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| Photo Credit: IMDB |
10. The Gang Finds a Dead Guy (Season 1, Episode 6)
I wavered and wavered on including this episode, but really, it belongs on here despite the fact that it's pre-Frank. It's the episode that got me hooked on the show, so there's sentimental value, plus there's some really, really funny lines in it, the capper being Mac in all his frustration, telling Dennis that his grandfather was a Nazi. This episode also epitomizes the show's grand use of the homeless and decrepit for comedic effect, as Dennis bringing all the bums to the memorial service was just one belly laugh after another.
9. Who Pooped the Bed? (Season 4, Episode 7)
This might be the most controversial pick, but what can I say, I love scatological humor. The thing is I would have ranked this one even higher if the climactic scene with Artemis (maybe the best of the guest characters, either her or Rickety Cricket) played out a little funnier. Everything leading up to it was great though, especially Dee running head first into the parked car in the stolen Manolos and especially when the lab tech was analyzing the turd. Something about wolf hair and bits of credit card being so banal to Frank and Charlie is absurdly hilarious.
8. The Gang Gives Back (Season 2, Episode 6)
The show has this habit of making episodes that go together in a heightened state of continuity. This was the second part of one of those doubles, with the first one ending in the gang setting fire to their neighbor's property. They have to do community service as penance for their crime, and the way they go about it is by coaching the local youth rec basketball league. This episode is worth it just for the visual of kids playing the worst game of thug league basketball against each other. It's great seeing prepubescent children throwing elbows and wearing heavy boots to step on feet. Plus, it marks the debut of Frank's friends, the degenerate gang of Vietnamese gamblers.
7. The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition (Season 4, Episode 12)
Even when the gang thinks they're doing a good deed, they come off as terrible, terrible people, and this comes off as high comedy. Caught up in the craze of all those home makeover shows, they decide they're going to do a solid for an underprivileged Mexican family on their block. Of course, they have no idea how to renovate, and hijinks ensue, ending with Dee and Dennis losing their mansion to the unfortunate family. The money shot though? The gang evicting the family from their home via a late night home invasion. One of the hardest laughs I've ever had watching the show.
6. The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis (Season 4, Episode 2)
You all know the line. "WILD CARD, BITCHES!" It's become one of the most iconic lines in the whole show, and of course Charlie pulls off being the wild card with such manic aplomb. I love the idea of him cutting the brakes at the end just because hey, it's what wild cards do. Trying to return gas in drums to the gas station was just awesome too.
5. A Very Sunny Christmas (Post Season 5 DVD Double Episode)
I thought long and hard as to whether this should count or not since it was like two episodes in one. However, why deduct points for something that enhanced the experience? So many classic gags. The Claymation stuff at the end was hilarious, as was Charlie going apeshit on Santa. Obviously, they got the comedic, Sunny ethos side right, but it also felt very much like a Christmas special. I loved the fact that the it had heart, whether it was Frank having a change of heart (Before everything predictably went to shit when his partner decided he wanted revenge) or young Charlie and Mac throwing rocks at trains.
4. Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth (Season 6, Episode 9)
Yeah, Charlie as the ne'er-do-well janitor or the little Juggalo kid were both okay, but this episode was ENTIRELY carried by Lethal Weapon 5. The good thing for this show though was that Lethal Weapon 5 may have been the funniest fucking thing I've ever seen in my life. No doubt. Mac in blackface, changing roles in the middle of the movie and obviously, Frank's SUPER gratuitous sex scene were all gut busting. The clear high-water mark in their weakest season.
3. The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore (Season 7, Episode 2)
So yeah, this is totally the latest episode, depending on when you're reading this list. I know it might have the sheen of being the new hotness, but I feel like if I made this list after his season or in a year or so, it'd still rank this high, or at least in this area. It had a meme that was instantly memorable ("RUM HAM! I'm sorry rum ham! I'm sorry!"). It had some really awesome gross-out humor, which they do better than any show on TV that isn't animated (gay hobo sodomy, Dee's hair, the graphic gunshot wounds). But as with the Christmas episode, it's the heart that really puts this one over the top for me. The whole thing with Charlie and the Waitress, it really broke my heart. Charlie really is the best character. In fact, the montage at the end set to "Vacation". It was at the same time absurd when it focused on Mac and Frank with the guidos, shock-funny when focused on Dee and Dennis with the tweakers and genuinely touching when focused on Charlie and the Waitress at the beach. Just superb.
2. The Nightman Cometh (Season 4, Episode 13)
From the opening scene, I knew this was going to be a special one, the illiterate Charlie busting into the bar with a badly-scribbled manuscript that he said was a musical. Either musical episodes turn out brilliant or the fall flat, and this one was just goofy enough to fall in the former category. The whole idea of Charlie expecting his degenerate friends to go along with his harebrained musical and then getting extremely ticked off when they screwed it up was brilliant. It was a Sisyphusian endeavor, especially at the end when Charlie, dressed as Day Man, ostentatiously came down from the ceiling on the big rig to propose to a clearly unimpressed Waitress. Just an amazingly appropriate season finale for what was probably their best full season to date.
1. The Waitress Is Getting Married (Season 5, Episode 5)
So, why is this my favorite episode ever? Like the other episodes on this list, it has a requisite amount of degenerate laughter and genuine heart. So much quotable material ("I'm a full-on rapist," "I'll take a milk steak, boiled over hard with your finest jelly beans, raw of course," "It makes me feel like a Cobb salad," "Cover your knees if you're gonna be walking everywhere"), so much WTF?-inducing gags like the box of hornets. The whole scene at Dee's apartment with Mac's and Charlie's moms and Artemis and Frank making out was outstanding. The end, with Charlie delivering the box of hornets to the guy who ultimately jilted his dream girl, was just the capper on what I thought was the best episode in the series.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare, The Gang Gets Held Hostage, The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell, The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention, The Gang Wrestles for the Troops
