Jack Kelly is Charlie Kelly's uncle, and a recurring character in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
At some point during the eighties or nineties, Uncle Jack lived with his sister, Bonnie Kelly, and shared a room with Charlie. It is heavily implied that he molested Charlie during this time, however, Charlie insists that he "dodged him".
2005[]
Jack attends the intervention that is held for Charlie when his family, along with Dennis Reynolds and Deandra Reynolds believe that he was molested by his former gym teacher in elementary school. He displays an intense interest in watching Charlie point out where he was touched on a doll.[1x7]
2009[]
After Frank sublets their apartment, forcing Charlie out, he returns home intending to move back in to his old room, only to find that it is being rented out to Jack. He is more than willing to share the room with Charlie, saying that they can "pal around" and "get nuts". Charlie refuses, however, mentioning how Jack "tried to share my room with me when I was a kid".[5x3][a]
2010[]
Jack acts as the lawyer for both Dennis' divorce and the annulment of Frank Reynolds and Charlie's marriage. He also advises Dee on what to do when she discovers she has unwittingly helped Bill Ponderosa kidnap his kids. When he negotiates the terms of Dennis' divorce with The Lawyer, who is representing Maureen Ponderosa, he "freezes up" due to the former's nice hands, and gets far-less-than-favorable terms for Dennis in the settlement. After their negotiations, he asks The Lawyer to put his hands over his own when he has a picture of them taken "for the website."[6x2]
2013[]
Jack accompanies Frank on some of his media appearances to advocate for gun ownership. On one appearance, Jack worries that his hands will look too small on TV. Though Frank and Jack are on TV to argue for Second Amendment rights, Jack starts talking about the government infringing on our rights to have tasteful artistic art, holding up a picture of a boy in shorts sitting on a couch as an example. Later, when Frank announces a rally in support of gun rights, Jack is sure to remind everyone to bring their kids.[9x2]
2016[]
Jack is seen alongside Charlie and Bill Ponderosa in a courtroom as Bill's lawyer. Jack is seen wearing giant hand gloves over his real hands, as he is insecure about how small he perceives his own as being. Jack at one point flings his hands in a particular direction and one of his gloves fly off. He screeches, running over to pick it up, "Nobody look!". In the next scene, we can see the gloves duct-taped onto himself, so that the same problem wouldn't occur. Jack crumbles under pressure however, leaving Charlie to try and win the case.[11x7]
2017[]
Jack visits Bonnie to retrieve his hard drive under the floorboards of her house while the gang is filming "Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy".[12x3]
2018[]
Jack joins the gang for their trip to the Super Bowl.[13x8][13x9]
2023[]
Jack visits Bonnie's house to celebrate his birthday, a celebration which Charlie skips out on.[16x3] Jack later joins in on Charlie and Frank's plan to win a chess match against the Russian grand chess master, utilizing his "spy equipment" to send him a live feed of the match via Charlie's glasses, so that he can use a computer program to plan out Frank's next moves. Charlie becomes irritated with him as he realizes Jack is capturing pictures of a young boy during the match.[16x4]
Trivia[]
- The Gang believes that Charlie was molested by Uncle Jack, and Dennis suggests that The Nightman Cometh was about Jack raping Charlie as a child.[13x4] Charlie denies this, however it is implied that he "doesn't remember"[16x4] potentially due to trauma-based selective amnesia, similarly observed in Charlie's denial of his mother being a prostitute[5x12] which he eventually accepts.
Appearances[]
- Season One - "Charlie Got Molested"
- Season Five - "The Great Recession"
- Season Six - "Dennis Gets Divorced", "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down" (mentioned only)
- Season Nine - "Gun Fever Too: Still Hot"
- Season Eleven - "McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century"
- Season Twelve - "Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy"
- Season 13 - "Charlie's Home Alone", "The Gang Wins the Big Game"
- Season 16 - "The Gang Gets Cursed", "Frank vs. Russia"
- It’s Always Sunny: Gang Goes Mobile
Notes[]
- ↑ In the DVD bloopers for this episode, Charlie says "he rapes kids, mom!" to which Bonnie replies, "no he doesn't, he just plays with them". In the upload on FX's official YouTube channel, the blooper has been cut entirely, however, several more remain that imply that Uncle Jack at least attempted to touch Charlie inappropriately.