The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty Magoo

"The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty Magoo" is the fifth episode of the third season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
The gang gets involved in the seedy side of the world of fashion design after Dee gets jealous of her former high-school best friend, who is now a successful boutique owner.

Recap
11:30AM on a Tuesday

At an upscale fashion store Dee runs into a friend from high school, Ingrid Nelson. Ingrid was known as "Fatty Magoo" due to her weight, but had lost it all. Dee was known as "The Aluminum Monster" because of the back brace she had to wear. Ingrid says she was inspired by Dee's aspirations of becoming a model and fashion designer which led her to open the fashion boutique. To save face Dee tells her she is a model and owns a fashion store too.

At Paddy's Dee begins designing her first dress and Dennis and Charlie critique her poor drawing. Dennis tells Dee that she can't become a winner, she must be born a winner. He draws a "nice looking lady" and Charlie favors his dress over Dee's "raincoat with a straw in it." Dee tells Dennis that he's just jealous because he's peaked already to which he tells her he can get Ingrid to purchase his dress designs.



In the office of Paddy's Mac suddenly realizes he is doing Frank's bidding - spray painting a chair gold. Frank tells him he was manipulated into doing so, and offers to explain how to manipulate people if he finishing painting the chair so it looks like it was dipped in gold.

Dennis meets with Ingrid and flirtatiously tries to sell her his designs. She rejects his advances and his designs (some of which are just nude drawings of women) and he vows to return the next day with a model.

Back in the basement of Paddy's which has been converted into a garment factory, Charlie and Dee bicker over her designs. Charlie pulls out a design of Dennis' and begins to narrate a scenario where the model would sleep with him. Mac and Frank discuss how to manipulate the others and Frank explains that people must be broken to be submissive, which can be achieved by ranting and yelling. Dennis arrives and takes the dress prototype from Charlie and informs everyone they have received an order of 25 dresses. Frank tells Mac to get Dee in line, but she tells him off and storms away.

At Ingrid's shop Dennis bickers with a D-cup model wearing the prototype, telling her she has too small breasts and too big of a gut. Ingrid enters and demands they leave and insults the dress. Dennis insults the model more and leaves, claiming to return with a model with a perfect body.

Back in Paddy's basement, many Eastern European women are making dresses with Charlie and Dee. Frank tells Mac to get Dee in line, as she is still attempting to make her own dress and not Dennis'. Mac talks to her and tells her she should be like Charlie, who he essentially has trained like a dog.

Dennis calls several modeling agencies and cannot find a model with the measurements he demands. Mac arrives with the 25 dresses and Dennis distracts him by lying about another order, this time for 100 dresses. The next day the factory has become a sweatshop: full of steam, German propaganda blasting, and all the workers feverishly making dresses. Dee arrives and discovers her dress has disappeared. Charlie refuses to talk even after being threatened. Dee is fired by Mac but she rallies the European women into striking.



Dee arrives with a police officer at Ingrid's office and tries to have her arrested for slave labor. Mac and Frank arrive trying to shut her up. Ingrid informs them she never ordered any dresses from Dennis. As the police officer begins to recognize The Aluminum Monster and Fatty Magoo he asks about Dennis, who bursts into the room in full drag, wearing his prototype dress.

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

 * Judy Greer as Ingrid
 * Rachelle Wood as Model
 * Michael Marc Friedman as Young Cop

Trivia

 * Dennis becomes a sexual female model with totally right proportions while the song "Together Forever" by Rick Astley is playing - the same song plays during the closing credits. In "Charlie Has Cancer" and "The Gang Gets New Wheels", Dennis listens to Astley, as well.
 * The German propaganda blaring from the speakers is spoken by Glenn Howerton.
 * This episode marks the first time that Dennis demonstrates his amazing ability to draw women with giant breasts. You can see more examples of Dennis' artwork in "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis," "Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life", and "The Gang Gets Analyzed."
 * In the scene where Dennis is trying to sell dresses to Ingrid, a stationery holder and speaker are sitting on Ingrid's desk in which he knocks over and pushes away to clear space for him to sit on. As he leaves the room, both items are back neatly in its place.
 * The episode "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Ass" established that Frank has actually run at least one sweatshop during his previous career.
 * Ingrid Nelson returns in Season 7's "The High School Reunion, Part 2: The Gang's Revenge" but Mark Dunlap does not.
 * This is currently the only appearance of the bathroom in Mac and Dennis' apartment.
 * Frank oversees the sweatshop from a chain-link cage -- very reminiscent of the cage that Louie De Palma, the character Danny DeVito played in Taxi, stood in to oversee the taxi drivers.
 * When Dennis announces the order for the dresses he says: "Make it work", a reference to the words said by Tim Gunn from the television show 'Project Runway'.
 * One of The Gang members says that the women working in the sweatshop are Eastern European, even though the propaganda being played from the speakers is in German, the official language of Germany, a major Western European country.

Quotes

 * : What is this thing?
 * : That's Dennis' prototype. Be careful with that.
 * : No, I know it's the prototype but I don't get how it works.
 * : Dee, you're asking a million questions. All right, look, I'm just going to walk you through it, so pay attention. OK, look, the pretty lady gets naked, of course, and I help her into the prototype, yes? My hands sort of guiding along her body making sure that it fits properly. Now the dress is starting to look fantastic, you know? And she feels very excited, she feels very sensual and I feel very sensual about her because she looks so good. And then, you know, we chit-chat a little bit, no big deal but she asks me back to her place. Where did that come from? I accept, you know? And then we chit-chat at her place, it's no big deal, but eventually she says, "Do you want to make love, Charlie?"
 * : Oh God.
 * : And I say, "Are you serious? Because yes, I do." And then just boom, we're into it and it's hot and it's passionate.
 * : Charlie...
 * : And then it's just you and me babe...
 * : Oh my God.




 * : You're not a winner, Dennis. You're not a winner because you used to be popular in high school, but I think you peaked.
 * : (pauses in place before turning around to Dee) Peaked? Peaked, Dee? (laughs) Let me tell you something: I haven't even begin to peak, and when I do peak, you'll know. Because I'm gonna peak so hard, that everybody in Philadelphia is gonna feel it. I'm in my prime, and I bet you that I could sell these dresses to Fatty Magoo just based on these sketches alone. And your loser friend is gonna buy 'em, because she is a fatty, and that's just the way the world. All I have to do is turn on my winning charm, and Fatty Magoo will be putty in my hands.
 * : Cuz us winners always win.
 * : He's not talking about you.
 * : I think he was.




 * 🇲🇴: Dee, can I talk to you for a second? Look, I know what you're trying to do. You wanna show this girl what's what. I get that. And I think if you just buckle down and join the team--
 * : Mac, I'm gonna stop you right there. First of all, your breath smells like an old-lady fart passing through an onion. Secondly, I know you're trying to manipulate me. And it's not going to work. Get your hand off my shoulder because I've got a fatty to burn.




 * Dennis: Okay, well I'm not going to take no for an answer because I just refuse to do that because I'm a winner and winners... we don't listen to words like "no" or "don't" or "stop!" Those words are just not in our vocabulary.