Deanna DeBenedictis

COM 304-03 (2083) Mass Media And Society

The D.E.N.N.I.S. System: A Critical Analysis

December 9, 2017
 The objective of this paper is to take a closer look into the world of the television show

Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, with particular focus on the episode The D.E.N.N.I.S.

System. In terms of the SEARCH acronym (sex, environment, age, race, class, and handicap,

respectively), there is a lot that could be said about Always Sunny as a whole and the ideas and

messages frequently conveyed by the main characters; this paper, however, will take solely the

first category---sex---into account, deciphering how women are portrayed in comparison to men

in The D.E.N.N.I.S. System and what effects the episode might have on the audiences views

of women as well. These topics will be dissected in detail from a feminist standpoint. In this

instance, feminism is defined as the movement for womens equality and liberation; looking at

something from a feminist standpoint takes topics into account such as social rights, legal rights,

political and economic rights, the construction of femininity, gender identities, and gender roles

and how all of these are related to the status of women. Considering the themes of this paper, it is

important to note that the main cast of Always Sunny is made up of four men and one woman.

Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia is an outlandish and satirical sitcom that has had a huge

cult following ever since it premiered in 2005. It is currently still running and was renewed for

its thirteenth and fourteenth seasons earlier this year, which will make it the longest running live-

action sitcom in in American television history. Always Sunny airs on the FXX network owned

by parent company Fox; new episodes air on Wednesday nights at 10pm Eastern Standard Time,

however rerun marathons are frequently aired late at night. Due to its content, the show is rated

TV-MA for mature audiences only and was created by Rob McElhenney, who both serves as

executive producer and plays one of the main characters. Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day, who

also play main characters on Always Sunny, also serve as producers and writers.
 The series follows the day-to-day antics of The Gang, a group of five friends who own

a (very unsuccessful) Irish pub called Paddys in southern Philadelphia; the term friends in this

instance is used very lightly as each member of The Gang would very quickly dump any of the

others if it meant some sort of profit or personal benefit for them. In no way are the characters on

this show depicted as good people by any means as they often show qualities of egotism, self-

centeredness, spitefulness, violence, and manipulativeness and engage in unethical behaviors

such as drug use, blackmail, and kidnapping; they sometimes try to justify their actions, however

a lot of the time they inflict physical and emotional pain solely for the feeling of schadenfreude

that comes from another persons misfortune.

Dennis Reynolds, a narcissistic sociopath who regularly partakes in pursuing and using

women simply for bragging rights and may or may not also be a serial killer, co-owns Paddys

with high school friend Ronald (Mac) McDonald, who often boasts about his strength and

combat skills while avoiding confrontation and claims to be a devout Catholic while

simultaneously insinuating that he is homosexual. Although Dennis and Mac co-own the pub, it

is their other childhood friend Charlie Kelly who actually does most of the work and

maintenance that goes into keeping the pub up and running. Charlie is an illiterate substance

abuser whoalthough he has anger issues and is not the brightestis probably the most caring

and moral person in The Gang; he shares a dingy apartment and pullout couch bed with Frank

Reynolds, the legal father of Dennis and his twin sister Dee (and possibly Charlies biological

father). Frank was a very successful businessman in the past due to many illegal operations and

scams but abandoned his previous lifestyle to be more independent and free and embrace his

self-proclaimed feral nature. He also pays to keep Paddys up and running, as customers to the
establishment are very infrequent. Dee Reynolds bartends at Paddys and persists with her

dreams of becoming a comedic actress even though she has debilitating stage fright and is

constantly ridiculed and hazed by the rest of The Gang. Even though she is always the butt of

their jokes, she frequently gets involved with everyone elses antics and is a very angry and

violent person herself.

The episode of Always Sunny that I will be analyzing, The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, is the

tenth episode of the fifth season of the show. It starts out in Paddys at 1:30 PM on a Saturday

with Mac, Charlie, Dee, and Frank milling about the pub when Dennis runs in excitedly,

exclaiming that they all need to listen to a voicemail he received from a chick who is so in love

with him, its crazy. Upon playing back the voicemail to the otherscomplete with statements

such as I hope you die, you are a steaming pile of horseshit, and I never, ever want to see

you again"they are obviously perplexed as to why Dennis thinks this woman is in love with

him. Mac, though, seems to completely understand where Dennis is coming from, explaining

that theyre confused because they dont understand it yet. Dennis then claims that he has a

foolproof system for getting any chicks undying love and devotion for life, something he

refers to as The D.E.N.N.I.S. System. The opening credits then play.

