A Very Sunny Christmas

"A Very Sunny Christmas"
Writer	Charlie Day & Rob McElhenney
Director	Fred Savage
Air Date	November 17, 2009 (DVD & Blu-ray) December 16, 2010 (First TV Broadcast)

"A Very Sunny Christmas" is the thirteenth and last episode of the sixth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It originally aired on FX in December 2010 (after Season 6 completed airing) but was first released on DVD & Blu-ray in November 2009. It is 43 minutes in length, twice the length of a typical episode.

Synopsis

Christmas is nearly here and the Paddy's gang has got the spirit. For the gang the holidays have always been a time of trickery, backstabbing, and disappointment. But this year they are determined to rediscover the joy of Christmas. Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Dee, and Frank embark on a holiday adventure filled with stolen toys, childhood videos, naked elves, and a bloody run-in with Santa Claus that is guaranteed to blast Christmas spirit all over!

Recap

9:00 AM on Christmas Eve

Dee & Dennis

While decorating Paddy's, Charlie and Mac mock Dennis and Dee for hating Christmas because Frank was a terrible gift giver. Dennis corrects them, clarifying that Frank would buy whatever they wanted most for himself and would rub it in their faces. This year, Frank has bought Dennis' dream car, a Lamborghini Countach, and a high-end designer handbag that Dee wanted.

Dee and Dennis decide to track down the old business partner Frank screwed out of millions of dollars to teach Frank a lesson. Eugene has recently converted to Christianity and only agrees to pretend to be a ghost if he can tell Frank about Jesus. At Frank's apartment, Frank tries to kill Eugene because he is pretending to be a ghost. Dennis and Dee bust in and make him watch an old home movie of them opening empty boxes on Christmas morning and him laughing at them.

Dennis and Dee take Frank and Eugene to their old real estate office and sew Frank into a couch so he can overhear his former co-workers gossiping about him. He gets too hot in the couch so he strips naked, then slips out of the couch, walking nude across the entire party with everyone staring at him.

At a cemetery, Dennis and Dee show their father an empty grave with a tombstone that reads "He was a dick of a father." He figures out that they're not teaching him lessons to change him, but so that he will buy them good presents. He leaves in his Lamborghini.

Mac & Charlie

Mac and Charlie head to Mac's house to find some of his favorite toys from Christmases past. They find an Omnibot and a videotape of Mac's 1985 Christmas. It turns out that Mac's family would break into houses to steal their presents. Mac swears it was a neighborhood tradition, but Charlie informs him that he was just robbing innocent families.

The two head over to Charlie's mother's house where Charlie tells Mac about how when he was a kid, Santas would come over on Christmas morning and give him presents before going up to "cheer up" his mother Bonnie. Mac informed Charlie that his mother was prostituting herself out for money and presents. This is a hard pill for Charlie to swallow.

Mac and Charlie apologize to Ricky Falcone, the boy that Mac unknowingly stole the Omnibot from. They decide to go to the mall to get him the hottest toy for his kids. At the mall, Mac nearly fights a toy store clerk for not giving him a robot toy from the "special reserve". Charlie drags him away, but sees the mall's Santa and approaches him, demanding to know if he banged his mom. He ends up biting and punching the Santa, and Mac has to literally drag him away.

The Gang unites

At Paddy's, Mac, Charlie, Dennis, and Dee whine about how crappy Christmas is. Charlie receives a call from the hospital that Frank has died. They go to verify his body but he is still alive. He did crash his car and had a vision of a claymation land where an elf sang about how the four other members of the gang murdered Frank for being horrible. Frank promises them that he will make it up for them, but Dennis interprets it as a message that the four should stick together if they want to have a good Christmas.

They all go over to sing Christmas carols to Ricky Falcone at 4 AM where they are booed and glass bottles are thrown at them. Dennis' car is towed and they must walk two hours back to Paddy's. Inside, Frank has decked the entire bar with decorations and bought them all presents, including the Lamborghini and the designer hand bag. Eugene then shows Frank his gift - a handgun. He doesn't give Frank the gun, but instead steals all the presents and blasts them with a snowblower.

Upset that all their gifts were stolen, the gang spends Christmas morning throwing rocks at trains, a tradition Mac and Charlie have held onto since they were little boys.

