Charlie Kelly (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
Encyclopedia
Charles "Charlie" Kelly is a fictional character on the FX television series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
," portrayed by Charlie Day
. Charlie is co-owner at Paddy's and a childhood friend of Mac
and Dennis
. He is also Frank
's roommate and possibly his biological son.
and, like the rest of The Gang, drinks copious amounts of alcohol regularly. In one episode Charlie says he has never left Philadelphia, though in the episode "The Gang Gets Stranded In The Woods," he finally does, after the gang ties him up and puts him in the trunk of a car, although in "The Gang Gets Invincible
" he travels to neighboring Bucks County which is outside of the city of Philadelphia but still within the Philadelphia Metro area to watch Dennis, Mac, and Dee try out for the Philadelphia Eagles
. Throughout the show, Charlie exhibits difficulty reading and writing and has generally poor communication skills. Despite this obvious handicap, Charlie has on many occasions fancied himself to be a lawyer of superior skill, leading to disastrous results when he is actually forced to deal with legal matters. The Gang frequently accuses him of being illiterate
and calls him retarded
. He shows a very poor grasp of grammar and sentence structure. On one occasion, Mac goes so far as to claim that "no one understands the subtleties of Charlie's retardation better than me."
Like the rest of The Gang, Charlie has a poor grasp of history, current events and geography (once describing George Washington
as "some old dude who looks like Meryl Streep
who chopped down a cherry tree like ten million years ago" and during The Gang's fight with an Israeli businessman Charlie incongruously declared they would send their enemy "on the first train back to Israel"), sometimes avoiding a conversation altogether to maintain his dignity. His anger management issues, substance abuse, lack of common sense, and poor grasp of reality tend to prevent him from ever achieving much success in life. Despite his intellectual shortcomings, Charlie is very capable of devising intricate, Machiavellian
plans to manipulate other characters in the show into doing what he wants. Charlie is the hardest worker in The Gang, and the only one to display any real work ethic, as shown in the various episodes where he and The Gang get jobs outside the bar. He is also shown to be the least morally bankrupt member of the gang.
(modern
and classic
) and heavy metal
, showing a particular interest in artists like Bob Dylan
. When he, Frank
and Mac
try to start a band in the episode "Sweet Dee's Dating A Retarded Person", Charlie dresses as Bob Dylan. He also plays the piano quite well, exhibiting a natural musical talent; however, he fears rejection of his music or other creative ideas by others. Charlie's musical talents are a reflection of actor Charlie Day's real-life skill as a musician and songwriter. Like Deandra
, he suffers from stage fright
and becomes nauseated when performing in front of live audiences.
In the sixth season episode "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats,", it is discovered that Charlie writes a dream book (or "Dram Bok," as he spells it) that is filled primarily with pictures and symbols (much like the pictures and symbols he used to write the song, "Night Man"). It is a crude collection of images and characters from his dreams.
In The Gang Gets Held Hostage, it is revealed that he has a "bad room" in the attic of the bar where he goes "to be alone and break bottles".
Like the rest of The Gang, Charlie likes to dress in costumes and assume other personae, including the legendary "Green Man." In "The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty McGoo," Charlie shows a remarkable sewing ability, a skill that he claims allows him to maintain his few articles of clothing. Unlike the rest of The Gang, Charlie almost always wears the same few outfits, due to his living in squalor. He is rarely seen without his signature green jacket. At home, he wears a worn black t-shirt depicting a shiny black horse, and an old pair of long thermal underwear (described by Mac as "covered in piss").
He also seems convinced that he is an adept lawyer. This is shown by his interest in "bird law," Law & Order
, and handling any legal matter that The Gang runs into. His delusion regarding his nonexistent legal skill has caused him to repeatedly confront The Lawyer, a recurring enemy of the Gang in later seasons. He even went as far as to challenge The Lawyer to a duel
, which the latter gladly accepted (a possibility that Charlie had not anticipated). Although he is a co-owner of Paddy's, he lives in a disgusting degree of poverty and in many episodes is shown sleeping on the streets, scavenging for garbage (and eating it), and devising schemes to get others (namely Frank) to pay his rent for him. His financial problems are exacerbated by his tendency to make "bad investments," which are rarely explained. However, at the end of the season six episode "The Gang Buys a Boat," Charlie notes at the end that the entire ordeal was in fact, "a terrible investment."
