Unfortunately, the Gang from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Is Canonically on TikTok
I don’t know which phrase is more disturbing to hear when it’s coming out of the mouth of the Golden God: “Raw-dogging,” or “It’s like this whole TikTok trend.”
Historically, the Paddy’s Pub Gang isn’t exactly up-to-date on internet culture, nor are their interactions with the digital world often very pleasant for anyone involved. From online multiplayer games to group dating apps, The Gang’s attempts to be current and tech-savvy are equal parts demeaning and disastrous, because, as the saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
This track record made the Gang’s two-years-too-late experiment with the Gen Z trend of “raw-dogging,” or meditatively eschewing entertainment and sustenance during long road trips and plane rides, in tonight’s new It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “The Gang Goes to A Dog Track” uncomfortably on-brand.
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In it, Mac’s experimentation with a certain viral and Spartan masculinity trend exposed a sad truth about the state of the Always Sunny characters 20 years into their historic run — they’re on TikTok, and they probably even post TikToks, too. Hopefully those idiot savages in charge of the Chinese spyware app wise up and allow users to start giving five-star ratings.
Throughout “The Gang Goes to the Dog Track,” Mac and, to a much lesser and more literal extent Charlie, are on a quest to raw-dog the experience of visiting the seedy gambling establishment and get in touch with their masculine, unrefined, unbothered roots through the Zen practice of copying what 20-year-olds were doing on JetBlue flights back in 2023. Mac and Charlie spend the entire episode seeking out the “rawest dog” at the track, and they try to learn the ways of raw-dogging from a mysterious stranger named Sparky, who “has that dawg in him,” according to Mac.
When Mac introduces the internet-inspired storyline at the top of the episode while the Gang travels on a Greyhound bus to the track, Dennis dismissively remarks of “raw-dogging” and its practitioners, “It’s like this whole TikTok trend where people deprive themselves of creature comforts while traveling somewhere,” adding, “I don’t get the point of it.”
Considering that the “raw-dogging” meme is probably older than the dog Dennis jerked off in the climactic scene of “The Gang Goes to the Dog Track,” I don’t get the point of shoehorning stale internet culture into new It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes, as the entire raw-dogging storyline made the new season feel late and dated in a way that the other episodes thus far thankfully haven’t.
Hopefully, “The Gang Goes to the Dog Track” won’t lead to other members of the Gang trying to reach self-actualization through tired TikTok trends — nobody needs a daily GRWM from PatheticGirl43.
