"Plus there's some weird semi-rapey subtext within these lines" It's just the Implication! He wouldn't do anything if she said no! But she won't because of the Implication.
If people who haven’t watched sunny saw this, they’d think sunny is a drama exploring the terrible people and what makes them bad, with hints of comedy. In reality it’s a comedy with hints of the other part.
Saw your profile pic and was like "hey I didn't know I've seen this video and commented here" but actually we're just two people who chose to edit frank being birthed from the couch into a profile photo
People who haven't seen it wouldn't know what this fucking show even is considering he never fucking says the name of it or lays any background of it down at all
@@burnthepalaces8041 its basically a show about a group of terrible people running a bar and the schemes and antics they go through thanks to their own individual narcissism that has combined together to create comedy
I just love the irony of one of the lowest budget *sitcoms* in TV history having some of the most profound and complex character development in tv history
"Doesnt like dogs" is an indicator that his dream of being a vet isnt because he likes animals, but because he just wants to cut them up. Interestingly, harming animals is a trait seen in some serial killers- they start off with animals and work their way up to humans.
@@kamiphenonymous2855 hm he's never acknowledged cats as far as I recall, apart from the fact Maurice becomes a cat, which would probably produce negative emotions towards cats as an extention
He talks very specifically about loving cats in the episode: "Bums Making a Mess All Over the City" (not sure if that title is verbatim...) It's the one in where Dennis and Frank play cops, Dennis gets a junkyard cat, and Charlie is Serpico!!! Season 4, I believe...
@@heiwa132 Read my reply about Dennis and cats.It's right below yours. I apologize. My stupid phone wouldn't tag you in the original post. I think you'll find it interesting. Have a good day!!!
My favorite is a little bit after that when he has anti-psycho meds and he's talking all sorts of shit. "He asked me a series of questions that I answered as honestly and as thoroughly as I could and next thing I know, I'm walking out with a bottle of anti-psychotics. That's called getting shit done" And Dee just responds with "That's called a diagnosis"
Dennis is definitely the most dysfunctional out of them all, he’s the character: that tries to act like the “normal one” but in the end, tends to be the most deluded too
@@victornieves1794 charlie is far from dysfunctional. he lives. a fairly good life and is content with everything. he’s just really dumb. dennis is codependent and insane. mac is in denial about who he is and his life. dee is dennis but slightly dimmer. frank is frank
Regarding Dennis' weird outburst about dogs in the TV interview, I think it was actually a VERY subtle reference to an earlier episode. In the episode where Mac and Dennis move into the suburbs, Mac ends up killing their pet dog and tricking Dennis into eating it, which Dennis seems legitimately horrified by. Later, in the TV interview, Dennis makes a point about how there's nothing wrong with eating dogs and it's no different than eating any other animal. I think he was being defensive there, he probably developed that mindset as a way of justifying what he did in the suburbs episode. Just goes to show how much more deranged Dennis and the rest of the Gang have gotten over time as they constantly reinforce each other's worst traits and traumatize each other.
There's also the episode where Dee and Dennis do Crack when Dee asks Dennis would he buy her some modeling pics after Dennis gets that vet job he says sure almost slaps a dog and says get away from me filthy animal to the dog..... he will be a good vet.
Always found it strange he prefers cats, the more independent and uncontrollable of the two. People who hate cats give me big narcissistic/Machiavellian vibes.
@@lennonmahoney7302 Dennis has borderline personality disorder, and I've known a lot of borderline people who preferred cats, finding them to be more relatable. I can definitely see that for Dennis. There's a common misconception that Dennis is a sociopath, even though the show itself says otherwise. His disorder is expressed in some unusual ways that make him seem sociopathic on the surface, but I think that's mostly due to his weird and traumatic upbringing, especially Frank's influence. An actual sociopath wouldn't have to *try* to suppress his feelings like Dennis does, it would just come naturally.
The twist about Dennis wanting to be a dad actually made sense because he's a huge narcissist. Narcissists see their children as extension of themselves. It's really common that when it's a baby and not someone with an identity and personhood, the narcissistic parent thinks that baby is amazing and can do no wrong. Dennis, who won't admit he's peaked, wants to live vicariously through the child. And since it's his child, he thinks it's going to be the next golden god. But not surprisingly the novelty of having offspring wore off pretty quickly, since he's used to his lifestyle (and group dynamic) with the gang
@@julesmilovich psychopathy and sociopathy are highly corollated with childlessness. Your theory is very likely completely wrong. And a childish thought as well. Someday you'll know love.
@@b0b0- Wow you are making lots of personal assumptions. And I didn't say psychopath or sociopath (who are NOT correlated with childlessness btw), I said NARCISSISTS. The idea that all parents are saints is an ignorant delusion that is easily proven wrong. The people who have children are just that, PEOPLE. They can be good and selfless, or they can be selfish entitled bullies.
My guess is that Frank is a sociopath, plus Dennis and Dee's mother was a narcissist. Presumably with Frank only around during Christmas to give them fake presents, Dennis and Dee's personalities primarily were shaped by the narcissistic mother. Dennis matured into a standard narcissist as the favored child, while Dee as the disfavored child became an inverted narcissist clinging onto Dennis due to her low self-esteem. The entire gang exists to provide Dennis with narcissistic supply so that within the gang Dennis gets to larp as the cool psychopathic mastermind he wants to be, but outside the gang Dennis is just a weird loser.
This comment sums up their characters perfectly. You can see Frank's sociopathic tendencies because of the lack of empathy and emotion he feels towards his actions, this reflects onto their kids as socially accepted behavior.
I reckon (for some unknown reason) Dennis genuinely cares for Dee. You could pass the plane scene off as him lying, but when they were all about to drown in that boat, Dennis said he loved her and was genuinely hurt when she just shrugged it off lol.
It might be that he simply said it with the expectation of receiving a final bit of praise and affection in his final moments. It explains why he was so hurt. Not because he meant it, but because the only reason he said it was to receive praise in return.
She's the one he's probably been subtlety manipulating the most, and earliest, in his life, being his twin and all. Losing that control would ruin decades of work.
@@Kitty-ex2gq Frank, I believe has severe depression, choosing, after a series of crashing from his life vefore, to live a life on the edge. When Country Mac came to visit, though it may seem “acting,” Frank expressed that “Suicide is badass!” and that begs the question, is he having fun or consciously killing himself?
Dennis’s arc made him my favorite character, look i love Charlie and Mac but Glenn’s portrayal of a man completely slipping is incredible and terrifying
My friends in college always told me that I remind them of Dennis, someone told me that should be cause for concern and honestly I agreed; I definitely needed to find new friends. I mean, I cannot believe how incredibly ludicrous those “friends” were and I honestly have no idea why I wasted my time hanging out with those fools! I am way more handsome than Dennis and much smarter too. The only reason I hung out with those simpletons is because they worshiped the ground I walked on and did everything I told them to do and I mean, come on, why wouldn’t they? Such inane, asinine, wastes of space- I am nothing NOTHING like Dennis Okay!? NOTHING!
The development of the character was intentional. Glen has stated that he knew where the character would end up, but he didn’t want to go all in to begin with.
@@icosahedron3408 I think somewhere in an interview Glenn said that Rob and Charlie took character traits of themselves and made them really extreme. Glenn didnt do the same
@@cornonthekobi That just shows how amazing Glenn is as an actor, and considering Dennis is my favourite character, his strengths as a writer too. What a guy.
There's a 3 episode arc and I'm positive Dennis actually killed Brian Lafev. Charlie's mom has cancer, he's having trouble with his lack of emotions, next episode he takes on the persona of Brian Lafev and the following episode he's almost manic in the way he's acting and comes to the conclusion that he is god.