Many of the tedious and disgusting tasks at the pub (taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms, exterminating pests) are referred to as "Charlie work," even when Charlie is not performing them. He seems almost inhumanly tough and resistant to injury. Mac and Dennis, who believe him to be nearly indestructible, frequently manipulate him into tests of his fortitude, such as hitting him over the head with beer bottles and chairs or having him tow Dennis' Range Rover
through the streets of Philadelphia. After ingesting an amount of cough syrup large enough to "kill a gorilla," as Mac warns in "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off," Charlie simply states "Bro, I can handle my sedatives." He does in fact stay standing for several hours before collapsing, outlasting all but two other contestants. In the season three premiere, Charlie's mother reveals that he was the survivor of a failed abortion. He has on separate occasions been shot in the head and run over by Dennis, yet shows no sign of permanent physical disability, nor exacerbation of his already questionable mental state.
Charlie has little-to-no success in dating and harbors an unrequited love for The Waitress, a recurring secondary character in the show. He goes to great lengths to attempt to win her over, despite her frequent declarations that she will never be interested in him (the actress who plays The Waitress, Mary Elizabeth Ellis
, is in fact married to Charlie Day, who portrays Charlie). Charlie's attempts to woo The Waitress invariably end badly for her, as his actions have caused her to lose jobs and sleep with Frank and Dennis.
Charlie consistently shows more empathy than any other member of The Gang and seems to have slightly higher ethical standards. For example, he turned in the McPoyle Brothers when they attempted to profit from accusing a former teacher of molestation. In the episode "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy," he and Mac burn a box of authentic Nazi memorabilia once belonging to Dennis and Dee's grandfather, although they destroyed it only after trying to sell it to a museum for a profit. Despite his often firm sense of right-and-wrong, Charlie has few friends, depending largely on the selfish, unstable bonds formed within The Gang. He and Dee seem to be true friends, partaking in platonic activities and frequently teaming up in The Gang's misadventures, often against Mac and Dennis. Charlie has even once or twice shown a small romantic interest in Dee but usually agrees with the rest of the gang that she is unattractive. However, their friendship is frequently marred when The Gang gets caught up in controversial issues, or whenever one of the two switches sides in their many battles against Mac and Dennis. Charlie's deeper understanding of right and wrong likely stems from a lifetime of mistreatment by other people. Charlie, unlike the rest of The Gang, also appears to have had a loving, if emotionally-fragile, mother and a stable childhood (although it's revealed in "The Great Recession" that Charlie may have been molested by his uncle Jack.) Despite his morals, however, Charlie is not above selfishly manipulating, deceiving, and harming others for personal gain or vengeance. He enjoys seeing the other members of The Gang embarrassed or degraded, much like they often degrade him. For example, in "Dennis and Dee's Mom Is Dead," he is eager to have someone read to him from Dee's middle school diary, only so he can laugh at her difficulties as a disabled adolescent.
The possibility that Frank Reynolds is his real father has been heavily hinted at throughout the series. In the season 2 finale and season 3 premiere, Charlie finds out that Frank had a one-night stand with his mother, Bonnie, thirty years ago, roughly at the same time as Charlie's conception. Charlie tries to persuade Frank to take a paternity test, but Frank adamantly refuses. Later, when his mother informs Charlie that he survived an abortion, she tells him that Frank is his father and pushed her to get the abortion, although Frank insists that Bonnie was known for being a "giant whore" and therefore maintains that he is not Charlie's father. The promiscuity of Charlie's mother is suggested more visibly in the episode "A Very Sunny Christmas," where Charlie reminisces about numerous men dressed in Santa suits visiting his mother's bedroom on Christmas morning each year.
Despite their unknown genetic bond, Frank and Charlie are very close, sharing an apartment and even the same bed. They partner in many schemes and were even briefly domestic partners in Season Six. Frank's attachment to Charlie is shown to reach bizarre lengths in the episode "Mac and Charlie Die," where Frank seems to be the most affected by Charlie's death and carries around a mannequin that resembles Charlie. Frank is later witnessed "banging" the mannequin. In another episode, when Frank abandons Charlie and moves in with Bonnie, Charlie cooks an inedible dinner for The Gang and their parents and causes a string of violent arguments and hurt feelings just to get Frank to leave Bonnie and return to the apartment with him.
