In addition to their comedic gifts, the cast and writers of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are also very musically gifted. As a result, there have been plenty of musical numbers featured in episodes of the show.
One episode was written and shot as a musical about racism (with some veiled references to The Wiz), one episode sees the Gang putting on their own musical, and in many other episodes, they take whatever opportunity they can to write a song and perform it in front of people. So, here are the 10 Best Musical Numbers From It’s Always Sunny, Ranked.
Charlie’s Ballad
All throughout the season 4 finale “The Nightman Cometh,” the Gang can tell that Charlie is only putting on a musical because he has some kind of ulterior motive, but they forget about it when he gives them all parts to play.
And then, when the Gang thinks the show is over, Charlie comes down on a cardboard Sun, singing a proposal to the Waitress, and his predictable ulterior motive becomes clear. Best lyric: “Will you come on stage and join me / In this thing called matrimony? / Please say yes and do not bone me / Please just marry me!”
I Like Life in Paddy’s Pub
In the season 9 episode “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award,” as the Gang attempts to woo awards voters for a Best Bar Award, Charlie becomes convinced that there’s a Best Song Award and starts working on it.
The rest of the Gang are unable to explain to him that there is no Best Song Award, so they drop him off at the bar to start pointlessly working on this Randy Newman-esque ode to Paddy’s Pub. Best lyric: “There’s a place for me / It’s the place I go / Where the beer is cheap / And the lights are low / It’s Paddy's Pub.”
What Are the Rules?
In the season 12 premiere “The Gang Turns Black,” the characters wake up and see themselves as African-Americans in the mirror. The episode was a musical, using song to convey the plot and the characters’ emotions.
As with any body-swap comedy, they need to learn some kind of lesson in order to get back into their own bodies, so they spend the whole episode trying to figure out what that lesson is, starting with an important question: what are the rules? Best lyric: “When you’ve just turned black / And you can’t switch back / Well, you gotta go and find out the rules.”
Birds of War
In season 5’s “The Gang Wrestles for the Troops,” Dennis, Mac, and Charlie open the show with a song as the Birds of War. They argue about the lyrics in the middle of the performance.
Dennis panics when he sees the lack of audience reaction and says, “They are not responding to the pageantry at all,” and Mac counters, “The new second verse is completely ridiculous,” but Dennis argues, “The second verse is necessary to clarify what we are!” before Charlie realizing they’re all still wearing their mics. Best lyric: “Yes, we have feathers / But the muscles of men / ‘Cause we’re Birds of War now / But we’re also men / Birds of War!”
Troll Toll
This song – another one from Charlie’s rock opera The Nightman Cometh – is memorable for how Frank mispronounces the lyrics. Part of the plot of the musical sees the Nightman asking the troll, the absurdly named Antonio, if he can see “the boy.” Antonio won’t let him near the boy without paying “the troll toll.”
Then, he launches into song. The troll toll is supposed to pay for entry “into that boy’s soul,” but Frank pronounces it as “boy’s hole” and it never fails to get a laugh. Best lyric: “You gotta pay the troll toll / If you wanna get into that boy’s hole/soul.”
Frank’s Little Beauties
In the episode “Frank Reynolds’ Little Beauties,” Frank invested in what he thought was a beauty pageant for adult women, but it turned out to be a child pageant. His business partner in the venture was arrested for being “a diddler,” so Frank went out of his way to specifically not look suspicious.
He even requested that the Gang write “a song about how we do not diddle kids,” but they agreed that a song would only make Frank look even more suspicious. Instead, they wrote a delightful ditty to open the show with. Best lyric: “Who’s brass and class and all that stuff? / These girls’ll show you that they’re good enough!”
Just to Be Clear
On opening night of The Nightman Cometh, Dee decided to spring the revelation on a stressed-out Charlie that she’d written her own song and she was going to throw it into the show.
She was worried that her song about being in love with a “baby boy” would make her sound like a pedophile, so she threw in her own extra couple of verses to clarify that it was just a show. Best lyric: “Most men find me to be an eight or a nine out of ten / And I am available to any interested men / Who’d like to get my number after the show.”
Freedom ‘90
Technically, this isn’t an original song by the Gang. “Freedom ‘90” is a hit by George Michael. However, they do choreograph an incredible dance routine. The routine turns out to be happening in the Gang’s delusional heads and they’re really just drunkenly screaming and sweating all over the dance floor.
Still, the cast did choreograph that dance set to the George Michael pop classic in order to shoot it in the first place, so it’s very impressive. It’s a shame that no one in the Sunny-verse got to see that dance routine except for the Gang themselves when they were imagining it.
Go F*** Yourselves
The whole season 9 episode “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award” acts as a meta middle finger to Emmy voters, but the most direct attack on them is Charlie’s song “Go F**k Yourselves.”
The Gang has spent the entire episode trying to woo voters into giving Paddy’s the Best Bar Award, and in the end, they decide that it’s not worth all the pandering and they’ll just keep doing what they’re doing for the fans that do appreciate it. Best lyric: “I don’t need your trophies or your gold / I just want to tell you all / Go f*** yourselves!”
The Dayman
The closing musical number in The Nightman Cometh – or, at least, the number that was supposed to be the closing number before Charlie threw the cast a curveball and revealed his ulterior motive for putting on the show in the first place – is the easily most memorable song in It’s Always Sunny history, so memorable that Charlie turned it into a rock opera.
If any group of Sunny fans gets together, after a certain amount of time, they’re going to start singing this song. Best lyric: “Dayman (ah-ah-ah) / Fighter of the Nightman (ah-ah-ah) / Champion of the Sun (ah-ah-ah) / You’re a master of karate and friendship for everyone!”