I disagree with fully disregarding BPD as a diagnosis because i think it is just one piece in the puzzle of Dennis's several personality disorders. It is actually incredibly common for people with personality disorders to have more than one of them, and it is very common for the PD's they do have to be from the same cluster, cluster A (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal) cluster B (borderline, histrionic, antisocial, narcissistic) and cluster C (avoidant, dependant, obsessive-compulsive). Dennis is a cluster B mishmash for sure. His fleeting interest with things and attachment issues (fear of abandonment, etc) and mood swings - especially the all or nothing nature of them, his addiction and impulsive behaviours, all point at least vaguely towards BPD. His entire existence just screams NPD, especially when you factor in his crippling insecurities, and the rest of the traits which are sorted into the medically defunct psychopathy bin could instead be sorted into the ASPD bin. His exaggeration of events could even garner him some points in the Histrionic category, and he may also qualify just because PD's in the same categories often have some or a lot of overlap with each other. obviously I'm not an expert but I am very mentally ill and got hyperfixated on researching personality disorders for a while as I was trying to prove to the psychiatrist that I didn't have BPD, so here's my two cents from that anyway
As someone with BPD who was diagnosed later than average so also fell into the pipe of PD research. I’m glad you noted it’s a possibility. The whole show is people being garbage human beings, even the ‘nice’ ones are pretty loathsome if you compare them to real life. So I tend to discount a lot of the over the top crazy stuff since it’s basically a hyperstylised world anyway - it’s a comedy after all. Calling Dennis a psycho is basically ignoring 60% of the rest of the characters engaging in psychopathic behaviour too. Dennis really has more than enough of the main traits of BPD in my experience to at least make it noteworthy. The emptiness, and clear abandonment avoidance are major pieces. And his constant shift in identity, whether it’s changing names, his styles, his hair colour, his preferences based on his friends or movies he’s currently invested in, is like always ignored because people put it down to serial killer tendencies, when like everyone else has done it at least once, Dennis has just done it more often. Add in all his addiction issues, self sabotage, and allusions to trauma BPD isn’t an awful fit. It’s nice people don’t want to demonise it, but that would be like saying gay people suck cause Mac is gay and is pretty much an ass most of the time. Not all behaviour someone exhibits relates back to there mental illness, and Dennis being a dick because he wasn’t taught how to treat people properly on top of having a mental illness and not because of it isn’t that impossible. Just my two cents.
i agree with you a fair bit and i feel it was odd for Tropic Mephisto to want to pick one diagnosis because something as complex as any of the diagnoses mentioned would next to defiantly have another diagnosis. I think BPD/EUPD fits well also because of the emptiness he reports feeling, i think it was the mac fights gay marriage episode where he says he has feelings again like he was 14. of course most of the diagnoses mentioned can have this symptom and someone with BPD/EUPD might not necessarily have this symptom. the causes of BPD/EUPD also fit dennis with it being strongly linked with the neglect he suffered as a child. i will say the he doesn't seem to have a huge fear of abandonment which is very common with BPD/EUPD however he does push people away and keep them at a distance which is linked. there's also been many studies that suggest that, despite it being a personality disorder, there is a genetic component outside of environmental factors, of course growing up with relatives with any kind of mental illness could be traumatic and contribute to an environmental factor in developing trauma and i think that his mum seems to behave very similarly to dennis which Tropic Mephisto also said. obviously fictional character plus it's largely improvised but i agree that that a comorbidity would defiantly be more accurate and BPD/EUPD could easily be one. tbh the video annoyed me i feel there's loads of these kind of videos where something as tricky as mental illness is taken so lightly by someone who keeps admitting they know nothing about the subject i'd love it if a psychiatrist did one of these diagnosing or discussing mental illness in fiction characters that would be really interesting
@@danielmiller502 I think that because he felt too much when he saw his mother's decaying corpse, it pushed him over the top and he stopped fantasizing about killing and actually did it. Thats why he was so creepy in that episode because it was his first kill and he wanted to explore it further
that literally is Always Sunny. The show has a lot of hints in it pointing to Dennis being a serial killer. “Tools,” “Skin Luggage,” “Wearing another man’s skin to get off” etc...
I can buy that he's a grandiose narcissist whose lack of empathy often verges on the psychopathic. "Malignant narcissism" might be the more appropriate term. Pure psychopathy would mitigate his need for constant narc supply from others; as dysfunctional as the Gang is, they do seem to serve that function for him, and he would probably crumble without them. Also an actual psychopath would be less bothered by the opinions of his high school "minions." But it's hard to tell with Dennis because he seems very deliberately written as a Dark Triad ink blot
@@isabel6256 i definitely think he has some bpd traits thrown in there as well. the rage fits, his need to control the lives of his friends to keep them around him, feelings of emptiness, severe mood swings, impulsive behavior also the fact that he literally gets diagnosed w bpd in one ep lol
Dennis is the linchpin that holds the show together. He adds a level of tension to every scenario, and the humor on it just wouldn't hit the same without him.
I think Dennis actually loves Maureen and he hates it. He hates that a golden god such as himself can have these pesky feelings for someone with flaws (since in his mind he has none). When we first meet Maureen she has her weird quirks but shes not the crazy cat lady she becomes after having to deal with Dennis. She seems normal and is attractive (though not to the standards Dennis holds other women to). Upon realizing the flaw that she has a dead tooth he didn't start hating her he hated the fact that he loved her. Which is why later on when her family didn't accept her cat transformation he was actually supportive. He claims its to take off 15 dollars in alimony but even when he tells the cop about her predicament you hear something in Dennis's voice that you don't hear often in the show... sympathy. If you think I'm looking to deeply into it maybe you are right but while crude from the outside the show has time and time again showed a tendency to allow small things make it deep and build their characters. And while they make it a point to be anti sit com and not have the characters have any personal progress this again is intentional and very meta. Dennis loves Maureen and he hates it which is why he can't stand to be around her. He feels he is above her yet he still has these feelings he hates so much. What do you think?
I like this theory, even if he doesnt currently still love her, it still works even if he just USED to love her back in high school and could still have all the feelings of hating that he ever did and maybe even wishing he still did
@@tropicmephisto I think him getting together with Maureen was a desperate attempt by Dennis to reignite the feelings that he had back in high school. He has talked many times about his own relationship towards his feelings, whether he has them or not, how he wants to "feel things" again... That and his obsessive refusal to acknowledge that his best days are long past him, make me think Dennis married Maureen to try to force a reaction out of himself. The immediate rejection of the marriage was because it obviously did not work.
I think he was in love with the highly romanticised memories of teenage Maureen and Dennis. In his mind they were the golden couple in his golden days. Like wanting to be a father because narcissists see children as an extension of themselves, I think he saw teen Maureen as an extension of teenage Dennis. He loves the idea of Maureen, a Maureen that doesn’t exist. A cartoon cut-out Maureen with no wants or needs or autonomy of her own.
In my mind, the sensory deprivation represents a point at which Dennis has an irreversible break with reality. He's spent most of his life believing he is superior to everyone, but lately he's been forced to confront how reality doesn't support this view of himself. A healthy person would accept that they'd been wrong and they should be more humble. But instead the episode ends with Dennis rejecting reality in favor of a narrative where he is the unquestioned king, even though this is only his imagination. Really, this represents a break with all the main characters from accepting reality, but the bizarre and almost supernatural elements of how the show explores epistemology doesn't resurface until the Asskickers United episode, and doesn't come to a head until the awesome Clip Show episode. I guess to a lesser extent, the "Waiting for Godot" homage was also a continuation of this plot thread.
