to adapt Dennis' method on the Waitress.

What happens when you stick five sociopathic narcissists in a car with one goal of driving out of Philadelphia all the way to the Grand Canyon? Well, you may get the season 5 episode "The Gang Hits the Road" of "Always Sunny," but you definitely won't get to the Grand Canyon. In the episode, the Gang has planned a road trip but encounters obstacles at every turn, whether it be running over a cyclist and having to return to the bar to swap vehicles, or Dennis and Charlie accidentally knocking themselves unconscious by setting two wicker chairs on fire in a U-Haul. 

Simply put, there's not a single scene in this episode of one of the best TV comedies that isn't laugh-out-loud funny, from Dee throwing a jar of her own urine out the car window and subsequently hitting a sleeping Mac in the face with it, to Charlie's first exposure to eating a pear being eating the sticker and stem and core along with it. The fact that they never even make it outside of Philly by the end of the episode is proof that together, there's nothing the gang can do. 

There's only one episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" that deserves the No. 1 spot on this list: "The Nightman Cometh." In the third season, Charlie and Dennis briefly start a band with their signature song "Dayman," which, a season later, inspires an entire episode where Charlie has written a musical that he wants the gang to perform in. What ensues is a ridiculous 20 minutes of Charlie trying to corral his difficult actors into putting his dream on stage, facing Mac's pathetic attempts to look cool, Dee's desperation for her moment of stardom, and Frank's horrible mispronunciation of the words "boy's soul." 

The episode has subsequently become so popular among "Sunny" fans that the cast even took the episode to the stage themselves, performing an extended version of "The Nightman Cometh" in six different cities, including one performance on the season 4 DVD set. This one episode alone might make "Always Sunny" one of the best musical TV shows ever made, because no other series has boasted a more irresistibly catchy song than "Dayman, ah / fighter of the Nightman, ah / champion of the sun, ah / you're the master of karate and friendship for everyone!"