By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
There are plenty of funny shows on television right now. For my money (at least, what isn’t invested in Wolf Cola), none can compete with It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the long-running sitcom that began way back in 2005. Now, the award-winning show is about to premiere its 18th season on August 17, and fans are understandably excited. Much of that excitement disappeared, however, when the fandom took a look at the most recent advertisement for the show.
Recently, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia released a new poster to help advertise the upcoming season. The poster re-imagines the cast of the show as beer tap handles. The ad looks ugly and more than a little surreal, and it didn’t take fans long to blame the uncanny design of the advertisement on AI. Accusations that the show had embraced generative slop spread like wildfire across the internet. Eventually, the show shut down these rumors in the most direct way: by releasing a behind-the-scenes video demonstrating how the controversial poster was created by actual humans.
Bad Art On Tap
The poster for Season 18 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is meant to emphasize well-known traits of its quirky characters. For example, Dennis is the tap handle for a “golden lager” to remind us that he’s the golden god, and “Charlie’s Rat Bash Draft” reminds us of his brutal extermination exploits around the bar. Frank, meanwhile, is the handle for a “Rum Ham Sour” that reminds us of his sloshy swine invention. Conceptually, all of this is very fun and filled with winking references to past episodes. There’s just one problem: the uncanny art makes the whole thing look like AI slop.
Almost as soon as the poster dropped, fans began questioning if it was generated by AI. The very possibility disappointed countless fans because the real strength of It’s Always Sunny has always been the human creativity at the heart of the show. It’s an open secret that AI is used by lazy creators who are eager to cut corners, reducing quality in the name of saving a couple of bucks. The fandom began collectively asking the hard questions: had the best comedy on TV sold out, and was this AI slop an early warning that Season 18 would suck? Fortunately, the creators of the show put all our fears to rest by releasing a video showing how the poster was created.
Busting The AI Slop Myth
The video is fairly methodical, showing exactly how the poster was designed. Releasing that video successfully silenced persistent rumors that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia was embracing AI slop as part of its creative decisions. However, the video fails to answer another burning question: why did the artists go with an aesthetic that is so otherwise indistinguishable from generative AI? To be perfectly blunt, nobody would have made an accusation in the first place if the poster wasn’t so weirdly ugly. However, some fans have a theory that all of us fell for a stunt that would impress even Thunder Gun.
You see, one of the themes that Season 18 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will explore is “withstanding job loss at the hands of workplace automation.” We don’t know exactly how the show will explore that issue, but what better way to prepare the fandom than by making everyone worry their favorite show was now relying on AI? It’s entirely possible that all of us who fretted over the possibility of slop have been led to the same conclusion the show wants us to reach: namely, that we should hate the slop aesthetic and emphatically reject any creators who use AI as a shortcut.
If you’re wondering how the show will tackle the evils of workplace automation, you won’t have to wait very long to find out. Season 18 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia premieres on August 17 on FXX. We can look forward to 10 more episodes of delightfully deranged entertainment featuring everything from the danger of conspiracy theories to more misadventures with the McPoyles. And if we’re really lucky, maybe Dennis and Mac will find their own use for generative AI: finally creating yet another sequel to Lethal Weapon!