Aside from the obvious narcissism, I wonder if his insistence on playing baby boy/dayman had anything to do with the fact he was also abused as a child, like Charlie.
As someone who has BPD I always found him being diagnosed with it hilarious, although it's not accurate. Also that shade at psychiatrists, so freaking true lmao. My genius psych had me on 8 antipsychotics when I was 16.
@@lemonwhxre yeah, I got diagnosed with autism when I was 11 (none of the psychologists even asked me, they asked my neglectful mother instead), even though I have no symptoms of Autism
I think he does try to be puppeteer. However, Charlie is the foundation; Frank’s an enabler, Dee is either a hostage or a groupie, and Mac is like a reject of sorts and former brains
I feel like he’s a piece of a grand puzzle,admittedly you can see how bad the show is without him, in Season 12, but each character brings an equally important dynamic
@@samuelmartin2992 idk, every time that Dennis tries to be the looks he fails but in every episode that dee tries to be the looks it works out until the gang butts in, mine is Dee- looks ( you see this in “the gang runs for office, the gang group dates, and the Dennis system) Dennis- brains ( the gang finds a dumpster baby, Mac bangs dennis’s mom) Charlie- muscle( he’s literally horrible as the wildcard in every shot that he’s trying to do that, this is even illustrated by Mac in “the gangs recycles” by him predicting that Charlie cut the wires in his attempt to be wildcard showing that even when he tries to be the wildcard he’s still predictable. But he’s always been a super hard worker always doing the grunt work for the gang, this he’s the muscle Mac- useless chick( Mac is useless in every way and acts way more like a chick than dee ever does) Frank- wildcard ( frank is wild beyond belief and is so completely unpredictable that He even needed to go to a nitwit school as a child, you can find examples of him being a wildcard in “the gang squashes their beefs” when he lights the apartment on fire, and “the gang saves the day”
I don’t get it. Dennis seems like a great guy to me. He keeps my mean angry anonymous neighbor at bay for me. And he even almost does it out of the kindness of his heart too 👍
I think it's worth noting that his Machiavellianism is diluted by the fact that every main character in Always Sunny is also a scheming piece of shit. I think in the later seasons, Dennis is definitely the most attuned to it, but it is still sort of baked into the entirety of the show.
I have a slightly different theory. He's sociopathic, he wasn't born having these issues he was bred to have these issues but the reason why he seems emotionless until he's not, and why he is bothered by the suicide attempt even though he's not bothered by death in any other context is because he is playing up his issues around the gang because it helps him keep his place as leader. He loves power and he studied psychology so we knew he's lucky aware of exactly what is wrong with him. I think he acts crazier than he actually is so the gang feels apprehensive about challenging him and they have no where to go so they can't just leave the group. And we do see this anytime they aren't willing to follow his logic his rage spirals out of control. It's partly real but also partly exaggerated. That general feeling of uneasiness people have around him does help him manipulate people. He definitely suffers from traits of the dark triad but they're not as severe as they seem. That's why for the valentines day episode He had to scream at the gang to remind them that He can feel pain. He was unloved as a child which lead to his vanity, he was raped which led to his perversion/lust for power, he was smarter than most of his peers and grew up rich which lead to both his disassociation and his pension for manipulation and to deal with the pain he felt early in life from being disconnected he developed sociopathy. But he cant block out the things that trigger him. Thats maureen has power over him that's why the reporter has power over him that's why the suicide bothers him because he probly felt that way before finding the gang that's why he was killing animals. Look at the reunion he goes to get his tools but does nothing with them. He never planned to He just wanted to be feared so he could hold power over tim Murphy and the crew, then he got his ego hurt. In the beginning he would talk to normal people differently from the gang but having only the gang around for so long he became comfortable being the way he is with them to pretty much anybody. Hence the golden god. So basically he is a dissociative sociopath who's borderline a little too kinky for his own good, but he's also playing it up a bit for the purposes of manipulation.
Although I like the idea for the video, I think for a diagnostic-type analysis, you should go through each symptom/trait and give examples of them rather than a summary of disturbing things Dennis does or says from every episode. I commend you for going through the entire series for this though. You're a mad lad
Anybody else feel like Glenn Howerton would make a great Joker? Like he could bring that psychotic Dennis rage to the character, that would just make the Joker utterly fucking terrifying. I’d pay good money to see that.
I listen to their podcast, and turns out Glenn is a big horror fan. And with the writing of the show, the spiral the whole gang goes through is fun to see their insight on. I don’t think he is sociopathic on a diagnostic point, he actually does fit a lot of the traits of borderline personality, and then he may have narcissist comorbidity and some anxiety. Like he is spiraling but they all are
You'd be surprised how many people in some way or another are just like Dennis, maybe not to that extreme but, surely show traits of it like it's normal. Which makes his character all the more real
I’m pretty sure the point of Dennis choosing their food is also referred to in the episode “ the gang tries desperately to win an award. Frank says to the award guy “ ponder lettuce and shrimp” when trying to bribe him. This is the exact meal that Dennis always forces them to order, and right when frank said that Dennis starts nodding, as if he was the one who told frank to say that
His crazy moments make his normal moments seem even crazier. Like with the onions he uses to make it seem like he's crying, it reveals the facade he puts on. He talking as if its heavily rehearsed in his mind.
The thing about this show is that although it's a comedy, it's the kind of comedy that's brilliant because it makes very dark and oftentimes very real concepts easy to understand, laugh at, and swallow so they're not so horrifying. Dennis is a great example of that, so with the dream sequence in specific, I think that although it Is an absurd comedy scene, it is there very intentionally for people to read the symbol behind it.
I very much appreciate your ability to articulate all this info without sounding like you're just reading off the script, which a lot of these types of videos suffer from. It's so easy to follow along with every point you make
2 years since you uploaded a commentary on Always Sunny and then you upload a 52 minute analysis? I don’t know whether to hate you or love you right now.
In the Escape Room episode, you skipped over the fact that Dennis' bedroom is both inescapable from the inside and soundproofed to such an extent that no-one can hear Dee screaming and banging on the door to get out.
I cannot believe you skipped how important Dennis leaving his kid was. Dennis for all his life was trying to fill the hole in his life and he tried everything he thought he could. Then he meets his kid and he thought maybe this would be it, but it wasn’t. At this point in the time line is that Dennis is Balding and his looks are deteriorating which made him more desperate to come back to Philly. In season 14 he’s now a shell of his former self and cannot even stay outside for more than 10 minutes without losing his composure. Mac is poisoning him through energy shakes, and No body even cares that Dennis was gone and it really messed with him. Next video you should do what will happen next in it’s always sunny. Here’s my take on what will happen. Season 15: the Waitress comes back, and she’s pregnant. Not with Charlie, but with Franks baby from season 13. If this happens then it’s definitely the stepping stone to season 13s clip show where Charlie says “I’m moving back with Frank cause I miss him.”
i’m so glad u said “autistic overanalysis” bc i was wondering. luv how in depth!!! it’s always sunny is my favorite thing and i have color coded comprehensive episode categorizing lists:)))) so glad to hear an opinion from someone who sat w the show and analyzed in a way i can respect and trust. subscribed🖤🖤
There’s a line in American psycho (the book) where he’s thinking about killing someone and he wonders if that will make the world a better place . He says “ it will make my world better, and there really is no other hand “ . The scene where Dennis blows himself always reminds me of that . “It’s your reality, and you are god “ therefore he can decide everyone else’s realities
Man I love this show so much. They way they deliver thier lines!!! Its not even what they’revsaying its how they say it. The body movements, the reactions to one another, just everything is so good
This was too interesting! I like to think the gang as being personifications of all that's wrong with Mankind lol. That at least one of them everyone can see themselves in in one way or the other. Do Charlie next! He's the one I Identity with the most.
