Charlie Day Broke Character On It's Always Sunny And They Kept It In The Show
The actors behind the gang on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are very funny people, so breaking character every now and then because one of their co-stars made them laugh is to be expected. Every good sitcom has a killer gag reel, after all, and the "It's Always Sunny" gag reels are truly excellent. But what about when it becomes almost impossible to get through a scene without chuckling a little bit, and even the best take has someone cracking up to some degree?
Sometimes those takes manage to make it into the show, and eagle-eyed "Always Sunny" fans have caught some of them over the years, but on "The Always Sunny Podcast," star Charlie Day admitted to one time he knows a giggly gaffe made it into the final edit. In the season 5 episode "The World Series Defense," Day and co-star Glenn Howerton did a bit of going off-script that led to Day breaking character a little bit, but the rest of the take was just too darn funny to cut.
Cracking up in the courtroom
In the chaos of "The World Series Defense," the gang is trying to argue against a slew of parking tickets received by Dennis (Howerton) after his Range Rover got stuck in the parking lot of the Philadelphia Phillies stadium, Citizens Bank Park. Dennis is doing the majority of the arguing, telling the judge the story of how the gang just tried to see a game of the World Series but ended up in a series of ridiculous situations instead. As Dennis lays out how the events unfolded, Charlie (Day) tries to assist, handing Dennis random papers that he clearly does not need. This infuriates Dennis, who slaps the papers away, which in turn made Day break character:
"I clearly laugh towards the very end. [...] Right at the very end I hand one to you and your reaction gets me and I have to look down because I'm laughing."
Dennis's reaction is perfectly in-character, as he gets increasingly irritated with Charlie and starts slapping at the papers with more vigor. What's especially funny about the whole thing is that none of it was scripted, and the irritation was just as real as Charlie's little laugh.
Real laughter, real agitation
According to Howerton, there was never any plan for Day to attempt to hand him the papers, and since he was trying to remember his lines and act, the constant annoyance was, well, annoying. Since Day kept doing it, Howerton got progressively more annoyed, which made his reactions get even more intense. Of course Day noticed that Howerton was getting more and more flustered and he kept at it, because he knew it would be funny. (And he was right!)
While the "Always Sunny" scripts are already very funny on their own, the gang behind the gang knows how to tweak things and make them even more hilarious. Sometimes that means ad-libbing some silly little non-verbal character interactions, even if it means annoying the heck out of a co-star. It's all in the name of comedy, and the audience always wins.