Gregory Scott Cummins as Luther Mac and Sandy Martin as Mrs. Mac

Cast

Starring

• Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly
• Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds
• Rob McElhenney as Mac
• Kaitlin Olson as Dee Reynolds
• Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds

Guest Starring

• David Huddleston as Eugene
• Gregory Scott Cummins as Luther
• Sandy Martin as Mac's Mom
• Lynne Marie Stewart as Charlie's Mom
• Pablo Schreiber as Ricky Falcone
• Ryan Michelle Bathe as Woman-Office Worker
• Mike Beaver as Man-Office Worker
• Derek Waters as Toy Store Clerk
• Mark Povinelli as Tiny

Co-Starring

• Preston Bailey as Young Mac
• Charlie Carter as Young Dennis
• Harley Graham as Young Dee
• Robbie Tucker as Young Charlie
• Timothy Goodwin as Christmas Dad
• Donovan Scott as Santa in Mall
• Karly Rothenberg as Another Mom
• Marc Anthony Samuel as Raisin #1 V.O.
• Gary Anthony Williams as Snowman and Raisin V.O.

Trivia

• The Lamborghini is yellow and black, the theme colors of the show.
• There are multiple Christmas songs in this episode:

1. "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms
2. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Bing Crosby
   feat. The Andrews Sisters
3. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams
4. "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley
5. "O Holy Night" by Andy Williams
6. "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby

• Because this episode was not originally broadcast on TV, the word "fuck" is used multiple times by multiple characters. (previously, in the 4th Season premiere Charlie was yelling "I ate a fucking monkey, Dee!", and it was censored; also, in the episode "Mac and Charlie: White Trash", Mac does say "Fuck you" to the attendant at the pool, but it's also censored.) Charlie uses the word at least 15 times (possibly more, though it's a bit indistinct at times) during his violent outburst towards Santa.

• The scene where Frank comes out of the couch naked is visually similar to a scene in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" with a naked Jim Carrey being birthed from a mechanical rhino.
• When Frank crawls out of the couch you can see his testicles for a brief second.
• A scene where Frank rips off the couch was reused in the launch of FXX on Monday, September 2nd, 2013 (two days before the show moved to FXX for its ninth season) at 7am, which replaces Fox Soccer.
• In 03x11 Charlie was talking about his mom's inner whore (and even called her "one hell of a whore") because he was mad at her for stealing Frank from him. In this Christmas special he finds out that Bonnie was a prostitute for real.
• In "Charlie Got Molested" Mrs. Kelly also calls Charlie her "little gingerbread man".
• This episode went on sale on Danny DeVito's birthday - November 17
  (and two days before "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" was first aired).
• There's a slight editing snafoo during Charlie's Santa-freak-out (right before Mac elbows the lady at the mall).
• The stereo receiver which Luther is stealing during Mac's childhood "Christmas Morning", is very likely a Technics SA-390 Quartz Stereo Receiver, manufactured and released in 1986.
• Danny DeVito was hesitant about the snowblower scene. He thought it would be dangerous.
• Charlie Day actually bruised his ribs filming the snowblower scene.

• The stop motion animation scene is an homage to the 1964 Christmas classic cartoon "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
• This is the first episode that gives a specific date for the day rather than just a day of the week ("9:00 AM, on Christmas Eve, Philadelphia, PA"). The episode "The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre" gives the date as "Friday the 13th".
• The title sequence is also changed to show Christmas lights and decorations around Philly, and the theme is remixed to add jingle bells (as is a lot of the other music in this episode).
• The "Sergio Giorgini" bag that Frank buys to taunt Dee is a reference to the UK version of The Office, in which office manager David Brent brags about having a "Sergio Giorgini" leather jacket.
• Mac elbows a woman who comes up behind him, reminiscent of the way that he punches Carmen in
  "Charlie Has Cancer".
• For the TV broadcast Charlie's fatal question to Santa was redubbed on "Did you SEX my mom?".
• As Dennis and Dee return to the bar after failing to change Frank for the better, Mac is briefly seen studying the train routes so that he and Charlie can throw rocks at trains on Christmas.
• If you look closely during the mall freakout scene, Rickety Cricket is in the crowd.

Quotes

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“No, your other left.”

“My other left? I only have one left.”

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“It's just an expression. Just move it to the other direction.”

“What would that expression be for? For someone who has two lefts?”

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“No. Just move it the other way!”

“Towards your left?”

—

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“Your left and my left are the same because we're facing the same direction.”

“We're two different people. We can't have the same left.”

—

 

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“Why WOULDN'T we throw rocks at trains?”

 

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“Merry Christmas, bitches!”

 

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“You have to earn what you get. This principle is what made me a multi-millionaire.”

“No, no, stealing millions of dollars from your ex-business partner is what made you a millionaire.”

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Eugene

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“I saw the light and I saw the truth of the lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

“Oh, uh-oh.”

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“Why do you have a karate trophie?”

“I found that in the street once.”

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“Oh, that makes sense.”

 

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“What was that? What was the family on the stairs?”

“That was probably the next family, coming to get their next presents.”

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“What are you talking about? What was happening there?”

“That was the Christmas tradition. Where you go from house to house collecting your presents and when the next family comes you would run.”