Theres a shit ton of foreshadowing in Its Always Sunny that people dont notice at all. Will prob always be my favorite show. Being from Philly makes it even better lol
When you said the development of his character I cackled. It’s Always Sunny is one of the only shows where character development means someone’s personal decline. The only other shows I can think of are Shameless, Seinfeld and Married with Children.
40:53 I’m reminded of how surprised I was and still am at the level of accuracy in their crack pipe...and how they even had it tilted up to prevent the hot end from coming into contact with the carpet because right after a hit it’s hot enough to melt the fibers and ruin the pipe lol
About the water park episode? My interpretation is that he was actually trying to _groom_ Abbey, albeit not consciously aware that he was trying to do so. It's made clear that Dennis is on the rare occasion genuinely capable of caring about others, and his kindness towards Abbey shouldn't entirely be written off as an example of that. But in a twisted way, I don't think Dennis abandoned his mission to get laid when he decided to follow Abbey instead. He sees Abbey as his intellectual peer even though she's a child, which is telling, and there's already a solid foundation laid that Dennis has an unhealthy fixation with underage girls. Even if he wasn't actively trying to seduce this twelve year old, it makes sense given everything we've already learned about his psychological profile, that he took some perverse satisfaction in roleplaying a mentor figure to this young criminal. That, or maybe the audience isn't aware of it yet, but depending on how much time has elapsed between the Wade Boggs episode and the Waterpark episode, it's possible Dennis already knew he had a son whom he was unlikely to ever meet. And this guilt over being a bad father drove his actions in this episode, who knows.
Really well thought out, thoroughly researched, 10/10 I expected to skip around and watch a few minutes here and there but shocked myself by watching the whole video all the way through.
honestly this whole video makes me realize that dennis is bassicaly the absuive shadow leader of the gang. and that they basically got no true free will due to him and how he basically takes advantage of them constantly
My mother has Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD). Dennis is literally an exaggerated version of my mother, just much more intelligent than her, as the only thing she's ever dedicated herself to is learning how to manipulate people and how to make me as miserable as possible. Admittedly, she's very good at both. However, if I was going to diagnosis him with just one disorder - difficult, as you noted, due to there being so much overlap between disorders - I'd go with HPD. It fits him pretty much to a T.
Even if it's a fantasy the 'fisherman recognizes another fisherman' line from "The Gang Saves the Day" is still worth noting. Specifically because his daydream has not gone off the rails yet, this was most likely his first thought upon seeing a man with a gun
30:52: at the beginning of the Reality episode (S8 E8), Dennis says he'll blow himself if Charlie rules the world. He's just living up to that promise lol
Oh. Cute. You put this video here and I’m suppose to be like “that looks like a good vid”
A well placed video can have quite the effect on a man
*slowly puts phone in mouth
Did you not want to see this video ?
Well, first of all, through god all things are possible, so write that down...
😐🖊
"Plus there's some weird semi-rapey subtext within these lines"
It's just the Implication! He wouldn't do anything if she said no! But she won't because of the Implication.
Okay, that... That seems really dark
"Well don't worry, you obviously wouldn't be in any danger"
Mac- "so these women are in danger?"
@@andriki88 Dennis: No one’s in any danger! How can I make that any more clear to you? It’s the “implication” of danger.
He's not gonna hurt these women!
The steely-eyed stare and clenched jaw makes the implication scene.
“I feel like you’re not getting this at all!”
He just likes to bind, and to be bound.
What can he do without his tOoLs?!
... fetish shit....
He’s a Golden God.
@@sparklywastaken1426 and a five star man!
Tools! These are my tools
If people who haven’t watched sunny saw this, they’d think sunny is a drama exploring the terrible people and what makes them bad, with hints of comedy. In reality it’s a comedy with hints of the other part.
Saw your profile pic and was like "hey I didn't know I've seen this video and commented here" but actually we're just two people who chose to edit frank being birthed from the couch into a profile photo
People who haven't seen it wouldn't know what this fucking show even is considering he never fucking says the name of it or lays any background of it down at all
@@pink_alligator as someone who hasnt seen the show and clicked on the video to see what its about, yea i still have no clue what this shows about
@@burnthepalaces8041 its basically a show about a group of terrible people running a bar and the schemes and antics they go through thanks to their own individual narcissism that has combined together to create comedy
@@samuelbastable2028 damn, sounds like i shouldve watched it sooner then, im gonna check it out for sure, thanks man!
They’re not “questionable” items in his car. They’re just his tools, no big deal really.
He just likes to bind and be bound. He's gotta have his tools.
You know, fetish shit!
There's a school of thought that associates fetish shit with being psychotic or something. Seems a half century out of date but idk 🤷🏻♂️
@@nthgth it's a joke from the show
My tools I need my tools.
I just love the irony of one of the lowest budget *sitcoms* in TV history having some of the most profound and complex character development in tv history
Well when you don’t have any money to do anything too flashy you make do and create art that will stand the rest of time
"Doesnt like dogs" is an indicator that his dream of being a vet isnt because he likes animals, but because he just wants to cut them up. Interestingly, harming animals is a trait seen in some serial killers- they start off with animals and work their way up to humans.
What if he just prefers cats.
well, that and pulling the heads off of birds
@@kamiphenonymous2855 hm he's never acknowledged cats as far as I recall, apart from the fact Maurice becomes a cat, which would probably produce negative emotions towards cats as an extention
He talks very specifically about loving cats in the episode: "Bums Making a Mess All Over the City" (not sure if that title is verbatim...) It's the one in where Dennis and Frank play cops, Dennis gets a junkyard cat, and Charlie is Serpico!!! Season 4, I believe...
@@heiwa132 Read my reply about Dennis and cats.It's right below yours. I apologize. My stupid phone wouldn't tag you in the original post. I think you'll find it interesting. Have a good day!!!
"Of course not. Think of the smell. You haven't thought about the smell you bitch!" Is my favorite line from Dennis, psychopath or not
Mine too!
Same here, but I also absolutely love Glenn’s delivery of “BECAUSE DENNIS IS A BASTARD MAN!”
He got covid and went to Ireland and smelled the one bartenders hair lmao he had no sense of smell due to the covid so he called her fake lmao
My favorite is a little bit after that when he has anti-psycho meds and he's talking all sorts of shit. "He asked me a series of questions that I answered as honestly and as thoroughly as I could and next thing I know, I'm walking out with a bottle of anti-psychotics. That's called getting shit done"
And Dee just responds with "That's called a diagnosis"
Dennis is definitely the most dysfunctional out of them all, he’s the character: that tries to act like the “normal one” but in the end, tends to be the most deluded too
HE'S A 5 STAR MAN!
😂
He’s sick but he’s probably the most functional of the gang honestly. Most capable of appearing normal to regular people
@@jhurd24_ thats just called masking, i wouldn't say he's the most stable because of it
The most dysfunctional would be Charlie.
@@victornieves1794 charlie is far from dysfunctional. he lives. a fairly good life and is content with everything. he’s just really dumb. dennis is codependent and insane. mac is in denial about who he is and his life. dee is dennis but slightly dimmer. frank is frank
Regarding Dennis' weird outburst about dogs in the TV interview, I think it was actually a VERY subtle reference to an earlier episode. In the episode where Mac and Dennis move into the suburbs, Mac ends up killing their pet dog and tricking Dennis into eating it, which Dennis seems legitimately horrified by. Later, in the TV interview, Dennis makes a point about how there's nothing wrong with eating dogs and it's no different than eating any other animal. I think he was being defensive there, he probably developed that mindset as a way of justifying what he did in the suburbs episode. Just goes to show how much more deranged Dennis and the rest of the Gang have gotten over time as they constantly reinforce each other's worst traits and traumatize each other.
