The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Gang, Ranked by How Awful They Are As People

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Since it first aired in 2005, Rob McElhenney’s comedy, *It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia* (co-created with Glenn Howerton), has become known for its increasingly outrageous and funny storylines. The show’s core group – Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito – perfectly portray the hilariously awful characters of the Paddy’s Pub Gang. They are all heartless, selfish, and deceitful, but each brings a unique brand of terrible to the table. None of them are good people – they lie, lack empathy, have strained family relationships, and will readily exploit others for personal gain.

After seventeen years, it’s become clear how each person has evolved – and unfortunately, most haven’t changed for the better. Determining who is the ‘worst’ among them is difficult, but their true characters are now evident.

5) Charlie

Charlie from *It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia* isn’t malicious, just not very bright. His difficult upbringing, hinted at being a failed abortion, has clearly affected him, and he makes things worse by constantly inhaling glue. Despite his flaws, Charlie often has good intentions. For example, in the Season 1 episode “Charlie Got Molested,” he reported the McPoyle brothers to the authorities when they tried to wrongly accuse an old teacher.

Charlie’s biggest flaw is his obsessive behavior towards a waitress – he followed her, tampered with her shampoo, and even wrote a creepy play as a way to propose, but she turned him down. While he’s also rude to people he doesn’t know, Charlie is still the most decent of the five characters.

4) Mac

Mac has grown the most within the group over time, but he’s always been deeply insecure, likely due to a difficult childhood with uninvolved parents. For years, he also struggled with his identity, torn between his developing romantic feelings for other men and the strict religious beliefs he held dear.

Compared to some of the others, Mac isn’t the worst. He’s definitely flawed – he constantly pursues men who’ve rejected him, made Country Mac’s funeral about himself, betrayed friends when he was younger, and slept with Dennis’ prom date, then lied about it. While his behavior is problematic, the most disturbing thing he did was let his dog, Dennis Jr., starve and then feed the remains to Dennis.

3) Frank

In the *It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia* episode “Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad,” Frank has a predictably strong reaction when he learns Dennis and Dee aren’t his biological children. While most people would be upset, Frank shockingly tells them right away that he doesn’t consider them his kids at all – a remarkably harsh thing to say.

Frank wasn’t a good person to begin with, long before drugs, alcohol, and a difficult lifestyle came into the picture. He was already self-centered, and openly admitted to starting a pointless company. Later, when asked to fix it, he secretly sold the company and coldly fired all the employees. Despite his flaws, Frank does deserve some credit for attempting to understand Mac’s sexuality and for genuinely caring about Charlie.

2) Dee

During the first season of the show, Sweet Dee Reynolds played the relatively normal character amongst her wildly inappropriate friends. Despite Kaitlin Olson’s strong acting abilities, Dee initially felt like a fairly unremarkable voice of reason. This began to shift at the start of Season 2 when she pretended to have a disability, mirroring the behavior of Mac, Dennis, and Charlie.

Over the seasons, Dee has arguably become the most morally corrupt member of the gang. We see this through a series of increasingly awful actions, starting with manipulating Rickety Cricket into leaving the church in Season 2, which led to his downfall. Later, she’s shown being incredibly rude – like berating a pool attendant and even blowing her nose at him – and committing outright fraud by claiming a baby as a dependent to get money from the government. She also enjoys causing others pain, as seen when she trips a waiter and laughs at him. Perhaps most disturbingly, we learn in Season 9 that she once severely harmed a roommate, inspired by the movie *Single White Female*.

In Season 12, the episode “PTSDee” showcases arguably the most ruthless manipulation ever committed by anyone in the Gang. Dee becomes enraged when a male stripper reveals she’s the lowest point in his life, so she feigns being his supportive ‘rock,’ offering to help him get out of debt and reconnect with his daughter. She does provide some assistance with the latter, but in a deeply twisted way. She arranges for him to perform for a group of young women at Paddy’s Pub, and his own daughter is among them, unknowingly watching him perform with his genitals exposed. Dee then reveals the situation by turning on the lights and laughing.

1) Dennis

In Season 12’s “Dennis’ Double Life,” Dennis Reynolds surprisingly shows some growth. After learning he has a child from a casual relationship, he initially tries to avoid responsibility but eventually decides to be involved, though on his own conditions and for however long he chooses. While this decision doesn’t exactly make him a good person, it’s still one of the few things he’s done that isn’t completely unforgivable.

He consistently manipulated women, using a calculated approach to win them over only to discard them once they became emotionally invested. This behavior alone would be deeply problematic, but what truly sets him apart is the disturbing nature of his private life. He’s created a terrifying, sexually-themed escape room in his bedroom with no way out. Compounding this is his treatment of Maureen Ponderosa, a beloved character in the series. While consistently cruel to her, he likely orchestrated her death, a suspicion never fully disproven but widely believed to be true.

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2025-09-24 22:42