It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 16 Episode 8 Is Based On A Real-Life Glenn Howerton Breakdown
This article contains spoilers for the season 16 finale of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
There's nothing in entertainment quite like a Dennis Reynolds freakout. Actor Glenn Howerton, who has played the volatile bartender for 16 seasons, has made an art out of depicting Dennis's blind, untethered rage. There have been many instances of Dennis completely losing his temper in hilarious ways, from screaming about the aquatic capabilities of a Range Rover to demanding people recognize that he is a five-star man, but the season 16 finale might have given us the best extended Dennis freakout yet. Not only do we get to watch the golden god slowly build up pressure leading to a beautiful explosion over the course of the entire episode, but the episode is inspired by something that actually happened to Howerton in real life.
On the "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack" episode of "The Always Sunny Podcast," Howerton shared the story of a very frustrating weekend where everything seemed to go wrong, and it all started with his Tesla and one fussy little key fob. Life often imitates art, but in this instance, art absolutely imitated life. It was probably pretty fun for Howerton to get to dig into his real-life rage for inspiration, which helped make Dennis's total tantrum even more satisfying.
The trouble with technology
In "Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day," Dennis's doctor tells him that his high blood pressure requires medication, which Dennis refuses to believe. Instead, he gets a smart watch to help him monitor his blood pressure and heart rate, avoiding stressful situations any time his blood pressure starts to rise. It's a great set-up that allows him to get into loads of situations that would be irritating to anyone, let alone someone with Dennis's short temper. His watch beeps as he gets agitated, so of course there is a lot of beeping as the gang pesters him, his car rental appointment is double booked, and then he loses his phone and can't get back into his fancy electric rental car.
In real life, Howerton drives a Tesla and the key fob stopped working, so he used the app on his phone that serves as a back-up. The only problem? He and his friend went to a movie screening and parked in an underground parking garage, where they couldn't get phone or WiFi reception. That meant they couldn't get into the car, which meant they were stuck there. Both Howerton and Dennis ended up in customer service loops, trying to get help and getting nowhere — though Dennis's situation gets absolutely asinine, while, in real life, Howerton just took an Uber and figured it out later.
Finding the connections
Howerton is the only one out of the three creators that didn't lend his name to his character, in order to distance himself from Dennis, but there's a fair bit of the actor in the character. Of course, Howerton isn't a probable serial killer who lures young women onto boats because of "the implication," but he does share Dennis's intense attention to his health and appearance, and the two men share a hot temper. Anyone who's listened to "The Always Sunny Podcast" has heard Howerton come in hot, upset about some thing or another, and he's quick to get riled. (Thank goodness he isn't as mean as Dennis!)
This isn't the first time the guys have used stories from their own lives in the series, of course. Charlie's "Green Man" was inspired by a real friend of McElhenney's, for example, and Dennis's starvation diet in "Sweet Dee's Dating a R*****ed Person" is based on Howerton doing a chili-and-lemon-water fasting diet while filming the previous season. The characters and situations on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" may seem too ridiculous to ever be real, but it turns out that sometimes truth and fiction aren't all that different.
Season 16 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is available to stream on Hulu.