The Secret Messages Hidden In It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia's Credits
The production company logos that air at the end of TV shows offer creators a chance to put their own creative spin on things one last time before their time slot is up, and comedy shows tend to make it fun. "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" not only had fun with their production company logo, but they've also changed the audio that plays each season. There's just one major twist on things: they backmask all of the audio! Backmasking is when audio is played in reverse, with the idea that hidden messages can be put into other audio recordings. Fears of backmasking in rock music led suburban moms around the country to play their kids' Led Zeppelin albums in reverse in search of satanic messages, but the "Always Sunny" guys are doing something quite a bit less hellish.
Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton's production company has been called RCG (Rob Charlie Glenn) since season 4, and before that, it was called RCH for a rather vulgar slang term for a tiny unit of measurement. Their logo is just the guys standing against a white wall, wearing hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses, and for 16 seasons they've shared secret messages in reverse, mostly revolving around one word: brown.
One ticket to brown town
If you play the production company logo audio in reverse, there are different messages in each season that mostly seem to revolve around "brown." Why brown? One theory revolves around the Philly band Ween, who use the word "brown" to mean a kind of pure excellence, but there has also been a lot of brown in "Always Sunny" itself. In "Who Got Dee Pregnant?," Mac (McElhenney) uses "browned out" to define a state between regular and blackout drunkenness, and the whole gang latches onto the phrase. They also call whiskey "brown" fairly regularly, and the gang loves whiskey. It's also entirely possible that it's a double entendre for whiskey and poop, because both are brown, and as Frank (Danny DeVito) taught us all in "Who Pooped the Bed?" — poop is funny!
In addition to all of the brown, there are some references to silly series in-jokes like Charlie's drunken query about chicken in Philly at the end of "The Gang Beats Boggs," and a little song based on the wrestling team they put together to try and raise money for the troops. There are also real-life references, like a nod to their whiskey brand. So what exactly are they saying?
All of the endings!
Season 1: Charlie and Glenn say "you're stupid for playing this forward" three times.
Season 2: Rob asks "Is it brown, is it brown, is it brown?" and Glenn replies, "good work" twice.
Season 3: Charlie, Glenn, and Rob sing "Make it brown!" four times.
Season 4: Charlie, Glenn, and Rob sing "Clown baby, brown clown clown baby, brown clown," referring to Charlie's nickname of "clown baby" from "Hundred Dollar Baby."
Season 5: Rob says "Next stop — brown town" three times.
A Very Sunny Christmas: Glenn and Rob say "Sorry for wasting your time and money, but thanks for your money."
Season 6: Glenn says "Brown — now in HD" twice.
Season 7: Charlie says "Seven seasons of brown" twice.
Season 8: Rob says "The brownings will continue" twice.
Season 9: Charlie sings "The eagle's born out of thunder," in reference to the Birds of War from "The Gang Wrestles For the Troops."
Season 10: Charlie asks "They got chicken in Philly?" three times, referencing "The Gang Beats Boggs."
Season 11: An off-key trumpet plays and then Charlie says "brown."
Season 12: Glenn says "Goodbye everyone, it's been brown" twice, because he might have left the show at that point.
Season 13: Charlie says "Hey baby butter, baby bitter butter, bitter butter brown."
Season 14: Rob says "They leave, but they all come back. Brown."
Season 15: Charlie, Mac, and Glenn sing "Four Walls, the better brown," referencing their Four Walls whiskey brand.
Season 16: A crowd that I assume is there for Wrexham AFC, yell "Make it brown!" twice.
Maybe in season 17 we'll get a new Nightman song in the credits! We'll have to wait and see, but thankfully we still have several episodes left in season 16, airing Wednesdays on FXX.