The One Way It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Beats Out Every Other TV Show
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" broke a pretty major record with its 15th season in 2021, blowing past "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" and becoming the longest-running live-action sitcom of all time. But it turns out that the FXX show is the holder of another pretty major accomplishment.
Fans of the series know how fast dialogue can fly back and forth between the members of the gang, and that dialogue is apparently the quickest in the business, with "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" being crowned as the wordiest show on television, according to a study by Word Finder X. The study was part of a greater investigation into subtitle readability, analyzing subtitles available from around the web to determine which shows had the most words per minute.
Studies by the Irish National Disability Authority have shown that subtitles should not exceed 170 words per minute and that the best readability for fluent adults is about 140 words per minute. So where does "It's Always Sunny" fall? The members of the gang rattle off curses and bizarre theories about the world to one another at an astounding 176.2 words per minute. Given that the cast frequently talks over one another, that's not a huge surprise, but it does make trying to follow along a bit more challenging for audiences who rely on subtitles.
The gang gets loquacious
It doesn't take much watching "It's Always Sunny" to figure out how they manage to rack up those 176 words. Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Mac (Rob McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day), and Frank (Danny DeVito) are always arguing and shouting over one another. While that means their subtitles can get a bit cluttered, it's worth noting that the dialogue is rarely very complex, making it slightly more readable.
Besides, many of the audience members who are just listening to the dialogue can't quite tell what the heck is being said either, because that's not really the show's main focus. This isn't Quentin Tarantino writing verbose monologues delivered at lightning speed, it's just a bunch of degenerates arguing over whether or not ghouls exist or how to solve the gas crisis.
Other shows that came close to the rate of words-per-minute that "Sunny" delivers are "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (174.6 wpm) and "Gilmore Girls" (167.8 wpm). The study found that comedies were the most likely to have fast rates of speech, though "Gilmore Girls" was right up there with the funny shows, followed by "Suits." The wordiest genre series of them all was apparently "True Blood," though the campy vampire series topped out at 93.9 wpm, which is well below the recommended 140. So what does all of this mean for audiences?
An interesting conundrum
I'll be honest, I watch most TV and movies with the subtitles on even though I have pretty decent hearing. Dialogue in TV and movies has grown more difficult to understand due to a variety of reasons, and often it's just easier to have the subtitles on as a way to catch what I can't hear. I'm also a huge fan of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," so my instinct is to just say "Read faster, jabronis," but that's not helpful for anyone. I don't expect the gang to slow down their rate of arguing any time soon, either, so what to do?
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. It's important for subtitles to be accessible to all, but it's also important to let creatives be themselves. As technology progresses, maybe we'll figure out a way to create even more readable subtitles that transfer directly to your brain without the need for reading. Until then, some shows are just going to be slightly too speedy for the average reader.