Charlie and Frank's bizarre relationship is often mocked by the rest of The Gang, particularly the pair's shared embrace of filthy living conditions. Their apartment (referred to by anyone who dares set foot in it as a "shit-hole") appears to be a single room in which they sleep ("ass-to-ass" on an old sofa bed), cook meals on the radiator or a hot plate and urinate in old coffee cans. The alley outside the apartment is crowded with dozens of meowing stray cats after dark, likely the result of Frank and Charlie's nightly consumption of canned cat food (followed by a can of beer and a huff of glue fumes) to get to sleep. They claim this ritual allows them to sleep through the noise of so many stray cats, while everyone else blames the noise on the piles of empty cat-food cans and an open window. The apartment is littered with garbage, dirty dishes and a layer of filth. In one episode, Frank is seen using a steak knife to cut his toenails. He cuts himself almost immediately and Charlie attempts to cover the wound with garbage off the floor. Frank stayed with Charlie originally as a temporary means to hide both himself and his assets from his gold-digging wife. However, he quickly came to love Charlie's life of squalid misery and the two now share virtually everything - from a rusty coffee can used as a toilet to cardboard boxes full of pennies, which millionaire Frank keeps for unspecified purposes.
Charlie is also known for bizarre thoughts, ideas, and aspirations. These include his favorite food being milk steak (steak boiled in milk and honey ) boiled over hard with a side of jellybeans, raw, his interest in ghouls and magnets, and also his dream book which depicts surreal illustrations of what Charlie sees in his dreams such as a "werm hat" (actually a German pilot named Hans Wermhatt), "denim chicken", and a "bird with teeth".
Charlie mentions that he has a sister in episode seven of season one, however, no further reference is made to her in any following episodes.
(morphsuit) in several episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
. The persona has spawned imitators, most notably at sporting events.
Rob McElhenney
, creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
came up with the idea after watching the Philadelphia Eagles
defeat the Dallas Cowboys
at Lincoln Financial Field
in Philadelphia Without warning, in the parking lot after the game, a friend of McElhenney's stripped off his clothes and donned a full-body green lycra suit. McElhenney said: "Everyone started chanting, 'Green Man! Green Man!' It went on for several hours, and all I could think was, 'My God, there has to be a way I can take advantage of this on the show.'"
When McElhenney returned to Los Angeles, he ordered a suit from Japan
that was identical to the outfit that McElhenney's friend had worn. The character made his debut the next season in an episode entitled "The Gang Gets Invincible," which centered on three of the show's central characters trying out for the Eagles
, just as they had seen in the film Invincible
.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
," portrayed by Charlie Day
Charlie Day
Charles Peckham "Charlie" Day is an American television and film actor, from Middletown, Rhode Island, best known for playing Charlie Kelly on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".-Early life:...
. Charlie is co-owner at Paddy's and a childhood friend of Mac
Mac (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
"Mac" is a fictional character on the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Mac is Charlie's childhood friend and Dennis's high school friend and later roommate. He is a co-owner of Paddy's and generally the pub's most active manager. Mac is played by Rob McElhenney...
and Dennis
Dennis Reynolds
Dennis Reynolds is a fictional character on the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Dennis is a co-owner of Paddy's and is Deandra's twin brother. Dennis is extremely narcissistic, selfish, histrionic and vain. His sense of self-worth is entirely dependent on what others think...
. He is also Frank
Frank Reynolds (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
Frank Reynolds is a fictional character on the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Frank is the legal father of twins Dennis and Dee and the roommate and alleged biological father of Charlie. He is played by Danny DeVito....
's roommate and possibly his biological son.
Character overview
Charlie is an angry individual unable to cope with daily problems and prone to emotional outbursts. He maintains poor personal hygiene, lives in squalor, frequently abuses inhalants such as glue, spray paint and poppersPoppers
Poppers is a slang term for various alkyl nitrites inhaled for recreational purposes, particularly isopropyl nitrite and isobutyl nitrite , and now more rarely, butyl nitrite and amyl nitrite...
and, like the rest of The Gang, drinks copious amounts of alcohol regularly. In one episode Charlie says he has never left Philadelphia, though in the episode "The Gang Gets Stranded In The Woods," he finally does, after the gang ties him up and puts him in the trunk of a car, although in "The Gang Gets Invincible
The Gang Gets Invincible
"The Gang Gets Invincible" is the second episode of the third season of the American situational comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was directed by Fred Savage, and written by Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and David Hornsby...
