Rob Mac Knows the ‘Hawk Tuah’ Jokes in ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Were Too Late
If you found yourself wondering why It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia dedicated its season finale to poking fun at Hailey Welch’s “Hawk Tuah” catchphrase in the year 2025, you just aren’t getting the joke.
After last night’s season finale, in which Frank Reynolds pursues an influencer nicknamed “Cock Chewa” during his Golden Bachelor stint, Always Sunny co-creator Rob Mac addressed the hawk in the room by defending the show’s inclusion of such a dated character, saying The Gang is “just asymmetrically off of popular culture.”
“(We don’t) miss the boat by a few minutes, we miss it by like, four years,” Mac explained during a recent interview with Vulture.
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Mac’s calculations are about three years off, though. Welch first went viral in June 2024, and most recently made headlines in December after being accused of running a “pump-and-dump” scheme with her $HAWK meme coin. Regardless of how time moves in Always Sunny’s Philadelphia, and whether the show’s writers waited too long or not long enough to riff on Welch’s fleeting flame, Cock Chewa’s presence lacked bite. Her incessant gnawing noises and refrain of “chew on that thang” proved to be more annoying than indicative of The Gang’s pop-culture disconnect.
“They overestimated the staying power of Hawk Tuah,” one fan wrote on the Always Sunny subreddit. “She was everywhere, did a crypto scam or something, hocked some products, then vanished. Seems like a long time ago.”
“The problem with making entire tropes around viral things is that those things are usually viral for a very short period, and by the time you shoot, edit (and) release your take on it, everyone’s moved past it,” another fan added.
Chew on that, Rob Mac.