When we return to the scene, Dennis has sat down his friends in the pub for a

presentation that he has prepared. He tells them that although they may not believe it, there is a

lot of meticulous planning that goes into being the playboy that he is and that it does not stem

solely from his good looks and charm. Everyone seems enthused about this lesson except for

Dee, who questions the fact that he sees himself as a playboy and is promptly told to shut up by

Mac. Dennis then begins to elaborate on The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, a six-step systematic
approach with a corresponding acronym based off of his name that is written as follows:

Demonstrate Value, Engage Physically, Nurturing Dependence, Neglect Emotionally, Inspire

Hope, and Separate Entirely. The first step to any erotic conquest, Demonstrate Value, involves

showing the woman that you are someone that she should be interested in and are worth seeking

out. In this instance, Dennis uses the example of a cute pharmacist named Caylee (the woman

who left him the hostile voicemail); he explains that he went into the pharmacy and filled out a

forged prescription of medication for his fictional grandmother who has fallen ill, thus

demonstrating his value as a loving grandson and an all-around great guy. Frank then interjects

Dennis and states that he would have gone into the pharmacy and purchased a box of magnum

condoms, thus demonstrating that he has a monster dong. Dennis tells Frank that his approach

seems a little bit too desperate, but if he were to purchase something, open his wallet, and have a

magnum condom peeking out of it, thats a different story.

He then moves on to the second step, Engage Physically. In order to complete this step,

you need to ask the woman out on a date. Dennis disclaims, however, that he usually tries to

avoid going on the actual date with the woman when he does this because he feels it is a waste

of time and money. He goes back to the Caylee example and explains that he invited her to a

great little restaurant that he claims doesnt take reservations because that makes it sound cool,

makes it sound exclusive. He then took her there on a Sunday afternoon for lunch, very aware

that it is always closed on Sundays, and feigned surprise when they arrived at the restaurant.

Working off of her disappointment, he then invited her back to his place to order a pizza and

watch movies as an alternative. She accepted the invitation, and they headed back to Denniss

apartment. Mac then explains that they have reached the part of the system where he comes into
play, and Dee is shocked (yet unsurprised) that he is involved. He explains that he was sitting on

the couch in the living room when Dennis and Dee arrived and asked to be alone. He refused to

leave, telling them that he couldnt go into his room because he had found a black widow spider

in there earlier and was afraid to reenter. Dennis fired back that they needed privacy to get to

know each other better, and then suggested to Caylee that they eat the pizza on his bed and watch

the movies in his bedroom. She complies, which of course leads to the completion of the second

step as the sexual waltz begins. Charlie then compliments Dennis, telling him that his methods

are very smooth and classy and that he is learning a lot from him in this presentation.

Dennis goes on to say that once you have sex with a woman, she will naturally start to

depend on you as this is something that all women are notorious for doing. This brings him to the

third step, Nurturing Dependence, which involves setting up situations in which the woman has

no choice but to rely on you so that she will eventually be conditioned to do so by free will and

grow to trust in you. He suggests going about this from multiple angles such as having her car

towed or slashing her tires so she depends on you for rides, or (his personal go-to) creating a

fictional neighbor character who is angry with her and threatens her over the phone. In the case

of Caylee, Dennis explains that he went to a payphone so that the call could not be traced back to

him and called Caylees phone, disguising his voice with a voice modulator and yelling, Im

watching you, you bitch. Youre gonna die tonight! This obviously sent her into distress and she

called Dennis for a shoulder to cry on. He assured her that he would take care of it, and soon the

fictional neighbor was conveniently gone, leading Caylee to believe that Dennis would go to

great lengths to protect her. Dumbfounded, Dee interrupts Denniss presentation, calling him a
complete sociopath. Totally unfazed by this comment, he orders her not to interrupt him

anymore.

Moving on, Dennis tells The Gang that if they complete all of his steps up to that point,

the woman is going to want to take the relationship to the next level. However, he insists that

doing that is the exact opposite of what they want to do and that they should pull back, bringing

into account the fourth step: Neglect Emotionally. He advises them to completely switch their

behavior around and change their attitude toward the woman entirely. In the example of Caylee,

he explains that he cancelled all of their plans, stopped answering her phone calls, and was no

longer around to cool off the angry fictional neighbor when he inevitably made a reappearance.

This will frighten the shit out of her! he says excitedly, and starts laughing maniacally at the

thought, much to the unsettlement of the others. According to Dennis, it is important to treat her

so poorly that she starts questioning her self-worth and self-esteem to pave the way for the fifth

step: Inspire Hope. This step involves making the woman think that there is hope of rekindling

what once was in the relationship.

