It’s Always Sunny Premiere Shows Us the Filthier Side of the Gang’s Visit to Abbott Elementary — Grade It!
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key TakeawaysSix months after Abbott Elementary welcomed the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crew back to school, we’re getting the Paddy’s Pub perspective on the crossover in the Sunny season premiere —and yeah, the curses aren’t bleeped this time.
Wednesday’s Season 17 (!) premiere opens with Abbott principal Ava telling us that the documentary crew just found “additional footage” of the Paddy’s Pub gang’s visit to Abbott to do court-ordered volunteer work. Frank sees the assignment as a potential “gold mine” —well, copper mine, since he’s plotting to strip out the school’s valuable copper piping. Dennis complains about the disgusting sludge they call coffee, and Janine is not happy that Dee went after her man Gregory. “I need to say a bad word,” she announces, and when Gregory encourages her to say it, she calls Dee “a total f–king c–t.” Whoa, we’re not on ABC anymore!
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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Dennis Abbott ElementaryDennis takes it upon himself to make good coffee, commandeering a chemistry set and brewing a perfectly pH-balanced cup of joe: “I’m like Walter White over here.” Meanwhile, Dee schemes to get the documentary cameras on her and away from Janine (“I’m not picking up star vibes from her. She’s a dud”), Frank sets a raccoon loose in the school and Mac decides to recruit the school’s tallest kids for the local basketball team. He, Charlie and Frank follow one kid into the bathroom —and the way they’re leering at him, we’re relieved when Jacob chases them away. Oh, and Frank ends up taking a leak in a school locker. (Too much coffee, you see.)
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«Rne4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R17e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeThe Abbott staff all love Dennis’ coffee, but at lunch, Charlie is saddened to realize the Abbott kids only know 9/11 as a funny meme. That leads to an angry discussion of geopolitical history among the gang (“And the Arabs are buying golf from us!”), leading them down a dark conspiracy rabbit role where they start questioning if jet fuel can melt steel beams. As Ava puts it, “these people are passionate, but dumb as s–t.” Mac drops the basketball thing and starts recruiting kids for a boy band, with Charlie telling a wary Gregory: “Basically, we’re kinda like shopping for kids here.” Dee is upset the cameras missed her big fight with Janine, because she let her win (“I’d rip this whole school bald if I wanted to”), and Janine insists she’s over their feud —but then she punches a dent in a locker.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Charlie Dennis Abbott ElementaryTo educate the Abbott kids on recent history, Charlie and Dennis decide to shoot a music video that’s an update on Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” incorporating recent events into the song. Janine’s a big Billy Joel fan, it turns out, so she’s happy to participate, and she, Barbara and Jacob end up singing new lyrics while Charlie plays keyboards. (“Kaepernick takes a knee/Ozempic cures obesity!”) Barbara loves the song, but Jacob bursts their bubble when he points out that Fall Out Boy already recorded an update to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” And left unattended, Mac and Frank try to melt the steel bleachers in the gym with a blowtorch… and end up setting the whole gym on fire.
They put out the music video anyway, using scenes from their day at Abbott to illustrate the new lyrics. (Mac setting the gym on fire came in handy after all.) Dennis invites the Abbott faculty to Paddy’s Pub, offering them a free drink on the house. (“No spirits,” though. And “no imports.”) Dennis tells them how much their time at Abbott meant to them, and they even give the Abbott staff a new espresso machine as a thank-you. There was an ulterior motive, though: While the Abbott-ers were at Paddy’s Pub, Frank was busy ripping all the copper piping out of their walls. Ava shrugs it off, though: It saved them a bundle on construction costs, since it had to come out anyway. A win-win!
How’d you like seeing the Sunny side of the Abbott crossover? Give the premiere a grade in our poll, and let us know what you thought in the comments.
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The Season Premiere of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' with it tackling the seedy underbelly shown during The Gang’S visit to Abbott Elementary, reinforces its reputation as a bold and irreverent portrayal that dares audiences into laughter.
