"Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy" is the third episode of the twelfth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It aired on January 18, 2017.
Synopsis[]
Charlie believes Mac's mother holds his mother hostage, so the gang installs spy cameras to monitor what goes on in their house.
Plot[]
12:00 PM on a Tuesday, Philadelphia, PA
Mac and Charlie walk in through the back entrance, arguing about which of their mother is the better one. Charlie is claiming that Mac's mom is a monster and his mom is the sweet one. Dennis asks why they are arguing. Charlie reveals that Mrs. Kelly keeps calling him, causing Charlie to think that she is upset about something. Mac buts in asking how Charlie would know this and the conversation gets violent when Mac keeps insisting that his mom has great relationship with him. Charlie presents proof of these calls in the form of a hieroglyphic note. After analyzing the note, Dee and Dennis take note of dog hieroglyph, so Charlie tells them that Mrs. Kelly is scared of dogs, and as a result, she feels trapped in her house. Dennis suggests a solution to the problem: they install his unused security system in the house.
The cameras are hidden in household objects which Mac and Charlie place around the house. They give specific instructs not to harm the disguised cameras. When Mrs. Kelly displays affection towards Charlie, Mac says that his mom also loves him, only for Mrs. Mac to say not. While Mac and Charlie argue, Mrs. Mac pours her soup on Mrs. Kelly.
Dennis, Mac and Charlie review the incident. Dennis reveals that the soup was poured on purpose. They switch to the live feed. Mrs. Mac is sleeping. Bonnie notices this and prepares to hit her with a hammer. Just as she's about to, Mrs. Mac wakes up. Charlie claims it's not technically abuse and more of a "why I oughta" scenario. After hearing the word "funny", Dennis replays the tape but adds a laugh, giving off a comedic vibe. Mac and Charlie give positive feedback after reviewing the tape with and without the laugh track.
Four hours later, the three watch Mrs. Mac drop cigarette ash in Mrs. Kelly's tapioca. Dee comes in and Dennis explains the situation before watching Mrs. Kelly whacking Mrs. Mac with a fly swatter, causing the latter to retaliate. Dee asks to be put on the "show" but she is rejected. Frank arrives (after smelling the chips they were eating). They continue playing the footage with the laugh track. When Mac makes a comment about how nice his mom is, Dennis tells him that she is very off-putting. Mac decides to change their minds by going over to the house.
Mrs. Kelly gives Charlie a call, but he doesn't answer. After this, she makes a prayer to God to make sure Charlie is safe. Mac tries to make his mom look nice by giving her lipstick. She refuses so he tells to be reasonable which will help "make you root-able which makes you likeable". She refuses and swears at him. He tries to force the lipstick on but she refuses and leaves to use the toilet. Dee enters and gets into accident with her head stuck in the banister. Dee asks Mac for help but he refuses and says it looks funny from different angles.
Uncle Jack arrives to pick up a hard drive. He doesn't help Dee and Dennis decides to add a fart in. Dennis decides to turn Jack into a romantic lead and Frank says he wants Mrs. Kelly to bang someone just not Jack. Charlie decide to put a spy subplot in but Dennis turns these ideas down. Dennis decides to let the "romantic lead" part play out before creating a an intro sequence and a theme song. The show is titled "Old Lady House". Mac is sad that his mom was not credited, so Dennis reveals that he is writing her character out. He decides to cut around her until they can get an ethnic person on the show.
Frank arrives. He kicks out Jack and decides to bang Mrs. Kelly. This creeps out Dennis and Charlie, who don't want this. Charlie goes over there to take out the camera hidden in the bedroom. Mac manages to get his mom up close to the cameras, resulting in Dennis failing to cut around her. She leaves to use the bathroom again. Charlie arrives and Dee tries to get his help as she can't breathe. After interrupting Frank and Mrs. Kelly, Charlies informs them about the cameras, the show and the note. Mrs. Kelly reveals that she sent the note so that she would see Charlie more often and that she and Mac's mom get along great. She now feels safer, knowing that Charlie is watching her. After the group hugs, Dee finally breaks free from the banister.