In order to do this with Caylee, Dennis stood outside of her house under her bedroom

window and yelled up to her, explaining that he was so distant because he had been too afraid

that she would break his heart. Sounding completely genuine while lying right to her, he

proclaimed that he wasnt afraid anymore and was ready to love her, even going so far as to call

her baby. This lead to her accepting him back into her life and to the two of them having sex in

her bedroom. Apparently, this is the best bang of all because it is very emotional on the

womans end. Dennis explains that when she believes that she has broken through your tough

exterior and helped to open up a man who is afraid to love, she will become significantly better
in bed. Once this sexual encounter has happened, that brings The D.E.N.N.I.S. System to its

sixth and final step, Separate Entirely. This is when you sneak out of the womans bedroom in

the middle of the night and never speak to her again, cutting off all ties to her. Following all of

these steps, according to Dennis, is the key to winning any girls heart. The conclusion of his

presentation is met with thunderous applause and praise from Mac, Frank, and Charlie and

absolute horror from Dee. She accuses Dennis of torturing women until they hate him, and

Dennis argues that Dees statement is false, andin fact, women end up loving him more than

they ever knew was possible.

Charlie is amazed by the fact that Dennis claims to be able to get any of the women that

he uses his system on back into his life, and Dee refuses to believe that a woman would return to

him if he puts her through things like that. Dennis assures her that it is true and that he simply

chooses not to pursue the women once he is finished with them. Dee, believing Dennis to be

avoiding these women after the fact, then challenges him to try to get Caylee back. Dennis

accepts the challenge and more; he asserts that he will have her back by the end of that day. As

the rest of the episode plays out, however, this proves to be a near-impossible feat as Caylee not

only makes it known to Dennis that she has zero remaining interest in him whatsoever, but also

tells him to go to hell and calls him out for forging prescriptions and making up an ill

grandmother. Even though everything in the world is telling him that his system of winning

girls hearts is severely flawed, Dennis refuses to accept that fact and instead chooses to take his

frustrations out on everyone and everything around him for throwing a wrench into his plans and

ruining his system, (because) nobody gets it!

Images depicting the reactions of Frank, Dee, Mac, and Charlie as Dennis completes his

presentation on The D.E.N.N.I.S. System (Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, 2009).

 If you were to sit down and watch the entirety of Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, you

would be very aware that the show is no stranger to controversy; as depicted in The

D.E.N.N.I.S. System, the beliefs and values of the characters on the show are extremely skewed

and they will often go to great lengths in demonstrating these beliefs and values through their

everyday antics and conversations. Though the show has aired for twelve seasons, I chose to

focus on this specific episode from a feminist standpoint simply because it is a prime example of

the malicious nature of Denniss character and how the characters on the show view women.

Nobody in The Gang is ever represented as a decent person in any sense, but this episode in

particular highlights that fact tenfold. As a longtime fan of Always Sunny, I have always been

interested in dissecting The D.E.N.N.I.S System step by step and examining its flaws, and this

analysis will give me the opportunity to do so. Also considering the fact that the show has a

massive fan following, I am excited to discuss what sorts of effects the actions of the characters

might have on their audience.

Before diving into The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, however, I feel as though it is important to

bring Dees character into account. While Dee is and has always remained a main character on

Always Sunny for the entirety of its run, she is the only female lead on the show and is always

visibly treated horribly by the others, whether that be mental abuse such as being called an ugly,

disgusting bird or physical abuse such as literally being set on fire. In the minds of Frank,

Charlie, Mac, and Dennis, her disdain with The D.E.N.N.I.S. System in comparison to all of their

high praise indicates that since she is a woman, she is unable to grasp The D.E.N.N.I.S. System

as she has most likely fallen victim to it herself with other men. This conveys the idea that

women are nave and ignoranta message that is frequently displayed on the show, especially
throughout this episode. From a feminist standpoint, Dees concerns with the system are not in

the slightest as irrational and convoluted as the others make them seem and are, in reality, very

valid. Taking a more in-depth look into The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, many red flags should be

raised as there are a great number of unacceptable behaviors within the systems steps, all of

which seem logical (and even, at times, preferable) behaviors to four of the five main characters.