" he travels to neighboring Bucks County which is outside of the city of Philadelphia but still within the Philadelphia Metro area to watch Dennis, Mac, and Dee try out for the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. Throughout the show, Charlie exhibits difficulty reading and writing and has generally poor communication skills. Despite this obvious handicap, Charlie has on many occasions fancied himself to be a lawyer of superior skill, leading to disastrous results when he is actually forced to deal with legal matters. The Gang frequently accuses him of being illiterate
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
and calls him retarded
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
. He shows a very poor grasp of grammar and sentence structure. On one occasion, Mac goes so far as to claim that "no one understands the subtleties of Charlie's retardation better than me."
Like the rest of The Gang, Charlie has a poor grasp of history, current events and geography (once describing George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
as "some old dude who looks like Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
who chopped down a cherry tree like ten million years ago" and during The Gang's fight with an Israeli businessman Charlie incongruously declared they would send their enemy "on the first train back to Israel"), sometimes avoiding a conversation altogether to maintain his dignity. His anger management issues, substance abuse, lack of common sense, and poor grasp of reality tend to prevent him from ever achieving much success in life. Despite his intellectual shortcomings, Charlie is very capable of devising intricate, Machiavellian
Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe and other works...
plans to manipulate other characters in the show into doing what he wants. Charlie is the hardest worker in The Gang, and the only one to display any real work ethic, as shown in the various episodes where he and The Gang get jobs outside the bar. He is also shown to be the least morally bankrupt member of the gang.
Description
Charlie seems to be the most artistically talented member of The Gang, though his talents are rarely utilized by any of them. In "The Nightman Cometh", he demonstrates his abilities as a playwright, musical composer, and director by staging a dramatic musical production. He enjoys most forms of rockRock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
(modern
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
and classic
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
) and heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, showing a particular interest in artists like Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. When he, Frank
Frank Reynolds (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
Frank Reynolds is a fictional character on the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Frank is the legal father of twins Dennis and Dee and the roommate and alleged biological father of Charlie. He is played by Danny DeVito....
and Mac
Mac (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
"Mac" is a fictional character on the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Mac is Charlie's childhood friend and Dennis's high school friend and later roommate. He is a co-owner of Paddy's and generally the pub's most active manager. Mac is played by Rob McElhenney...
try to start a band in the episode "Sweet Dee's Dating A Retarded Person", Charlie dresses as Bob Dylan. He also plays the piano quite well, exhibiting a natural musical talent; however, he fears rejection of his music or other creative ideas by others. Charlie's musical talents are a reflection of actor Charlie Day's real-life skill as a musician and songwriter. Like Deandra
Deandra Reynolds
Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds is a fictional character on the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, portrayed by actress Kaitlin Olson. Dee was the only major character in the show to be conceived without an actor in mind...
, he suffers from stage fright
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially . In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common...
and becomes nauseated when performing in front of live audiences.
In the sixth season episode "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats,", it is discovered that Charlie writes a dream book (or "Dram Bok," as he spells it) that is filled primarily with pictures and symbols (much like the pictures and symbols he used to write the song, "Night Man"). It is a crude collection of images and characters from his dreams.
In The Gang Gets Held Hostage, it is revealed that he has a "bad room" in the attic of the bar where he goes "to be alone and break bottles".
Like the rest of The Gang, Charlie likes to dress in costumes and assume other personae, including the legendary "Green Man." In "The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty McGoo," Charlie shows a remarkable sewing ability, a skill that he claims allows him to maintain his few articles of clothing. Unlike the rest of The Gang, Charlie almost always wears the same few outfits, due to his living in squalor. He is rarely seen without his signature green jacket. At home, he wears a worn black t-shirt depicting a shiny black horse, and an old pair of long thermal underwear (described by Mac as "covered in piss").