Back at the bar, the Gang all gives positive feedback, but Dennis pulls the plug on the show, saying it's not funny anymore now they are aware of the cameras. The rest of the Gang are angry (Frank is especially sad because he had a four episode sex arc planned). Dee tries to make the situation funny by farting, but she tries to hard and poops her pants. They declare that this is not funny, but we later cut to Dennis at night who livens it up with a laugh track saying "Now it's funny again!".
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly
- Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds
- Rob McElhenney as Mac
- Kaitlin Olson as Dee Reynolds
- Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds
Guest starring[]
- Sandy Martin as Mrs. Mac
- Lynne Marie Stewart as Mrs. Kelly
- Andrew Friedman as Uncle Jack
Trivia[]
- The 9th season episode "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award" similarly mocked sitcom conventions like laugh tracks.
- Charlie and Dennis can be seen eating "Let's Potato Chips," a brand featured in the NBC show Community.
- As of this episode, Dee is the fourth member of the Gang to have shit themselves, after Mac (Mac Day), Frank (Frank Retires), and Charlie (Chardee MacDennis 2: Electric Boogaloo).
- Other episodes with at least one bleeped out f-word: "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters", "A Very Sunny Christmas", "Mac and Charlie: White Trash", "The Gang Gets Analyzed", "Charlie Work", '"The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award", "Mac & Dennis Move to the Suburbs", and "McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century".
- Dee similarly worked "wacky" sound effects into her comedy act in the Season 9 premiere The Gang Broke Dee.
- The Season 8 DVD special features has the original "Lady House" (along with a talking cat.)
- We saw Mrs. Kelly doing things in threes in the Season 6 episode "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down." In that episode, she explains she does it "so Charlie doesn't die."
- This is the 2nd time in the series that Dee is seen wearing a neck brace at the end of an episode. The first time was back in season 2 in the episode "Charlie Gets Crippled."
- Dennis is the only member of the gang that doesn't enter Mrs. Kelly's house in this episode. In fact, he is shown sitting in the Paddy's Pub back office for most of the episode.
- "Old Lady House" credits:
- Directed by: Brian Petty
- Executive Producers: Sean Palsgaard, Hank Murray
- Production Assistant: Sean McKinley
- Best Boy: Darren Koshko
- Side Producers: Jeff Luini
- Load Wiper: Josh Leith
- Special Thanks: Hugh Manturd, Karen Roberts, Brock Patenaude, Jessica Duval, Christian Bowers, Ryan Carroll, Monty Minchin, John Fitzgerald, Martin Medina, Hudson Crocker, Jessica Crocker, Riley Chloe Ricki, Heydar Adel, Chris Pellegrino, Sam George Boote, Allie Furlan, Derek Schmidt, Jennie Compton, Judy Enid Turner, Maya Williams, Alexis Guajardo, Michael Boggs, Gus Murray, Javier Fabian
- Copyright HOW WILL YOU COMPENSATE ME PRODUCTiONS
- Most of these names are the crew of the show. "Load wiper" is possibly a callback to the Season 6 episode "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats", when Charlie and Frank met a janitor at a spa who told them "I'm the guy who wipes down the loads."
Quotes[]
|
— | “You can't spy on unsuspecting women! That's horrible!” |
| “Uh, they're not women, they're old.” | — | 
|
| “At a certain point, a woman goes from being a woman to just being an old person.” | — | 
|
| “True.” | — | 
|
|
|
— | “Well, what happens to a man?” |
| “A man lives and then dies, why are we having this argument!?” | — | 
|
| Uncle Jack | — | “Just stopping by to pick up that hard drive I accidentally left under the floorboards.” |
Images[]
| < Season 11 |
Season 12 | Season > 13 |
| 1. "The Gang Turns Black" 2. "The Gang Goes to a Water Park" |