The first indicator of what ideals this episode might be portraying is Denniss initial

excitement upon receiving that hateful voicemail from Caylee. As expressed by Frank, Charlie,

and Dee, nobody in their right mind would believe the hostile things that Caylee said to Dennis

to be positivesunless, of course, they had some twisted reasoning as to why they looked at it in

that light, which Dennis (and Mac) did. The fact that Mac also seems to understand where

Dennis is coming from right from the get-go raises the question of whether or not this mindset is

something that all men have. Considering the fact that Charlie and Mac see the voicemail as

vicious, however, it can be assumed that this is not the case and that Dennis and Mac are special

exceptions. A lot more is also explained once it is revealed later in the episode that Mac plays a

role in The D.E.N.N.I.S. System and that he is already familiar with Denniss ideas. In order to

be a part of the system, Mac would have initially had to have had it explained to him by Dennis

so that he could understand it. This makes sense because Dennis and Mac are best friends, but

also means that Dennis has previously tried to convince other men that his system is effective.

All of these points indicate to the audience a couple of ideas; it is conveyed that a woman

making hateful comments towards a man means that she is interested in him, and that men tend

to share their strategies for wooing women with one another. Putting these two concepts together,

it is easy to see how misconstrued interpretations of womens intentions can quickly be spread. If
more men believe it to be true that women are in love with them when they express resentment

towards men in their actions and words, then they are more likely to treat women poorly so as to

reach this point with them, thinking that they have properly romanced her like Dennis and Mac.

Moving on to the system itself, the fact that Dennis has even created a system in the first

place and believes that there is a calculable strategy to making a woman fall in love is a gigantic

red flag because not only should a woman always fall in love of her own accord, this also

conveys the idea that all women are wired the same way and think the same and that a womans

emotions and feelings are easily manipulated. This is definitely not the case as all people (not

even just women) have different ways of thinking that could never possibly all be categorized

together. From a feminist standpoint, this is not the type of view of women that anyone should be

having in todays day and age, and there definitely should not be an existent system that

supports this view. The fact that Charlie and Mac are genuinely interested in hearing about The

D.E.N.N.I.S. System and that Charlie even expresses that he is learning a lot from it is a perfect

example of how frighteningly easily these negative ideals are spread from person to person.

The first step of The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, Demonstrate Value, is arguably the most

harmless of the six steps, yet still harmful in its own right. If you are interested in someone

romantically, it is essential that the feeling goes both ways. If it is unclear whether or not the

person who you are interested in is interested in you in return, Dennis is correct in the fact that a

move can be made so as to either make yourself known to that person or possibly pique their

interest in pursuing you. What is super incorrect about how Dennis advises to go about doing

that is basing your value off of a complete lie, as he did with Caylee when he forged

prescriptions at her pharmacy for a made-up ill grandmother (not to mention the fact that it is
very illegal to forge a prescription); no healthy relationship has a lie as its foundation, as

dishonesty in a relationship leads to feelings of distrust, future possibilities of deception, and out-

of-control spiraling of the lie, depending on how long it goes on for. Right off the bat, there are

flaws in Denniss system, whether it is visible to him or not. Once Dennis has explained this step,

the fact that Frank even chimes in with his own idea for manipulating a womans impression of

him along with the fact that Dennis then advises him how to make that manipulation even more

effective shows how truly conniving these characters are and how willing they are to participate

in these negative behaviors towards others for their own personal gain.

The second step of The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, Engage Physically, is very problematic for

many reasons. From a feminist (and human) standpoint, having sex in a relationship should be

outwardly consensual on both sides; in no way should a womanor anyone, for that matter

ever be pressured for sex or put in a situation where sex seems to be the end result no matter

what. By fulfilling the Engage Physically step, Dennis is potentially violating a womans basic

consensual rights. A red flag was raised right from the beginning when he asked Caylee on a

lunch date to a restaurant he knew full well was going to be closed at the time of their date, just

so he had the opportunity to invite her back to his apartment. Once they got to the apartment,

things got even worse as by planting Mac in the living room prior to their arrival, Dennis

immediately suggested that Caylee head to his bedroom with him, before the two were able to

get to know each other better at all. When the two of them do finally end up in Denniss bedroom

together and have sex, the question can be raised as to whether or not Caylee truly consented to

the sex at all because although Caylee did have a positive experience with Dennis (as indicated

by the fact that she remained with him afterwards), nothing was truly situational as it may have
appeared to Caylee and Dennis planned out every single happenstance beforehand. This step was

based completely off of dishonesty.