Love this theory!
There's also the episode where Dee and Dennis do Crack when Dee asks Dennis would he buy her some modeling pics after Dennis gets that vet job he says sure almost slaps a dog and says get away from me filthy animal to the dog..... he will be a good vet.
Always found it strange he prefers cats, the more independent and uncontrollable of the two. People who hate cats give me big narcissistic/Machiavellian vibes.
@@lennonmahoney7302 Dennis has borderline personality disorder, and I've known a lot of borderline people who preferred cats, finding them to be more relatable. I can definitely see that for Dennis.
There's a common misconception that Dennis is a sociopath, even though the show itself says otherwise. His disorder is expressed in some unusual ways that make him seem sociopathic on the surface, but I think that's mostly due to his weird and traumatic upbringing, especially Frank's influence. An actual sociopath wouldn't have to *try* to suppress his feelings like Dennis does, it would just come naturally.
OMG THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
The twist about Dennis wanting to be a dad actually made sense because he's a huge narcissist. Narcissists see their children as extension of themselves. It's really common that when it's a baby and not someone with an identity and personhood, the narcissistic parent thinks that baby is amazing and can do no wrong. Dennis, who won't admit he's peaked, wants to live vicariously through the child. And since it's his child, he thinks it's going to be the next golden god.
But not surprisingly the novelty of having offspring wore off pretty quickly, since he's used to his lifestyle (and group dynamic) with the gang
Parenthood is much more about selflessness and realizing your tiny part in this world. You've had no kids?
@@b0b0- In an ideal world, everyone's motives for parenthood would be so pure.
@@julesmilovich psychopathy and sociopathy are highly corollated with childlessness. Your theory is very likely completely wrong. And a childish thought as well. Someday you'll know love.
@@b0b0- Wow you are making lots of personal assumptions. And I didn't say psychopath or sociopath (who are NOT correlated with childlessness btw), I said NARCISSISTS.
The idea that all parents are saints is an ignorant delusion that is easily proven wrong. The people who have children are just that, PEOPLE. They can be good and selfless, or they can be selfish entitled bullies.
Nooo.... I don't think so. Good try though
My guess is that Frank is a sociopath, plus Dennis and Dee's mother was a narcissist. Presumably with Frank only around during Christmas to give them fake presents, Dennis and Dee's personalities primarily were shaped by the narcissistic mother. Dennis matured into a standard narcissist as the favored child, while Dee as the disfavored child became an inverted narcissist clinging onto Dennis due to her low self-esteem. The entire gang exists to provide Dennis with narcissistic supply so that within the gang Dennis gets to larp as the cool psychopathic mastermind he wants to be, but outside the gang Dennis is just a weird loser.
Completely agree, especially given the high school reunion episodes
This comment sums up their characters perfectly. You can see Frank's sociopathic tendencies because of the lack of empathy and emotion he feels towards his actions, this reflects onto their kids as socially accepted behavior.
He's still that in the gang, isn't the point 😂 people are who they are regardless of social mirroring
my psychology class did a little project where we diagnosed a fictional character and i chose dennis
Can you tell the result here when you turn it?
Yeah what did you ddx Outta him?
Tell us what you found!? Any other good ones by your classmates?
keep us posted with the result !?
I’d probably pick Columbo and why he has undiagnosed adhd
I reckon (for some unknown reason) Dennis genuinely cares for Dee. You could pass the plane scene off as him lying, but when they were all about to drown in that boat, Dennis said he loved her and was genuinely hurt when she just shrugged it off lol.
He’s a narcissist and she’s his twin. Of ourse he loves her.
It might be that he simply said it with the expectation of receiving a final bit of praise and affection in his final moments. It explains why he was so hurt. Not because he meant it, but because the only reason he said it was to receive praise in return.
She's the one he's probably been subtlety manipulating the most, and earliest, in his life, being his twin and all. Losing that control would ruin decades of work.
To be fair they all love each other but their friendship is toxic because they spend way too much time together.
As much as bart does lisa.
Hell yeah, ready to relax and watch. You should cover Mac's gayness development too, Charlie's true intelligence or lack thereof, or Dee's narcissisms
Gayness development
Lol this reminded me of Dee wanting to throw out the extra coupon instead of take Charlie to the spa with her on his "birthday".
What about frank?
@@Kitty-ex2gq Frank, I believe has severe depression, choosing, after a series of crashing from his life vefore, to live a life on the edge. When Country Mac came to visit, though it may seem “acting,” Frank expressed that “Suicide is badass!” and that begs the question, is he having fun or consciously killing himself?
@@Winteramen fringe*
Dennis’s arc made him my favorite character, look i love Charlie and Mac but Glenn’s portrayal of a man completely slipping is incredible and terrifying
Glen would portray a perfect Ted Bundy
Oh man he would, but I'd feel really bad for him if he did. You can tell he's afraid of being typecast.
I feel like he'd do a good dahmer
@@s12830 he would have to play a Gay character... We would lose all respect for him as a person. Bundy is more like it
@@kashzero7226 what? what is wrong with playing a gay character
@@kashzero7226 tf?
"My cat just walked across my piano" Well you should of got some kitten mitten!
“HES SO STUPID!”
Should have
Mittons
Kitton mittons
😭😭😭😭😭😭
He’s a five-star man!!!!!
The golden god
Ahh yes, the implication.
He doesn't like dogs because his mother loved her Pomeranian than her fam
My friends in college always told me that I remind them of Dennis, someone told me that should be cause for concern and honestly I agreed; I definitely needed to find new friends. I mean, I cannot believe how incredibly ludicrous those “friends” were and I honestly have no idea why I wasted my time hanging out with those fools! I am way more handsome than Dennis and much smarter too. The only reason I hung out with those simpletons is because they worshiped the ground I walked on and did everything I told them to do and I mean, come on, why wouldn’t they? Such inane, asinine, wastes of space- I am nothing NOTHING like Dennis Okay!? NOTHING!
Do you need a roommate and someone to prevent you from doing things such as eating the toxin laced skin of an apple ?
@@Bang-bangBart Yes. I can see how that could be beneficial…As long as they are not a fat piece of shit. I despise and am disgusted by fat people.
IM A FIVE STAR MAN
If I were to rate you, I’d give you one star ⭐️
Bravo 👏
In that episode with the escape room, his bedroom door locks from the outside, implying that he keeps his victims in there against their will.
They're nor victims. They signed paperwork, they were willing participants.
Did they really give consent? Their phones did.
Only implications though of course.
That's really what's getting him off....now don't you Wana get off together? Lol
Clever girl
The development of the character was intentional. Glen has stated that he knew where the character would end up, but he didn’t want to go all in to begin with.
Thats a reason he and his character don't share a name. He wanted to distance himself from the character as much as possible when not filming the show
@@PageandPlant4Life wait holy shit. i just realized this. charlie and mac both use parts of their names but dennis is completely made up
@@icosahedron3408 I think somewhere in an interview Glenn said that Rob and Charlie took character traits of themselves and made them really extreme. Glenn didnt do the same
@@cornonthekobi That just shows how amazing Glenn is as an actor, and considering Dennis is my favourite character, his strengths as a writer too. What a guy.
There's a 3 episode arc and I'm positive Dennis actually killed Brian Lafev. Charlie's mom has cancer, he's having trouble with his lack of emotions, next episode he takes on the persona of Brian Lafev and the following episode he's almost manic in the way he's acting and comes to the conclusion that he is god.
Holy shitballs, I think you’re on to something here.
