The rest of the 2025 TV schedule’s comedic options can probably just pack it in already, since it’s unlikely that anything will top the raunchy and disruptive madness that is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s latest season. To that end, Season 17 is indeed already earning stellar feedback from viewers and critics, with the hilarious prank at the heart of “Frank Is in a Coma” immediately becoming an all-time classic. So it only makes sense that co-star Danny DeVito would have a prank anecdote of his own.
Only in the actor’s story, it wasn’t him (or Frank) responsible for pulling off unexpected wizardry, but rather his castmates. Rob McElhenney (who’s since changed his name to Rob Mac), Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day and Kaitlin Olson were able to pull off one of the greatest (albeit silliest) April Fool’s jokes of all time, thanks in large part to DeVito not having a clue what day it was.
Speaking with Collider, DeVito brought up the BTS Gang’s real-life gag when asked about any Always Sunny situations that skirted the line of going too far. He started his story with:
Well, there was a show that was a non-starter that they teased me with a bunch of years ago. It was April 1st. I didn't know it. I didn't know it was April 1st. I didn't know what date it was. And we were going to start an episode that day. And it was morning, and I got a script delivered to my house. The news was that we were going to swap this show, the first show that we were going to do, so I should read it right away before I came in. We were going to do a table read. So, I immediately sat down and read it.
Seems normal enough so far. New episode expectations? Check. Script delivered to house. Check. Unexpected early note about an episode getting swapped out and replaced by another? Check.
However, as the actor read through the script, he reached a narrative precipice that led to quite the run of...physical...performing, if not necessarily outright comedy. DeVito continued:
It was a good show. It was very well written. And it was It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, same kind of story, but Frank gets busted for picking up a hooker, and he's thrown in jail. It’s 30-something pages of just me being butt-fucked. So it was like, you know, I… I mean, I... Look, it was in the shower. It was a white supremacist. It was a cop. You know what I mean?
I personally think it's worth writing 30+ pages of new and unusable material specifically to hear Danny DeVito say "butt-fucked" in such a context. Oh, okay, any context.
At this point, not even Frank would have gone about his daily business without reaching out to someone, so DeVito paused his read-through to get some context, which is where it was revealed to all be a joke. As he put it:
So I got a little nervous. I called them up before I finished it. I didn't call my lawyer first. I called them up, and they were all on the other side of the phone — all of them, Kaitlin, Rob, Charlie, and Glenn — laughin' their asses off. Because the last line in it, just before I was going to get nailed by seven, eight cops with billy clubs, the guy leans down, I'm on the floor, and he leans down in my ear, and he says, ‘April Fool’s, motherfucker.’
Not one to be outdone by his TV cohorts, DeVito then shared a fun anecdote about getting them back ahead of an upfronts presentation. He talked a hotel manager into bringing four cots into a smaller room, and convincing Day, Howerton, Mac and Olson that they were all booked to be staying in the single room, with Howerton and Day's wives also having taken the trip.
Everyone's emotions started to spike, all while Danny DeVito watched gleefully from nearby, but he came out and fessed up before the others started making desperate phone calls to network bosses. Imagine being pranked so hard you had to call the president of FX for help.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's co-stars go the extra mile to make audiences laugh, with Kaitlin Olson regularly putting her body on the line for the sake of enjoyment. And it sounds like DeVito would have eventually been convinced to put Frank's butthole on the line if the story called for it. There should be a specialized Emmy Award for that level of dedication.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs Wednesday nights on FXX at 10:00 p.m. ET, with new episodes streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription.
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