It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia“The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell”
Original Air Date: Nov 6, 2008
Tom R - TwoCents Staff Writer
tom@thetwocents.com
Imagine a bad high school production of 1776, where all the imagination is spent on costumes, the musical director has quit and the director is on crack. Cheap crack. That’s kind of what you get here. Dennis drafts a “Declaration of Dependence”, everyone is convinced Dee is a witch, and Frank uses a skunk pelt as a toupee. And if you look in the music listings a couple years from now and see a band called The Exploding Head of Rickety Cricket, you’ll know this is where it came from.
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[photo: FX]
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
ReplyDelete“The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell”
Original Air Date: Nov 6, 2008
Tom R - TwoCents Staff Writer
tom@thetwocents.com
Imagine a bad high school production of 1776, where all the imagination is spent on costumes, the musical director has quit and the director is on crack. Cheap crack. That’s kind of what you get here. Dennis drafts a “Declaration of Dependence”, everyone is convinced Dee is a witch, and Frank uses a skunk pelt as a toupee. And if you look in the music listings a couple years from now and see a band called The Exploding Head of Rickety Cricket, you’ll know this is where it came from.
Gotta love it…Finally a “concept episode” that works. Usually, when a show tries this, it breaks the style and rhythm that made it successful just for the sake of doing something different. Most concept episodes fail because they try to change everything all at once. The beauty of this episode is that you get the feel that the gang’s ancestors were just as disreputable as they are. It’s not even trying to be historically accurate (it’s supposed to be a bad story anyway), but it takes the established characters and says, “How would these guys be screw-ups during Revolutionary times?”
2:30 PM, on a Thursday, and Mac, Charlie and Dennis sit in the offices of the Historical Society, bothered by a picture of George Washington, who Charlie thinks looks like Meryl Streep. Looking to establish Paddy’s Pub as a historic site, they craft a story that ties the pub to the cracking of the Liberty Bell.
1776 Dee is the slave of 1776 Dennis, after he freed her from a charge of witchcraft that he started. Of course, opposing the British would be too much work, which is why Dennis drafts his own declaration and tries to deliver it to the ranking military officer, Colonel (not-so-rickety) Cricket. He immediately falls for Dee, and looks to the guys for tips on courting her. The guys, of course, are dumbfounded, since women have no rights in 1776.
The guys continue their scheme, posing as Brits. Flourishing pinkies, dressing outlandishly, and loading on the facial powder, they are tarred and feathered by a gang of anti-sodomites.
1776 Frank and 1776 Charlie trade their stash of pelts for a single pumpkin. They also try to sell guns to the British, but Dee curses them, and none of them fire. Cricket’s men are defeated. He returns to the bar, where Dee is smitten when she finds out about his wealth. Their happiness is ended by one gun that manages to fire, taking off Cricket’s head in Tarantino fashion. They prop a jack-o-lantern on his shoulders and prop him up on a horse. As Dee flies off on a broom, they ride him out of town like a page from Washington Irving. As he passes, two guys drop the Liberty Bell that they have been carrying, resulting in the crack.
The historical society doesn’t buy the story, so the gang starts over with the unabridged version.
What do you think? Does George Washington look like Meryl Streep? Would you shoot a pumpkin off a friend’s head? Do you have the feeling that I would be the only person in the universe who would consider naing a band The Exploding Head of Rickety Cricket?
Send me some comments or drop me a line at: tom@thetwocents.com .