It’s Always Sunny season 15 premiere recap: 2020: A Year In Review

After a significant, pandemic-linked hiatus, FX series It’s Always Sunny season 15 has premiered. It has officially become the longest-running live-action American comedy series. It also means “the gang” is up to its old tricks. However, this episode has a few unexpected twists, as it examines how the gang played roles in some of the biggest scandals of the year 2020 — and, yes, 2020 sure was a year of big scandals!

It all starts off with the arrival of Gary (Brian Huskey), who is at Paddy’s Pub regarding their PPP loan. How did the gang branch out to deal with the pandemic, business-wise? After vague allusions to a venture called “Punch Incorporated,” Mac (Rob McElhenney) tells of how he strove to become an international country-pop sensation. Unfortunately, Mac’s lyrics about horses and flies confuse Dennis (Glenn Howerton), who feels Mac was being too literal about the nature of horses (flies, of course, are not quite the romanticized “cowboy” image most country stars go for). They are also too focused on the election to finish the song…

It’s Always Sunny season 15 episode 1 recap: Election security

We quickly learn more about Punch Incorporated, including that it used the money for tactical gear regarding “election integrity.” As usual, though, their explanation of events gets a bit sidetracked, as they start to debate the merits of specific actors (Dennis calls Sly Stallone a “meatball actor”). However, the gist of their story is that, while attempting to provide security while dressed in tactical gear, the real security demanded they move 100 feet away from a polling station.

This is all very reminiscent of alleged attempts at voter intimidation in the 2020 election (which, thankfully, did not escalate as badly as one might have imagined). Still, it turns out Dennis and Mac ended up responsible for vote delays due to interfering with the ballot box process.

It’s Always Sunny season 15 episode 1 recap: Frank’s underground hair dye salon

Next, It’s Always Sunny delves into Frank (Danny DeVito) and his import and export business, which perhaps isn’t as sleazy as one might initially think. Nevertheless, Frank’s efforts still result in scandal. In addition to dealing with “sludges in general,” Frank is importing a special hair dye. As he relates the story to Gary, it becomes clear Frank didn’t know how to wear a mask properly, which is something even Charlie (Charlie Day) gets right.

Due to Frank’s appreciation of classic porn stars like Peter North and TT Boy, he sets up a lowkey male hair dye salon in the back of a porn shop. He perfected his Chinese motor oil hair dye after first trying shoe polish, India ink, and/or permanent marker, and ended up with some clientele as an underground hairstylist. For better or worse, one of Frank’s customers was none other than presently-disgraced former NY Mayor and Attorney Rudy Giuliani. It turns out, Rudy’s bizarre and outlandish hair dye “meltdown” was due to Frank cutting corners by using American motor oil! (Hey, sometimes history is made by cutting corners, right?)

It’s Always Sunny season 15 episode 1 recap: Garments and Varmints

What about Dee (Kaitlin Olson) and Charlie’s PPP loan money? Well, that went to their venture called Garments and Varmints, which was initially all about facemasks. While Dee designed custom masks, like one saying “Fauch the Grouch,” Charlie settled on a Ronald Reagan mask (though, in classic Charlie fashion, he doesn’t even know it looks like Ronald Reagan). Charlie’s reasoning at least makes some vague sense: everyone else was making medical-style masks at the time, so why not make other kinds of masks?

Garments and Varmints also have a fun ad where Charlie has the classic “eagle” costume on (previously seen in theIt’s Always Sunny episode “The Gang Wrestles for the Troops”). It also turns out that, much like the others, Charlie and Dee had a minor impact on history. For the “varmints” portion of their business loan money, Charlie had some pelts from raccoons he was tanning, seemingly among other animal hides. Interestingly, at least one such pelt and an animal-horned helmet thingie were sold to the now-infamous “Qanon shaman.” Also, Charlie accidentally starts a fire with a firework, making his PPP loan seem riskier still.

It’s Always Sunny season 15 episode 1 recap: The Gump connection

To his credit, Frank is often honest about his shiftiness in It’s Always Sunny, and he tells the gang that nothing made him more money than when he bankrupted a business. Based on that prevailing wisdom, the gang never seems too concerned about any consequences for their actions here. In a surprise twist, however, we learn they are not talking about Trump when they mention supporting a Washington outsider who is “electrifying” onstage. Instead, they were intending to support Kanye West.

As the episode reaches its end, Gary disbelieves their stories, saying there’s no way they were involved in all of those big stories. Why? Because they are not all Forrest Gump. That may be true, but the potential is there for any number of miscreants and oddballs to change history. It’s just too bad that changes are not always for the better.

What are your thoughts on the It’s Always Sunny season 15 premiere? Let us know in the comments!