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“I'm not aware of this tradition, Mac. In fact I think you were just stealing from that home.”

“No, I was taking their presents -- but they were taking mine. That's why there were never any presents under my tree when I got back -- the neighbors took them. It's a South Philly tradition.”

—

 

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“Mac, your dad is a thief and a murderer who eats people. So, he's not really trustworthy.”

“This is really dicking with my Christmas spirit.”

—

 

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“If you're going to bring God into it, can you do the Old Testament, and the covenant, and keeping your eyes closed or your face will melt, or the coins, and the fear, and the Indiana Jones...”

 

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“This is your chance to get your vengeance, guy. Where is your anger?”

“Let's all go to church!”

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Eugene

 

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“The Santas that come over on Christmas morning and cheer my mom up.”

“The Santas, plural? What the hell are you talking about?”

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“Oh dude, this was like the best tradition ever. Every Christmas morning, I would run to the door and open it and I'd find the first Santa Claus. Now the Santa Claus would come in and he'd give me a present or something and then he'd go in the room with my mom and cheer her up for a while. Then the doorbell would ring and the next Santa Claus would come, and he'd give me a present or something or other and he'd go cheer my mom up for a while.”

“Uh Charlie. I hate to break this to you man, but based on the story you just told me. I think your mother was a prostitute.”

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“What? Come on, man.”

“I'm just saying based on that story you just told me, I'm fairly certain those Santas were running a train on your mom for money.”

—

 

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“At this point, I think the robot has fallen under the "Finders, Keepers Act of America".”

 

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“Did you fuck my mom, Santa Claus? Did you fuck my mom? Did you fuck her? DID YOU FUCK MY FUCKING MOM? DID YOU FUCK MY MOM, SANTA? AAAAH!”

 

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Eugene

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“You didn't let me talk to Frank about the peace that he would find in the lord.”

“No no no! I can't stand it! I'll shove a fist right in your mouth right now, I'm sorry.”

—

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“If you think Jesus and the lord are so great, why don't you have them swing by in their Lamborghinis and take your ass home.”

 

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“Christmas is just a bunch of bullshit. You just find out that your dad stole all of your presents and that your mom gets fucked by a series of never ending Santa Clauses. Charlie's mom is a prostitute, by the way.”

 

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“What the hell is this?”

“I knew you guys wouldn't come, so I faked my own death.”

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“We really should have seen that one coming...”

 

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“What the hell was that, you little green bitch!?”

 

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Elf

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“Christmas is a time for joy for every girl and every boy. Rich or poor, old or young, the Christmas spirit's in everyone! But you'll miss out on all the fun 'cause you're not nice to anyone. A grumpy gussy Christmas grouch who hides out in his couch!”

“Watching his roommate pounding off!”

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Snowman

Elf

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“Pulling fake-outs, pulling pranks gives your friends the Christmas cranks. And this is how they will react when they finally crack! They'll rip your arm off at the bone, eat it like an ice cream cone. Gouge your eyes out with a spoon, blow them up like two balloons, keep them close so you can't see as they chainsaw off your knee. Bash your body with a board and hang you by your spinal cord! And then they'll rip you down so you survive, grind your legs while you're alive. Throw you to a gator pit, let them gnaw on you a bit. Pull you out and stab your face, spray your wounds all full of mace. Now they're really getting brazen when you're burned by racist singing raisins! But it's not too late to make amends with your family and your friends. All you really have to do is get the spirit. Get the Christmas spirit. Get the Christmas Spirit inside you!”

 

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“Why did the elf have no pants on?”

 

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“Well you can go fuck yourself in your fat fucking ass.”

 

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“Do you guys think it's too late to get a Christmas tree?”

“Yeah dude, way to late.”

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“I don't care for fir trees anyway. I don't like the smell.”

“Yeah, plus they're a fire hazard, and there's all that sap.”

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“If you're going to get a tree, why don't you get a tree that does something?”

“Like an orange tree.”

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“Where are you going to find an orange tree in Philadelphia?”

“You know what we could do? We could get a bag of oranges!”

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“Dude, now you're thinking!”

“And do what? Hang them in the bar?”

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“No, bro, it'll be awesome! We take the oranges, we give them to each other as gifts.”

“That's a terrible gift. I don't want it.”

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“We're trying to give you the Christmas spirit here, dickhole!”

 

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“Hey, Mac. Now, I know things weren't pretty at the mall, but we have a chance to save Christmas here, dude. And check it out - we can still get some Christmas spirit if we just bring that shirt I bought over to Ricky Falcone.”

“The shirt. Is this the shirt that you’re referring to?”

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“Yeah!”

“It's covered in blood, Charlie. Santa's blood, you goddamn lunatic!”

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