Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the FXX show It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
Fans of FXX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are still eagerly waiting for announcements about its 16th season, leaving most viewers time to rewatch popular episodes highlighting their favorite characters. Of course, the fan-favorite Charlie Kelly is on top of many audiences' lists when choosing iconic moments from the long-running sitcom to revisit.
The janitor of Paddy's Pub is at the center of several running gags in the series, which include his illiteracy, bizarre management methods, and interesting taste. His legendary scenes almost always become memes or the subject of discussions and debates in the fandom.
Charlie Work
The season 10 episode 'Charlie Work' thrusts viewers into the janitor's perspective during one of the most stressful days of the year – the health inspector is coming and he has to make sure Paddy's Pub es. The term 'Charlie Work' itself refers to the tasks that Dennis, Dee, Frank, and Mac refuse to do, often because they see them as disgusting or unimportant.
An iconic seven-minute-long shot takes place during Charlie's frantic attempts at making sure the health inspector doesn't see any part of the bar that isn't up to the city's standards. Eagle-eyed fans may notice that it isn't actually an uninterrupted shot, but several sequences edited to look that way.
Eating Stickers
It may have once been an underrated moment in IASIP, but the "eating stickers" scene has since become a meme-worthy moment from the show. It takes place during the season 5 episode 'The Gang Hits the Road,' after Mac purchases a pear for Charlie, who has apparently never eaten one.
Of course, Charlie eats the entire unripe pear, including the stems, the core, and the stickers before remarking about how "it was gross." Mac isn't surprised that he feels that way because "it's a sticker, bro," which prompts the iconic response about how Charlie eats "stickers all the time." It's a gut-busting and comical exchange that highlights Charlie's more dim-witted side.
Kitten Mittens
Audiences won't ever forget one of Charlie's most brilliant inventions in the series, kitten mittens. Inspired by the noisy cats outside of his apartment, Charlie creates the useful product in the season 5 episode 'Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens.'
The best scene is shown right in the intro, as fans are treated to an absurd commercial for kitten mittens starring Charlie and an unhappy cat. He introduces himself as a "local business owner and cat enthusiast" before asking a string of questions that parody aggressive marketing campaigns from the '90s. Some viewers probably still quote his simple but effective catchphrase: "Meeeeeeeeeeowwwww!"
Stepping On S**t
A series of strange coincidences leads to the gang's fight over a lottery ticket in the season 12 episode 'Hero or Hate Crime.' One small part of the chain of events depicts another one of Charlie's quirks, which Mac doesn't find so amusing. As they're walking down a sidewalk on a sunny day, Charlie tells Mac to "look at this" before nonchalantly stepping on "dog s**t."
The weirdest aspect of the whole thing is that Charlie obviously does it on purpose, even seeming excited about finding the dog poop and considering it a stroke of good luck. The notorious moment hopefully hasn't inspired anyone to do the same in real life.
Pirate Door
Despite it happening way back in the season 3 episode 'The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation,' the pirate door is still one of Charlie’s funniest mistakes on the show. He says the phrase while on a mission with Dennis, as the two try to scope out the competition in a hilariously obvious way.
Charlie insists on checking what's behind the "door marked 'Pirate,'" insisting that a "pirate lives there." Dennis' surprise and confusion completes the scene – his reaction predictably causes Charlie to get flustered and backtrack, quickly distracting from his embarrassing blunder by rushing to the door.
King Of The Rats
Charlie earns one of his infamous nicknames in the season 6 episode 'Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats." In a well-known scene from the episode, Charlie despondently walks into the bar from the basement, complaining about how he's feeling zoned out after taking care of the rat situation downstairs.
He then launches into a mostly coherent monologue and wonders out loud about whether rats' lives are just as important as human lives. It's a question anyone would ask after having to destroy a nest of 200 rats, an apparently regular activity for the pub's janitor.
Milk Steak
Some audiences may not who the Waitress is getting married to in the season 5 episode of the same name, but they'll likely be able to recall the "milk steak" conversation. It comes up when Dennis and Mac ask Charlie what his "favorite food" is for his online dating profile, to which he enthusiastically responds with the nonsensical phrase.
It gets worse later when he actually orders the dish in a restaurant, specifying how it should be "boiled over hard" and topped with the "finest jelly beans," raw. It has become a popular recipe among fans, with some brave enough to create (and even eat) their own versions.
Poisoned By Constituents
Of all of Charlie’s worst moments on It’s Always Sunny, his unforgettable cringeworthy scene in the season 5 episode 'Frank's Pretty Woman' still takes the cake for fans who may have found it too disgusting. His scheme goes wrong when he swallows too many fake blood capsules and ends up vomiting all over his date in the limo, declaring that he may have "been poisoned by" his "constituents."
His funny reaction paired with Frank's offering of an egg understandably do nothing to comfort the still-screaming woman who probably wasn't expecting her night to end that way.
Crying In The Rain
In the season 15 finale aplty titled 'The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain,' a surprisingly profound moment shows Charlie almost giving up on carrying his dad's body up a cliff in Ireland. After being left behind by the rest of the gang who found the task to be to difficult, the climax of hard-hitting popular scene begins when the rain starts to pour.
Fans can't be blamed for feeling bad for Charlie when he delivers his tear-jerking monologue where he expresses how painful the circumstances are – he has just lost the biological father he never expected to meet after just a few days of catching up, after all.
Pepe Silvia
Even those who have never seen a single episode of It's Always Sunny will likely recognize Charlie's most iconic scene from the season 4 episode 'Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack.' Charlie believes he has uncovered a "major conspiracy" after landing a job in a mailroom, which he's clearly not qualified for.
Things get intense after Charlie believes all the mail addressed to the mysterious and supposedly non-existent "Pepe Silvia" is linked to some kind of conspiracy around the "ghost town" that is the corporation he works for. The wild look in his eyes and the mess he makes while connecting the dots in his tiny cubicle results in an image that is still arguably the most popular meme format from the series.