He also seems convinced that he is an adept lawyer. This is shown by his interest in "bird law," Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, and handling any legal matter that The Gang runs into. His delusion regarding his nonexistent legal skill has caused him to repeatedly confront The Lawyer, a recurring enemy of the Gang in later seasons. He even went as far as to challenge The Lawyer to a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
, which the latter gladly accepted (a possibility that Charlie had not anticipated). Although he is a co-owner of Paddy's, he lives in a disgusting degree of poverty and in many episodes is shown sleeping on the streets, scavenging for garbage (and eating it), and devising schemes to get others (namely Frank) to pay his rent for him. His financial problems are exacerbated by his tendency to make "bad investments," which are rarely explained. However, at the end of the season six episode "The Gang Buys a Boat," Charlie notes at the end that the entire ordeal was in fact, "a terrible investment."
Many of the tedious and disgusting tasks at the pub (taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms, exterminating pests) are referred to as "Charlie work," even when Charlie is not performing them. He seems almost inhumanly tough and resistant to injury. Mac and Dennis, who believe him to be nearly indestructible, frequently manipulate him into tests of his fortitude, such as hitting him over the head with beer bottles and chairs or having him tow Dennis' Range Rover
Range Rover
The Range Rover is a large luxury four-wheel drive sport utility vehicle produced by British car maker Land Rover. The model, launched in 1970, is now in its third generation...
through the streets of Philadelphia. After ingesting an amount of cough syrup large enough to "kill a gorilla," as Mac warns in "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off," Charlie simply states "Bro, I can handle my sedatives." He does in fact stay standing for several hours before collapsing, outlasting all but two other contestants. In the season three premiere, Charlie's mother reveals that he was the survivor of a failed abortion. He has on separate occasions been shot in the head and run over by Dennis, yet shows no sign of permanent physical disability, nor exacerbation of his already questionable mental state.
Charlie has little-to-no success in dating and harbors an unrequited love for The Waitress, a recurring secondary character in the show. He goes to great lengths to attempt to win her over, despite her frequent declarations that she will never be interested in him (the actress who plays The Waitress, Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Mary Elizabeth Ellis is an American actress and writer best known for her recurring role as "The Waitress" on the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...
, is in fact married to Charlie Day, who portrays Charlie). Charlie's attempts to woo The Waitress invariably end badly for her, as his actions have caused her to lose jobs and sleep with Frank and Dennis.
Charlie consistently shows more empathy than any other member of The Gang and seems to have slightly higher ethical standards. For example, he turned in the McPoyle Brothers when they attempted to profit from accusing a former teacher of molestation. In the episode "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy," he and Mac burn a box of authentic Nazi memorabilia once belonging to Dennis and Dee's grandfather, although they destroyed it only after trying to sell it to a museum for a profit. Despite his often firm sense of right-and-wrong, Charlie has few friends, depending largely on the selfish, unstable bonds formed within The Gang. He and Dee seem to be true friends, partaking in platonic activities and frequently teaming up in The Gang's misadventures, often against Mac and Dennis. Charlie has even once or twice shown a small romantic interest in Dee but usually agrees with the rest of the gang that she is unattractive. However, their friendship is frequently marred when The Gang gets caught up in controversial issues, or whenever one of the two switches sides in their many battles against Mac and Dennis. Charlie's deeper understanding of right and wrong likely stems from a lifetime of mistreatment by other people. Charlie, unlike the rest of The Gang, also appears to have had a loving, if emotionally-fragile, mother and a stable childhood (although it's revealed in "The Great Recession" that Charlie may have been molested by his uncle Jack.) Despite his morals, however, Charlie is not above selfishly manipulating, deceiving, and harming others for personal gain or vengeance. He enjoys seeing the other members of The Gang embarrassed or degraded, much like they often degrade him. For example, in "Dennis and Dee's Mom Is Dead," he is eager to have someone read to him from Dee's middle school diary, only so he can laugh at her difficulties as a disabled adolescent.
The possibility that Frank Reynolds is his real father has been heavily hinted at throughout the series. In the season 2 finale and season 3 premiere, Charlie finds out that Frank had a one-night stand with his mother, Bonnie, thirty years ago, roughly at the same time as Charlie's conception. Charlie tries to persuade Frank to take a paternity test, but Frank adamantly refuses. Later, when his mother informs Charlie that he survived an abortion, she tells him that Frank is his father and pushed her to get the abortion, although Frank insists that Bonnie was known for being a "giant whore" and therefore maintains that he is not Charlie's father. The promiscuity of Charlie's mother is suggested more visibly in the episode "A Very Sunny Christmas," where Charlie reminisces about numerous men dressed in Santa suits visiting his mother's bedroom on Christmas morning each year.
