An Improvised It's Always Sunny Line Set Up Mac's Story Before It Was Even Written
There are a lot of long-running gags in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" that actually turn into meaningful moments for the five terrible people who make up "the gang," and some of them are more organic than others. Over the course of 16 seasons, Mac (Rob McElhenney) has gone from a somewhat misogynistic man confused about his sexuality to an openly gay man who is pretty blunt about his hatred of women. There were hints pretty early on that Mac wasn't exactly the world's foremost feminist, but his loathing of the ladies wasn't made truly obvious until season 5, and even then, it was kind of an accident.
On the episode of the "Always Sunny Podcast" discussing the episode "Mac and Charlie Write a Movie," McElhenney was joined by co-stars Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, and the three of them dug deep into the origins of Mac's misogyny. In the episode, Mac reveals that he hates women when planning the movie script he's writing with Charlie (Day), but originally that line didn't exist at all. With one little improvisation, McElhenney and the guys took Mac down a road that would lead to him eventually realizing he's a self-loathing gay man. It's one of the most compelling character arcs in sitcom history, all from one organic moment.
A moment that changed Mac's character forever
In "Mac and Charlie Write a Movie," the duo are trying to write a movie to pitch to Philadelphia director M. Night Shyamalan and the subject of a love interest comes up. Mac argues that he doesn't want there to be one, because "I kind of hate women," and Charlie looks pretty shocked. Originally the line was something along the lines of "women always slow down action movies," but McElhenney decided to take it a step further and just spit out Mac's frustrations with females. The trio acknowledged that was the moment that they started taking Mac down the path toward "pure misogyny." They also discuss that he hadn't yet figured out why he hates women, and that he doesn't realize that his hatred of women is a problem. Howerton examined the layers of Mac's ignorance, saying:
"But it's also – so it's like a complete lack of awareness as to how offensive that could be to some people, also, in how you deliver it. It's just kind like, I kind of hate women though?"
It's not surprising that Mac thinks it's okay to talk about hating women so openly given that his father is the very definition of toxic masculinity and his mother is a human ashtray who never really speaks, but he had never been that blunt about it before. It would take seven more seasons before Mac figured out his sexuality and started to come to terms with his identity, but the road began with Mac and Charlie's terrible script.