I disagree with fully disregarding BPD as a diagnosis because i think it is just one piece in the puzzle of Dennis's several personality disorders. It is actually incredibly common for people with personality disorders to have more than one of them, and it is very common for the PD's they do have to be from the same cluster, cluster A (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal) cluster B (borderline, histrionic, antisocial, narcissistic) and cluster C (avoidant, dependant, obsessive-compulsive). Dennis is a cluster B mishmash for sure. His fleeting interest with things and attachment issues (fear of abandonment, etc) and mood swings - especially the all or nothing nature of them, his addiction and impulsive behaviours, all point at least vaguely towards BPD. His entire existence just screams NPD, especially when you factor in his crippling insecurities, and the rest of the traits which are sorted into the medically defunct psychopathy bin could instead be sorted into the ASPD bin. His exaggeration of events could even garner him some points in the Histrionic category, and he may also qualify just because PD's in the same categories often have some or a lot of overlap with each other. obviously I'm not an expert but I am very mentally ill and got hyperfixated on researching personality disorders for a while as I was trying to prove to the psychiatrist that I didn't have BPD, so here's my two cents from that anyway
As someone with BPD who was diagnosed later than average so also fell into the pipe of PD research. I’m glad you noted it’s a possibility.
The whole show is people being garbage human beings, even the ‘nice’ ones are pretty loathsome if you compare them to real life. So I tend to discount a lot of the over the top crazy stuff since it’s basically a hyperstylised world anyway - it’s a comedy after all. Calling Dennis a psycho is basically ignoring 60% of the rest of the characters engaging in psychopathic behaviour too. Dennis really has more than enough of the main traits of BPD in my experience to at least make it noteworthy. The emptiness, and clear abandonment avoidance are major pieces. And his constant shift in identity, whether it’s changing names, his styles, his hair colour, his preferences based on his friends or movies he’s currently invested in, is like always ignored because people put it down to serial killer tendencies, when like everyone else has done it at least once, Dennis has just done it more often. Add in all his addiction issues, self sabotage, and allusions to trauma BPD isn’t an awful fit. It’s nice people don’t want to demonise it, but that would be like saying gay people suck cause Mac is gay and is pretty much an ass most of the time. Not all behaviour someone exhibits relates back to there mental illness, and Dennis being a dick because he wasn’t taught how to treat people properly on top of having a mental illness and not because of it isn’t that impossible. Just my two cents.
As a person diagnosed with BPD I was going to leave a comment along these lines, but you said everything I ever could have! Haha
In the “psycho Pete returns” episode dennis is literally is diagnosed with it 😂😂
i agree with you a fair bit and i feel it was odd for Tropic Mephisto to want to pick one diagnosis because something as complex as any of the diagnoses mentioned would next to defiantly have another diagnosis. I think BPD/EUPD fits well also because of the emptiness he reports feeling, i think it was the mac fights gay marriage episode where he says he has feelings again like he was 14. of course most of the diagnoses mentioned can have this symptom and someone with BPD/EUPD might not necessarily have this symptom. the causes of BPD/EUPD also fit dennis with it being strongly linked with the neglect he suffered as a child. i will say the he doesn't seem to have a huge fear of abandonment which is very common with BPD/EUPD however he does push people away and keep them at a distance which is linked. there's also been many studies that suggest that, despite it being a personality disorder, there is a genetic component outside of environmental factors, of course growing up with relatives with any kind of mental illness could be traumatic and contribute to an environmental factor in developing trauma and i think that his mum seems to behave very similarly to dennis which Tropic Mephisto also said. obviously fictional character plus it's largely improvised but i agree that that a comorbidity would defiantly be more accurate and BPD/EUPD could easily be one. tbh the video annoyed me i feel there's loads of these kind of videos where something as tricky as mental illness is taken so lightly by someone who keeps admitting they know nothing about the subject i'd love it if a psychiatrist did one of these diagnosing or discussing mental illness in fiction characters that would be really interesting
29:50 "I feel too much," and in the next episode, Brian Lefevre is dead. Coincidence?? I think NOT!!!
Interesting. You think maybe he killed Brian and it shook something in him?
@@danielmiller502 I think that because he felt too much when he saw his mother's decaying corpse, it pushed him over the top and he stopped fantasizing about killing and actually did it. Thats why he was so creepy in that episode because it was his first kill and he wanted to explore it further
Nailed it. He definitely shifted after this episode, and probably had a permanent psychotic break with reality after seeing his mom's corpse
I want a horror comedy where you see Dennis turn crazy
I forget which season, but the episode where Dennis and Mac move to the suburbs may scratch your itch.
@@jamesviktorovich ya that episode is hilarious with Macs famous Mac and cheese
that literally is Always Sunny. The show has a lot of
hints in it pointing to Dennis being a serial killer. “Tools,” “Skin Luggage,” “Wearing another man’s skin to get off” etc...
I can buy that he's a grandiose narcissist whose lack of empathy often verges on the psychopathic. "Malignant narcissism" might be the more appropriate term. Pure psychopathy would mitigate his need for constant narc supply from others; as dysfunctional as the Gang is, they do seem to serve that function for him, and he would probably crumble without them. Also an actual psychopath would be less bothered by the opinions of his high school "minions." But it's hard to tell with Dennis because he seems very deliberately written as a Dark Triad ink blot
Yeah he doesnt really fit all the criteria of aspd! definitely a narcissist, with extreme empathy problems
I had a similar thought...I was thinking sociopathic narcissism.
@@isabel6256 i definitely think he has some bpd traits thrown in there as well. the rage fits, his need to control the lives of his friends to keep them around him, feelings of emptiness, severe mood swings, impulsive behavior
also the fact that he literally gets diagnosed w bpd in one ep lol
Dennis didn't kill the crow, he was just putting it out of it's misery while also at the same time testing the tensile strength of a crows neck
Dennis is the linchpin that holds the show together. He adds a level of tension to every scenario, and the humor on it just wouldn't hit the same without him.
This was in my recommended, dude the algorithm has chosen this video
I'm glad kookonokknjjjjjjjujjjjjjijjjjjjjjjjjj
Jijjjj. Jjjjjjjj. Jjjjjj IMO should
I. I'm o o. Bbbbbb b jujjjjjj
it's like you want to eat milk steak and drink fight milk when watching shows like this
My favorite part of always sunny is that originally it was supposed to be set in LA as and be about a group of people trying to become actors.
Dennis really does feel like a demented wannabe actor
I think Dennis actually loves Maureen and he hates it. He hates that a golden god such as himself can have these pesky feelings for someone with flaws (since in his mind he has none). When we first meet Maureen she has her weird quirks but shes not the crazy cat lady she becomes after having to deal with Dennis. She seems normal and is attractive (though not to the standards Dennis holds other women to). Upon realizing the flaw that she has a dead tooth he didn't start hating her he hated the fact that he loved her. Which is why later on when her family didn't accept her cat transformation he was actually supportive. He claims its to take off 15 dollars in alimony but even when he tells the cop about her predicament you hear something in Dennis's voice that you don't hear often in the show... sympathy. If you think I'm looking to deeply into it maybe you are right but while crude from the outside the show has time and time again showed a tendency to allow small things make it deep and build their characters. And while they make it a point to be anti sit com and not have the characters have any personal progress this again is intentional and very meta. Dennis loves Maureen and he hates it which is why he can't stand to be around her. He feels he is above her yet he still has these feelings he hates so much. What do you think?
I like this theory, even if he doesnt currently still love her, it still works even if he just USED to love her back in high school and could still have all the feelings of hating that he ever did and maybe even wishing he still did
@@tropicmephisto I think him getting together with Maureen was a desperate attempt by Dennis to reignite the feelings that he had back in high school. He has talked many times about his own relationship towards his feelings, whether he has them or not, how he wants to "feel things" again... That and his obsessive refusal to acknowledge that his best days are long past him, make me think Dennis married Maureen to try to force a reaction out of himself. The immediate rejection of the marriage was because it obviously did not work.
