The Gang Goes on Family Fight

"The Gang Goes on Family Fight" is the eighth episode of the tenth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
When the gang appears on a nationally broadcasted game show, Dennis does his best to keep the gang's weirdness under wraps.

Recap
The Gang walks into the green room of the TV game show Family Fight. Dennis tells everyone what an important thing this is for all of them, and that they should all be on their best behavior and "play it down the middle". This means Frank shouldn't engage in any political diatribes, Dee should abandon her plan to be "super-sexy with a potty mouth", and Mac shouldn't steal from the green room. He also explains cottage cheese to Charlie. The other family, the Barrett family, shows up, which is awkward for them all.

The show begins. Frank wins the first faceoff, by answering "Pigs" for the first question "Name an animal that we eat that doesn't eat us", but he then wants to withdraw his answer because he says that he's seen pigs eat people. The host, Grant Anderson, is nonplussed by this answer. Dennis' answer of "sea urchin" doesn't make the board, and Dennis seems to be strongly affected by the buzz when you miss a question. Dee tries a bad double entendre ("I'm gonna say I love to eat cock"), Mac (referred to here as "Ronald Reynolds") says that Frank has adopted him and goes through the whole twisted family tree of the Reynolds family. He also seems completely unable to figure out the rules of the game. Grant decides from that point forward, he'll only ask the Reynolds the questions related to the game.



Charlie's answer at first seems ridiculous -- he guesses "dragon" -- but, unbelievably, it's on the board, which gives the Reynolds the win in the first round. In the commercial break, Dennis again lectures everyone else that they are bombing and making fools of themselves.

The second round starts. Dennis' answer of "laser beams" for "Name something people groom themselves with" isn't on the board, which gives the Barrett family control of the board. The Gang tries to figure out the answer they'll give to steal, and Charlie says it should be "A bride", because "you can't become a groom, or be groomed, without a bride." The Barretts can't come up with all four answers, so it goes back to the Reynolds, and Frank gives the answer "Toe knife" (complete with a graphic description of how he uses it) That's a strike, and the Barretts win the round. The missing answer does indeed turn out to be "Bride".

We move on to the third round. Dee's up, and she completely destroys the button to ring in when she tries to buzz in. This makes them go to another break.



In the next round, the Barretts apparently take control, and the Reynolds have to come up with an answer to steal again, which would give them the whole game. The question is "Name something that people are afraid of." Mac is still completely unable to figure out the rules of the game. Charlie's answer is "The Nightman". The Reynolds steal with the answer "Clowns", but "Nightman" is indeed up there. Everyone wonders why these weird answers keep popping up, and Charlie finally realizes the answer: he took the survey for the show at the mall. Back in the green room, they try to determine who'll play the "Fast Money" round. Dennis decides it should be him and Dee.

Dee is up first, but first we see a video greeting from Rickety Cricket. The entire audience is horrified by his burned appearance. Dee, who's been starving herself to avoid looking puffy, passes out. This triggers the fart keychain she had with her. Frank replaces her, but he plays well, giving all the #1 answers, so he gets 195 out of the 200 points they need to win the $20,000 grand prize. Dennis, however, is completely unable to come up with any answers because the sound of the buzzer which has been annoying him all game causes him to completely lose it. So they blow the whole thing. Dennis begs them to not air the episode. Of course, they do, and we see the Gang at Paddy's, watching their moment of shame.

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

 * David Hornsby as Cricket
 * Keegan-Michael Key as Grant Anderson
 * Anna Maria Horsford Janet Barrett

Guest Starring

 * Theo Breaux as Louis Barrett
 * William C. Mitchell as Bobby Barrett
 * Jammie Patton as Kate Barrett
 * Joe Thornton Jr. as Lester Barrett
 * Megan Messmer as Lisa

Trivia

 * Keegan-Michael Key of Key and Peele fame stars as a "Steve Harvey-type guy" in this episode.
 * Mac similarly started to steal stuff from the luxury box at a Phillies game the Gang got into in the Season 8 episode "Frank's Back in Business".
 * Dennis' admonitions to the rest of The Gang to "be smart..and play it right down the middle" and to avoid being gross seem similar to their efforts to win a Bar Association award in the episode "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award"
 * On the real Family Feud, answers that are only given by 1 person are not put on the board, apparently to avoid someone like a Charlie Kelly putting weird answers up there.
 * Ironically, the Gang would have gotten the 5 points they needed to win had they sent Charlie in to guess his own answers, as he originally suggested.
 * Dennis revealed he uses laser beams to remove his pubic hair in the Season 3 episode "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest" ("Don't wanna have hair down there, know what I'm sayin'?"), and also in the Season 4 episode "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters"
 * We learn about Frank's toe knife in the Season 5 episode "Mac and Dennis Break Up." We actually see him using it in the Season 11 episode "Being Frank."
 * At one point, Grant blurts out "Goddammit!" in frustration. Because at that point it's taking place in the episode of "Family Fight", it's beeped though it wouldn't otherwise be (in fact, it's said a few other times and not beeped in this episode.)
 * How exactly Frank came to watch "many pigs eating many men" is probably a mystery best left unsolved, but it has been hinted that he has had a dark and even violent past in some episodes: in "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Asses", it's said that many people died at a sweatshop he ran in Vietnam, and he's shown working as a drug runner in "Frank's Brother." He actually confirms that workers at his sweatshop were killed, accidentally or otherwise, in the Season 12 episode "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer."
 * It is possible that Frank has confused his life with the movie Hannibal much like he confused his life with the life of John Rambo in "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters."
 * The blood bucket makes another appearance in the next episode, "Frank Retires."
 * Sensitivity to sound, like Dennis exhibits in this episode, is called hyperacusis, and can be caused by many different factors, but the cause that might be most indicative of Dennis' character is that it can be a sign that someone is on the autism spectrum.
 * It is unknown how the buzzer that was broken by Dee got fixed quite quickly during the commercial break of the show.
 * Mac mentions that he was legally adopted by Frank as his son, but this is not brought up again after this episode.

Quotes

 * Grant Anderson: All right, so, Frank, you wanna tell me a little bit about the family?
 * Frank: Yeah. Well, uh, Grant?
 * Grant: Yes, Grant.
 * Frank: I wanna...I wanna change my answer.
 * Grant: What? Why?
 * Frank: I realize it's not totally accurate, because I've seen a pig eat a man. In fact, I've seen many pigs eat many men. It was a bloodbath.
 * Grant: Well, we can't do that. I'm gonna move on, though, because you're losing me...