It’s Always Sunny: The 10 Best B-Plots, Ranked

In the average episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the cold opening will set up a premise and hilariously lead into the title of the episode with that premise. But since the Gang is five members strong and not every storyline requires five characters, some episodes of the show – like most sitcoms – have a B-plot running alongside the A-plot.

In most sitcom episodes, the B-plot isn’t as memorable as the A-plot, because the writer puts the majority of their energy into the A-plot. But in some cases, the B-plot is even greater than the A-plot.

10 The Shusher (The ANTI-Social Network)

While Mac and Dee are trying to go viral with a Paddy’s Pub promotional video in “The ANTI-Social Network,” Charlie and Dennis are determined to track down a man who shushed them at a hipster bar.

Charlie and Dennis’ frustrations throughout the episode’s B-plot are hilariously relatable, because nobody likes to be shushed.

9 Dennis And Dee Start A Podcast (Mac’s Big Break)

Mac and Charlie win a radio contest in “Mac’s Big Break,” which prompts Dennis and Dee to break into broadcasting. With Frank as their producer, they start making a podcast with the intention of elevating the medium above its usual goofy sound effects with their intellectual musings.

However, it quickly becomes clear that they’re not very intellectual and they stoop to using their own goofy sound effects before too long. To attract listeners, they dump dishwater on the Waitress and feed lemon slices to Cricket.

8 Dee And Charlie Get A Taste For Human Flesh (Mac And Dennis: Manhunters)

In the season 4 premiere “Mac and Dennis: Manhunters,” Frank has been hunting strange animals to see what their meat tastes like and Mac and Dennis determine that the ultimate prey is man and decide to hunt Cricket.

Meanwhile, Dee and Charlie have been stealing Frank’s meats and he gets them back by feeding them what he claims is human meat. This gives them a taste for cannibalism, leading to such hilariously dark scenes as trying to bring a hotplate into a morgue and inviting a homeless man into their home and seasoning his flesh.

7 Dennis Stops Feeling Emotions (Charlie’s Mom Has Cancer)

The main focus of “Charlie’s Mom Has Cancer” is the riff on the season 1 episode “Charlie Has Cancer,” as Charlie’s mom, much like Charlie himself, fakes a cancer diagnosis for personal gain.

In the B-plot, when Dennis hears about Charlie’s mom’s diagnosis and feels nothing, he realizes he’s lost the ability to feel emotions. This was a major stepping stone in Dennis’ characterization.

6 The Glory Hole (Mac And Charlie Die)

Mac and Charlie fake their deaths after sabotaging Mac’s dad’s parole in season 4’s two-parter “Mac and Charlie Die.” In the meantime, Dennis, Frank, and Dee discover a glory hole in the bar, which they try to incorporate into everyday life at Paddy’s Pub.

It gets Dennis on an anonymous sex kick. Frank takes him to an Eyes Wide Shut-style orgy in a dingy apartment with a buffet, and in Mac’s absence, he takes in a new roommate who is a sexual deviant.

5 Mac And Dennis Set Up An Online Dating Profile For Charlie (The Waitress Is Getting Married)

While Dee tries to break up the Waitress and her new fiancé Brad in “The Waitress is Getting Married,” Mac and Dennis try to offset Charlie “going postal” by setting up an online dating profile to get him back on the horse.

Charlie does everything he could possibly do wrong on a date: he eats a bunch of cheese beforehand, he sweats right through his shirt, and when he claims to be a “philanthropist,” he pronounces the word horribly wrong.

4 Dennis And Dee Go To A Public Pool (Mac And Charlie: White Trash)

When Mac and Charlie are rejected from an elite pool club in the Sunny episode “Mac and Charlie: White Trash,” Dennis and Dee expect to waltz right in based on their upper-class upbringing. However, they get rejected, too, so they have to go to a public pool.

The episodes gets plenty of comedic mileage out of the culture clash of elitist Dennis and Dee arriving at a public pool filled with shoe-stealing delinquents and rock-throwing children – and Frank impersonating a watermelon.

3 Frank’s A Christmas Carol (A Very Sunny Christmas)

While Mac and Charlie are discovering the shocking truths behind their holiday traditions in “A Very Sunny Christmas,” Dennis and Dee try to exact revenge against Frank for years of Christmas fake-outs by re-enacting the plot of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

However, their plan backfires. Unlike Ebenezer Scrooge, Frank fails to see the error of his ways and only doubles down. This episode has the classic moment in which a nude, sweaty Frank emerges from inside a couch.

2 Dennis Steals Brian LeFevre’s Identity (Frank’s Back In Business)

This episode sees Frank being brought back to his old company in “Frank’s Back in Business,” but that A-plot is nowhere near as memorable as the B-plot in which Dennis finds the wallet of a man named Brian LeFevre in the bar.

He becomes obsessed with the thrill of living in another man’s skin, and tests his limits as he sees how far impersonating LeFevre will get him before “getting off.”

1 Mac And Charlie Work In A Mailroom (Sweet Dee Has A Heart Attack)

Everyone in the Gang worries about their health after Dee has a heart attack. While Dee teams up with Dennis to get in shape, Mac and Charlie team up to fill a single minimum-wage mailroom gig at a corporate office to secure some insurance.

While Mac is upstairs trying to mingle with the suits and save the company, Secret of My Success-style, Charlie is down in the mailroom carrying the whole workload himself. His “Pepe Silvia” conspiracy has since become a widely circulated meme.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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