I think he was in love with the highly romanticised memories of teenage Maureen and Dennis. In his mind they were the golden couple in his golden days.
Like wanting to be a father because narcissists see children as an extension of themselves, I think he saw teen Maureen as an extension of teenage Dennis.
He loves the idea of Maureen, a Maureen that doesn’t exist. A cartoon cut-out Maureen with no wants or needs or autonomy of her own.
Howerton has created one of the funniest characters of all time. His facial expressions are hysterical.
In my mind, the sensory deprivation represents a point at which Dennis has an irreversible break with reality. He's spent most of his life believing he is superior to everyone, but lately he's been forced to confront how reality doesn't support this view of himself. A healthy person would accept that they'd been wrong and they should be more humble. But instead the episode ends with Dennis rejecting reality in favor of a narrative where he is the unquestioned king, even though this is only his imagination. Really, this represents a break with all the main characters from accepting reality, but the bizarre and almost supernatural elements of how the show explores epistemology doesn't resurface until the Asskickers United episode, and doesn't come to a head until the awesome Clip Show episode. I guess to a lesser extent, the "Waiting for Godot" homage was also a continuation of this plot thread.
Aside from the obvious narcissism, I wonder if his insistence on playing baby boy/dayman had anything to do with the fact he was also abused as a child, like Charlie.
Almost definitely
You gotta pay the troll toll..
He was molested as a teen
“Right we could smear the walls with their blood guys… there’s any number of twisted scenarios we could play out here.” 😂🤣
As someone who has BPD I always found him being diagnosed with it hilarious, although it's not accurate. Also that shade at psychiatrists, so freaking true lmao. My genius psych had me on 8 antipsychotics when I was 16.
Wow... That ain't right
I second the first comment!
I'm still officially diagnosed with bipolar, anxiety, and depression but I don't actually fit the criteria for any of those
@@lemonwhxre yeah, I got diagnosed with autism when I was 11 (none of the psychologists even asked me, they asked my neglectful mother instead), even though I have no symptoms of Autism
It's actually pretty accurate
Dennis Reynolds is the single most important character on the show. I said what I said.
I think he does try to be puppeteer. However, Charlie is the foundation; Frank’s an enabler, Dee is either a hostage or a groupie, and Mac is like a reject of sorts and former brains
I feel like he’s a piece of a grand puzzle,admittedly you can see how bad the show is without him, in Season 12, but each character brings an equally important dynamic
@@ferrm1992
Mac - Brains
Dennis - Looks
Charlie - Wildcard
Frank - Muscle
Dee - Useless Chick
@@samuelmartin2992 idk, every time that Dennis tries to be the looks he fails but in every episode that dee tries to be the looks it works out until the gang butts in, mine is
Dee- looks ( you see this in “the gang runs for office, the gang group dates, and the Dennis system)
Dennis- brains ( the gang finds a dumpster baby, Mac bangs dennis’s mom)
Charlie- muscle( he’s literally horrible as the wildcard in every shot that he’s trying to do that, this is even illustrated by Mac in “the gangs recycles” by him predicting that Charlie cut the wires in his attempt to be wildcard showing that even when he tries to be the wildcard he’s still predictable. But he’s always been a super hard worker always doing the grunt work for the gang, this he’s the muscle
Mac- useless chick( Mac is useless in every way and acts way more like a chick than dee ever does)
Frank- wildcard ( frank is wild beyond belief and is so completely unpredictable that He even needed to go to a nitwit school as a child, you can find examples of him being a wildcard in “the gang squashes their beefs” when he lights the apartment on fire, and “the gang saves the day”
no such thing as the most important character ma g
I don’t get it. Dennis seems like a great guy to me. He keeps my mean angry anonymous neighbor at bay for me. And he even almost does it out of the kindness of his heart too 👍
I think it's worth noting that his Machiavellianism is diluted by the fact that every main character in Always Sunny is also a scheming piece of shit. I think in the later seasons, Dennis is definitely the most attuned to it, but it is still sort of baked into the entirety of the show.
Charlie is the only one who isn’t really a heartless piece of shit lol
@@smac919 Ruby. Taft.
Is Mac that bad
@@JohanKylander Ruby Taft is the most attractive woman in the world
@@sigmundsigma6888 Absolutely.
I have a slightly different theory. He's sociopathic, he wasn't born having these issues he was bred to have these issues but the reason why he seems emotionless until he's not, and why he is bothered by the suicide attempt even though he's not bothered by death in any other context is because he is playing up his issues around the gang because it helps him keep his place as leader. He loves power and he studied psychology so we knew he's lucky aware of exactly what is wrong with him. I think he acts crazier than he actually is so the gang feels apprehensive about challenging him and they have no where to go so they can't just leave the group. And we do see this anytime they aren't willing to follow his logic his rage spirals out of control. It's partly real but also partly exaggerated. That general feeling of uneasiness people have around him does help him manipulate people. He definitely suffers from traits of the dark triad but they're not as severe as they seem. That's why for the valentines day episode He had to scream at the gang to remind them that He can feel pain. He was unloved as a child which lead to his vanity, he was raped which led to his perversion/lust for power, he was smarter than most of his peers and grew up rich which lead to both his disassociation and his pension for manipulation and to deal with the pain he felt early in life from being disconnected he developed sociopathy. But he cant block out the things that trigger him. Thats maureen has power over him that's why the reporter has power over him that's why the suicide bothers him because he probly felt that way before finding the gang that's why he was killing animals. Look at the reunion he goes to get his tools but does nothing with them. He never planned to He just wanted to be feared so he could hold power over tim Murphy and the crew, then he got his ego hurt. In the beginning he would talk to normal people differently from the gang but having only the gang around for so long he became comfortable being the way he is with them to pretty much anybody. Hence the golden god. So basically he is a dissociative sociopath who's borderline a little too kinky for his own good, but he's also playing it up a bit for the purposes of manipulation.
This is honestly what I think, too
Although I like the idea for the video, I think for a diagnostic-type analysis, you should go through each symptom/trait and give examples of them rather than a summary of disturbing things Dennis does or says from every episode. I commend you for going through the entire series for this though. You're a mad lad
gonna try to adjust format a bit for the next video. its a big task and formatting and structure is a big weak point for me
I love the way you sound more and more inebriated as the video goes on lol
I love how this started off so articulate and clear, and ended up slurred and loose.
Can you please do all the characters. This show is a golden god, it's the finisher of shows.
Anybody else feel like Glenn Howerton would make a great Joker? Like he could bring that psychotic Dennis rage to the character, that would just make the Joker utterly fucking terrifying. I’d pay good money to see that.
Hmmmm maybe
I see more Riddler in him idk
37:27 "You haven't thought of the smell you BITCH!" I loved this moment so much lmao
Just so well delivered
He’s also giving himself a haircut
Even though in reality he gets his hair cut at a barber
That shows he views himself as completely self reliant
So, he's basically an human representation of the dark triad
That would be TSM Leffen
(Joke)
I listen to their podcast, and turns out Glenn is a big horror fan. And with the writing of the show, the spiral the whole gang goes through is fun to see their insight on. I don’t think he is sociopathic on a diagnostic point, he actually does fit a lot of the traits of borderline personality, and then he may have narcissist comorbidity and some anxiety. Like he is spiraling but they all are
The crack cocaine episode is such a classic.
