Here’s the reason why Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) is in love with the Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) in FXX’s 15-season black comedy sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It’s Always Sunny follows the five irredeemably awful owners of Paddy’s Pub referred as “The Gang.” Charlie, the pub’s janitor, lives in squalor with the Gang’s father figure Frank (Danny DeVito), spending his day huffing inhalants and killing rats. Charlie was formerly infatuated with the unnamed Waitress, who is a love interest first introduced in the show’s pilot and is a consistent recurring character. Between season 12’s finale and season 13’s premiere, a one-night stand with the Waitress finally ends his obsession with her.

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Looking at Charlie Day’s 2004 Reno 911! cameo with Ellis, the real-life married couple go way back. Given their connection, it becomes all the funnier that the Waitress constantly rejects Charlie’s advances in It’s Always Sunny. Furthermore, Charlie’s seriously stalker-ish pursuits add a particular It’s Always Sunny dark twist to his courting. Other shows would treat a similar love interest as an anticipatory buildup to be rewarded, such as Niles’ infatuation with Daphne in Frasier. However, because Charlie is so assertive with his courting and his presence is so clearly unwanted by the Waitress, the show reminds viewers that Charlie’s actions are not something to support. The whole point of It’s Always Sunny is to lampoon selfish, arrogant, unsympathetic people and give them the treatment they deserve, whether or not they actually learn from their consequences. They don’t even care about how their actions towards It’s Always Sunny’s Cricket build up over time and help ruin his life.

With that considered, Charlie pursuing a woman clearly not interested in him for over a decade is still strange, even for the Gang’s standards. Yet, Charlie does so not because he’s actually in love with the Waitress so much as he’s in love with the idea of being with the Waitress. As obsessed as Charlie is about her, from ending his musical “The Nightman Cometh” with a forced marriage proposal to emotionally manipulating Ruby Taft (Alexandra Daddario) just to make the Waitress jealous in season 8, episode 4 “Charlie and Dee Find Love,” Charlie’s connection with the Waitress remains shallow. He never bothers to even learn her name, and in season 9, episode 8 “Flowers For Charlie,” he leaves the Waitress during lunch out of disinterest. All this highlights how the supposed “love” he has for the Waitress is actually a manifestation of his own neuroses, rather than any indication of genuine feeling.

The obsession is also partly escapism for Charlie. For example, It’s Always Sunny’s “Charlie Rules The World” episode shows Charlie’s aptitude for immersing himself in a virtual reality and succeeding, especially compared to the other Gang members. He never moves on from the Waitress because doing so would require a change in the alternate reality he’s built inside his head. Pursuing the Waitress is less about being with her and more about feeding his obsessive fantasy. It’s why something that began as a high school crush evolved into nearly 15 years of harassment.

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A key factor about the Gang is that they never change, and Charlie’s Waitress obsession is one example portraying his arrested development. His reaction to his Waitress fantasy being ruined by their one-night stand only confirms the obsession’s true purpose. Being raised by a doting single mother without seeing any example of a healthy relationship, with It’s Always Sunny only recently revealing Charlie’s dad, combined with his constant exposure to self-absorbed people, Charlie never learned what a romantic relationship should be like. As It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s season 9, episode 6 “The Gang Saves The Day” implies, Charlie treats his relationship with the Waitress as more of a role-play. It’s for the best, then, that Charlie’s Waitress obsession has since died down considerably.

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About The Author


Allison Wonchoba
(79 Articles Published)

Allison Wonchoba is a Features writer on Screen Rant. She holds a degree in Cinema and English, and she knows (probably) all things film and TV. Working at Hot Topic for a couple years also helped her know all things pop culture-y. Once upon a time, she also interned at a radio station in Dublin, Ireland where she got more media training – and built up her Sudoku skills on the side. She likes Pina Coladas and gettin’ caught in the rain – and she knows that’s NOT a Jimmy Buffet song.

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