"The Gang Does a Clip Show" is the seventh episode of the thirteenth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It aired on October 17, 2018.
Synopsis
With nothing to do while their phones update to the latest software, the gang decides to reminisce on old times. As everyone misremembers events from their past, the gang's current reality becomes altered.
Plot
2:00 PM, On a Tuesday, Philadelphia, PA
At the pub, the gang are all on their phones, irritated by them having become slow. Mac recommends that everyone update their phones with the latest software to alleviate the issues. The update will take approximately thirty minutes, and the gang eventually decides to reminisce about old times in the manner of a stereotypical clip show, over Dennis' objections.
The first part of the episode plays out much in the manner of a standard clip show, with the present-day characters reminiscing about events of past seasons, intercut with clips of said events, but things start to go awry as the gang starts to misremember events and fabricate entire memories, for example remembering the Seinfeld episode The Contest as actual events that happened to them, with Dee as Elaine, Frank as Costanza, Charlie as Kramer and Mac and Dennis both as Jerry.
As Dennis warns that misremembering things amounts to rewriting the past and essentially constructing an alternate reality, Charlie sees this as an opportunity and chooses to construct a memory wherein he sits by the bar as the waitress enters and announces that she's pregnant with his child. A second Charlie then peeks at the couple through the door of the pub, Charlie claiming to always remember things from a second-person perspective.
The waitress then enters the pub, a child in her arms, calling for Charlie. Charlie is overjoyed at apparently having succeeded at rewriting reality. A second Charlie then enters the pub from the street. After the two Charlies have an argument, Dennis notices that Frank both has a full head of hair and absurdly long legs, revealing that the gang are trapped in Frank's imagination.
Having successfully exited Frank's head, the gang are initially relieved to be back in reality, but Dennis then notices that Dee lacks a cut that was inflicted on her forehead at the beginning of the episode. He interrogates every member of the gang in turn to ascertain whose imagination they are trapped in, but it eventually turns out to be the imagination of Dennis himself, the only noticable difference (aside from Dee's cut) being that Mac is not Dennis' roommate.
Having all left Dennis' head, Dennis retrieves a spinning top from under the bar, claiming that it will spin indefinitely if the gang has not yet returned to reality, just as in the movie Inception. Shortly after spinning the top, though, the software update finishes and the gang go back to their phones. A second Charlie opens the door of the pub and peeks at the gang. The end titles are displayed over the spinning top.
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
- Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Waitress
- Peter Mackenzie as Doctor
Trivia
- This is the sixth episode where the word "fuck" is not censored in the original airing, after "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer", "Hero or Hate Crime?", "The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again", "The Gang Gets New Wheels", and "The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem".
- Oddly, FXX did censor the word "retarded" in a clip, immediately before Charlie says "fuck" multiple times.
- This clip is from "A Very Sunny Christmas" -- in the original TV airing, Charlie's line was "Did you sex my mom?" The version used here, in which Charlie says "Did you fuck my mom?", is from the DVD release.
- Oddly, FXX did censor the word "retarded" in a clip, immediately before Charlie says "fuck" multiple times.
- The "contest" flashback is a line-by-line recreation of a scene from the Seinfeld episode "The Contest", with Dee as Elaine, Frank as George, Charlie as Kramer, and Dennis and Mac splitting the role of Jerry. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has often been compared to Seinfeld; an early review gave it a tag line that has stuck on the show: "Seinfeld on crack."
Images
Quotes
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— | “What if we just kick back and remember some of the good old days?” |
| “That's what you do when you start getting old, you start reliving the glory days because you can't think of anything new to do.” | — | 
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— | “For christ's sake, we can't even just sit around having memories without things getting out of hand.” |
| “Well, at least we're not being lazy, right, we're coming up with new stuff!” | — |
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| < Season 12 |
Season 13 | Season > 14 |
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1. "The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again" |