You'd be surprised how many people in some way or another are just like Dennis, maybe not to that extreme but, surely show traits of it like it's normal. Which makes his character all the more real
I’m pretty sure the point of Dennis choosing their food is also referred to in the episode “ the gang tries desperately to win an award. Frank says to the award guy “ ponder lettuce and shrimp” when trying to bribe him. This is the exact meal that Dennis always forces them to order, and right when frank said that Dennis starts nodding, as if he was the one who told frank to say that
His crazy moments make his normal moments seem even crazier. Like with the onions he uses to make it seem like he's crying, it reveals the facade he puts on. He talking as if its heavily rehearsed in his mind.
The thing about this show is that although it's a comedy, it's the kind of comedy that's brilliant because it makes very dark and oftentimes very real concepts easy to understand, laugh at, and swallow so they're not so horrifying. Dennis is a great example of that, so with the dream sequence in specific, I think that although it Is an absurd comedy scene, it is there very intentionally for people to read the symbol behind it.
I very much appreciate your ability to articulate all this info without sounding like you're just reading off the script, which a lot of these types of videos suffer from. It's so easy to follow along with every point you make
"he reveals that all he ever wanted was a rocket launcher" - Hasn't everyone once had that dream?
2 years since you uploaded a commentary on Always Sunny and then you upload a 52 minute analysis? I don’t know whether to hate you or love you right now.
In the Escape Room episode, you skipped over the fact that Dennis' bedroom is both inescapable from the inside and soundproofed to such an extent that no-one can hear Dee screaming and banging on the door to get out.
That Green Man cut was perfect.
I cannot believe you skipped how important Dennis leaving his kid was. Dennis for all his life was trying to fill the hole in his life and he tried everything he thought he could.
Then he meets his kid and he thought maybe this would be it, but it wasn’t.
At this point in the time line is that Dennis is Balding and his looks are deteriorating which made him more desperate to come back to Philly.
In season 14 he’s now a shell of his former self and cannot even stay outside for more than 10 minutes without losing his composure. Mac is poisoning him through energy shakes, and No body even cares that Dennis was gone and it really messed with him.
Next video you should do what will happen next in it’s always sunny.
Here’s my take on what will happen.
Season 15: the Waitress comes back, and she’s pregnant. Not with Charlie, but with Franks baby from season 13.
If this happens then it’s definitely the stepping stone to season 13s clip show where Charlie says “I’m moving back with Frank cause I miss him.”
i’m so glad u said “autistic overanalysis” bc i was wondering. luv how in depth!!! it’s always sunny is my favorite thing and i have color coded comprehensive episode categorizing lists:)))) so glad to hear an opinion from someone who sat w the show and analyzed in a way i can respect and trust. subscribed🖤🖤
I’m surprised Dennis hasn’t been monitored by the FBI over the police situation when they thought he killed that weird cat lady 😂
There’s a line in American psycho (the book) where he’s thinking about killing someone and he wonders if that will make the world a better place . He says “ it will make my world better, and there really is no other hand “ . The scene where Dennis blows himself always reminds me of that . “It’s your reality, and you are god “ therefore he can decide everyone else’s realities
Man I love this show so much. They way they deliver thier lines!!! Its not even what they’revsaying its how they say it. The body movements, the reactions to one another, just everything is so good
“My cat just walked across my piano”
😂😂😂😂 That was so fricken random!
10:35 "He makes it quite clear that this aspect of it is his favorite part."
Dennis: "It's the best god damn part"
Dennis killed ponderosa with the laser pointer made her chase it off the roof.
This was too interesting! I like to think the gang as being personifications of all that's wrong with Mankind lol. That at least one of them everyone can see themselves in in one way or the other. Do Charlie next! He's the one I Identity with the most.
I really like how as the video goes on, the sound of your increasingly frayed nerves comes through
Dennis admitted to getting aroused when women are tied up and locked up without an escape. I think that's telling us something 😭
Yeh
Theres a shit ton of foreshadowing in
Its Always Sunny that people dont notice at all. Will prob always be my favorite show. Being from Philly makes it even better lol
Easily one of the greatest characters in TV history.
the episode of dennis starting the badass cult and convinces paint chip man to kill himself by setting himself on fire is the most overlooked
When you said the development of his character I cackled. It’s Always Sunny is one of the only shows where character development means someone’s personal decline. The only other shows I can think of are Shameless, Seinfeld and Married with Children.
Curb Your Enthusiasm too
Breaking bad also
40:53 I’m reminded of how surprised I was and still am at the level of accuracy in their crack pipe...and how they even had it tilted up to prevent the hot end from coming into contact with the carpet because right after a hit it’s hot enough to melt the fibers and ruin the pipe lol
About the water park episode? My interpretation is that he was actually trying to _groom_ Abbey, albeit not consciously aware that he was trying to do so. It's made clear that Dennis is on the rare occasion genuinely capable of caring about others, and his kindness towards Abbey shouldn't entirely be written off as an example of that. But in a twisted way, I don't think Dennis abandoned his mission to get laid when he decided to follow Abbey instead. He sees Abbey as his intellectual peer even though she's a child, which is telling, and there's already a solid foundation laid that Dennis has an unhealthy fixation with underage girls. Even if he wasn't actively trying to seduce this twelve year old, it makes sense given everything we've already learned about his psychological profile, that he took some perverse satisfaction in roleplaying a mentor figure to this young criminal.
That, or maybe the audience isn't aware of it yet, but depending on how much time has elapsed between the Wade Boggs episode and the Waterpark episode, it's possible Dennis already knew he had a son whom he was unlikely to ever meet. And this guilt over being a bad father drove his actions in this episode, who knows.
This is an interesting thought!
Your statement about giving amphetamines to kindergartners is so true. I've been on Adderall since I was 6.
Commentator getting seemingly more intoxicated as the video goes on
I'm really listening to a man teach me something he has no idea about. anyways good vid I agree lmfao
Really well thought out, thoroughly researched, 10/10 I expected to skip around and watch a few minutes here and there but shocked myself by watching the whole video all the way through.
honestly this whole video makes me realize that dennis is bassicaly the absuive shadow leader of the gang. and that they basically got no true free will due to him and how he basically takes advantage of them constantly
this is such an amazing video i love this deep dive into the show !!! great job with the notes and everything about this video ! i love it !!
My mother has Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD).
Dennis is literally an exaggerated version of my mother, just much more intelligent than her, as the only thing she's ever dedicated herself to is learning how to manipulate people and how to make me as miserable as possible. Admittedly, she's very good at both.
However, if I was going to diagnosis him with just one disorder - difficult, as you noted, due to there being so much overlap between disorders - I'd go with HPD. It fits him pretty much to a T.
Great dissection! Loved it!
My Mom just walked by listen to this not knowing who was about and goes, who are they diagnosing Darth Vader??
This video is just an episode by episode list of dennis’s behavior
I knew it’d be a good idea to stay subscribed!!
They definitely added a splash of Ted Bundy in this character.
Was surprised you didn't mention that scene in "Dennis gets divorced" where he mock chokes out Maureen Ponderosa.
Not me clicking on this video and watching half of it before realizing it’s 50 minutes not 15
Even if it's a fantasy the 'fisherman recognizes another fisherman' line from "The Gang Saves the Day" is still worth noting. Specifically because his daydream has not gone off the rails yet, this was most likely his first thought upon seeing a man with a gun
Next up: Diagnosing Charlie
This video was so good it made me cry. And I didn’t even need my pocket onions.
30:52: at the beginning of the Reality episode (S8 E8), Dennis says he'll blow himself if Charlie rules the world. He's just living up to that promise lol
More of this Sunny content please
This was a pretty good video.
Because of the implication
“Paddy’s thongs, bro. Paddy’s THONGs!” *rolls eyes*