The third step of The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, Nurturing Dependence, is probably one of the

biggest offenders of the system, simply because the actions that Dennis suggests taking are so

malevolent; having ones car toward and slashing ones tires so that they have no choice but to

depend on you for rides is not only going to leave the person with a physical expense on their

hands but is also an extremely manipulative action to take. To say that pretending to be a

fictional angry neighbor who is threatening physical harm on a person is a form of mental abuse

is the understatement of the century; that is the type of thing that could be traumatizing to a

person, potentially triggering PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in the future as well as

sending that person through emotional turmoil in making them fear for their life. This is a prime

example of Denniss sociopathic nature as he almost Pavlov-esque conditioned Caylee into

trusting him while feeling no remorse for his actions throughout the entire process, so much so

that he advises others in his system to act as he did in order to succeed. The entirety of this step

also conveys the ideas that a woman should be dependent on a man and that a man should always

have the upper hand in a relationship (no matter the cost), both of which are very unhealthy ways

of thinking andfrom a feminist standpointextremely untrue as they support the gender

stereotype of the dominant, providing man with the submissive, dependent woman.

The fourth step of The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, Neglect Emotionally, is the other big

offender of the system due to the fact that Dennis advises to take all of the womans feelings

towards youeverything that you just worked up to by nurturing her dependence on youand

throwing it out the window by completely ignoring her, becoming distant, and drifting out of her
life. Considering the fact that the woman is extremely dependent on the man at this point in The

D.E.N.N.I.S. System, putting her emotions through the ringer like so (to the point of making her

question her self-worth, as Dennis states) is an extreme form of mental abuse. Going so far as to

even have the fictional angry neighbor return as Dennis did with Caylee is especially cruel, and

while Always Sunny is a satire and the odds of someone going to these lengths in real life is more

than unlikely, to think that someone out there has done something like this to someone else sends

a shiver down my spine because anyone in their right mind can see that doing something like this

is extremely wrong and harmful. This step, like the third step, strengthens the gender stereotype

of a dependent woman and continues to depict the idea that all women are easily manipulated

such as this.

The fifth and sixth steps of The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, Inspire Hope and Separate Entirely,

almost speak for themselves just from their titles. For a woman to have to go through an ordeal

such as taking the physical and mental brunt of all of these heinous and manipulative

wrongdoings and then be shown a slither of hope from someone who she loved and thought once

loved her, only to have that immediately ripped away from her again is so incomparably brutal

and sadistic that it is hard to believe that things like this happen in real life. Considering the fact

that the show is obviously fictional and that Dennis is a melodramatic caricature of these ideals,

the picture that Dennis paints throughout his entire presentation on The D.E.N.N.I.S. System and

his relationship with Caylee is extremely exaggerated. It is, however, based in some truth in

the fact that these negative views of women that he expresses are really views that a lot of men

have nowadays; these harmful ways of manipulating women and behaving towards them is often
passed off as okay, whichfrom a feminist standpointis extremely problematic and something

that we as a society should be working on to alter.

In conclusion, The D.E.N.N.I.S. System as a whole unfortunately depicts women to be

predictable, easily manipulated, and ignorant, as do many of the episodes of Its Always Sunny In

Philadelphia throughout its twelve-season run. In terms of the sex category in the SEARCH

acronym and how the audience is effected, whether or not they really take all of these ideals to

heart is debatable, as the sitcom is meant to be satirical; since Dee is continuously cynical of The

D.E.N.N.I.S. System through the entirety of the episode and Dennis does not win Caylee back in

the end, it can be conveyed to the audience that perhaps these are not ideas that they should be

imitating in their own lives. Considering the facts, however, that the majority of this episode

centers around a man who is positive that these ways of acting towards women are correct and

that there are a good number of men in the world who tend to have these views of women and

manipulate them in these ways (perhaps not so overdramatized), it can be concluded that

mainstream media such as Always Sunny does not offer any help in countering these ideals.
Works Cited

McElhenney, Rob, et al. The D.E.N.N.I.S. System. It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Fox, 19

Nov. 2009.

O'Shaughnessy, Michael, et al. Feminism. Media & Society, Oxford University Press, 2016,

pp. chapter 20-chapter 21.

Reisenwitz, Cathy. The Definition Of Feminism: What Does Feminism Mean? Sex And The

State, 2017, cathyreisenwitz.com/the-definition-of-feminism-what-does-feminism-mean/.

Wain, M.S. The Consequences Of Dishonesty. SPSP.org, Society For Personal And Social

Psychology, 26 May 2015, www.spsp.org/news-center/blog/the-consequences-of-

dishonesty.

Willis, Travis. The Golden God: A Freudian Analysis Of Dennis Reynolds. UMF English

Department, UMF English Department, 10 Mar. 2015, englishumf.wordpress.com/

2015/03/09/the-golden-god-a-freudian-analysis-of-dennis-reynolds/.