A Very Sunny Christmas

"A Very Sunny Christmas" is yet another example of something that combines one of my favorite things with Christmas - in this case, the terrible adventures of the awful employees of Paddy's Pub. It would be very easy for the Always Sunny gang to turn the expectations of a Christmas special on its head and make something cynical, where the conclusion is that Christmas is for suckers. But against all odds, "A Very Sunny Christmas" ends up being a surprisingly heartwarming episode of a show about five narcissistic, amoral monsters.

Like most "Always Sunny" episodes, this one consists of two different stories. Dennis and Dee, fed up with Frank's yearly tradition of buying their favorite Christmas presents for himself, decide to engage in a typically disastrous "Christmas Carol"-type scheme to show him the error of his ways (with the help of The Big Lebowski and Santa Claus: The Movie's David Huddleston). On the other side of town, Charlie and Mac desperately try to rekindle their Christmas spirit after making some horrifying realizations about their childhoods (Mac's parents were burglars, and Charlie's mom had sex with a neverending string of Santa Clauses on Christmas Day). Both tales feature some of the most hilariously disturbing scenes in Sunny history, including a sweaty, naked Danny Devito emerging from inside a leather couch and Charlie tearing out a mall Santa's throat with his teeth (not to mention a claymation Rudolph homage in which Frank is graphically eviscerated by the rest of the Gang).

Despite the gleefully nihilistic actions of the Paddy's gang, "A Very Sunny Christmas" manages to have the most (relatively) uplifting ending in the show's run. In a last-ditch attempt to harness the Christmas spirit, Charlie, Mac, Dee, and Dennis join forces to scream carols through the Philly streets (much to the chagrin of bottle-throwing locals). Frank has a rare moment of humanity and decides to give everyone what they want most for Christmas - until they're robbed by Huddleston. ("The bums will always lose!") In the face of a seemingly neverending string of assaults on their holiday enthusiasm, however, the Gang muddles through somehow and turns to the simple pleasures of Charlie and Mac's favorite childhood activity - throwing rocks at trains.

It certainly says something that only Christmas could bring out the sympathetic sides of the Paddy's gang, and this episode provides rare glimpses into their respective pasts which show that maybe, just maybe, they all would have turned out like decent human beings if they hadn't been irreparably messed up somewhere along the way. And the ending - with a young Mac throwing his arm around young Charlie's shoulders and walking home after a long day's train-pelting - is shockingly unironic and sentimental. "Always Sunny" is the last show you'd expect to leave you with that warm, fuzzy feeling, but it did happen once. And it'll probably never happen again.