Despite their unknown genetic bond, Frank and Charlie are very close, sharing an apartment and even the same bed. They partner in many schemes and were even briefly domestic partners in Season Six. Frank's attachment to Charlie is shown to reach bizarre lengths in the episode "Mac and Charlie Die," where Frank seems to be the most affected by Charlie's death and carries around a mannequin that resembles Charlie. Frank is later witnessed "banging" the mannequin. In another episode, when Frank abandons Charlie and moves in with Bonnie, Charlie cooks an inedible dinner for The Gang and their parents and causes a string of violent arguments and hurt feelings just to get Frank to leave Bonnie and return to the apartment with him.
Charlie and Frank's bizarre relationship is often mocked by the rest of The Gang, particularly the pair's shared embrace of filthy living conditions. Their apartment (referred to by anyone who dares set foot in it as a "shit-hole") appears to be a single room in which they sleep ("ass-to-ass" on an old sofa bed), cook meals on the radiator or a hot plate and urinate in old coffee cans. The alley outside the apartment is crowded with dozens of meowing stray cats after dark, likely the result of Frank and Charlie's nightly consumption of canned cat food (followed by a can of beer and a huff of glue fumes) to get to sleep. They claim this ritual allows them to sleep through the noise of so many stray cats, while everyone else blames the noise on the piles of empty cat-food cans and an open window. The apartment is littered with garbage, dirty dishes and a layer of filth. In one episode, Frank is seen using a steak knife to cut his toenails. He cuts himself almost immediately and Charlie attempts to cover the wound with garbage off the floor. Frank stayed with Charlie originally as a temporary means to hide both himself and his assets from his gold-digging wife. However, he quickly came to love Charlie's life of squalid misery and the two now share virtually everything - from a rusty coffee can used as a toilet to cardboard boxes full of pennies, which millionaire Frank keeps for unspecified purposes.
Charlie is also known for bizarre thoughts, ideas, and aspirations. These include his favorite food being milk steak (steak boiled in milk and honey ) boiled over hard with a side of jellybeans, raw, his interest in ghouls and magnets, and also his dream book which depicts surreal illustrations of what Charlie sees in his dreams such as a "werm hat" (actually a German pilot named Hans Wermhatt), "denim chicken", and a "bird with teeth".
Charlie mentions that he has a sister in episode seven of season one, however, no further reference is made to her in any following episodes.
Green Man
Green Man is a persona assumed by Charlie wearing a green Lycra suitZentai
Zentai is a term for skin-tight garments that cover the entire body. The word is a contraction of zenshin taitsu...
(morphsuit) in several episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
. The persona has spawned imitators, most notably at sporting events.
Rob McElhenney
Rob McElhenney
Robert Dale "Rob" McElhenney is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Mac on the FX TV series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...
, creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
came up with the idea after watching the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
defeat the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
at Lincoln Financial Field
Lincoln Financial Field
Lincoln Financial Field is the home stadium of the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles. It has a seating capacity of 68,532 . It is located in South Philadelphia on Pattison Avenue between 11th and 10th streets, also aside I-95 as part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex...
in Philadelphia Without warning, in the parking lot after the game, a friend of McElhenney's stripped off his clothes and donned a full-body green lycra suit. McElhenney said: "Everyone started chanting, 'Green Man! Green Man!' It went on for several hours, and all I could think was, 'My God, there has to be a way I can take advantage of this on the show.'"
When McElhenney returned to Los Angeles, he ordered a suit from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
that was identical to the outfit that McElhenney's friend had worn. The character made his debut the next season in an episode entitled "The Gang Gets Invincible," which centered on three of the show's central characters trying out for the Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, just as they had seen in the film Invincible
Invincible (2006 film)
Invincible is a 2006 family film directed by Ericson Core set in 1976. It is based on the true story of Vince Papale, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1976–78. Mark Wahlberg portrays Papale and Greg Kinnear plays Papale's coach, Dick Vermeil...
.
Green Man episodes
- The Gang Gets Invincible (season 3)
- America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest (season 4)
- The World Series Defense (season 5)