‘Sunny’ 6.04 Recap: Jib Jab About Mac’s Big Break

In ‘Mac’s Big Break,’ the fourth episode of the new season of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,’ Mac wins a radio station call-in trivia contest that he determines could be a “life changing opportunity.” The others are dubious. This gives Mac the opportunity to shoot a goal at a Flyers game and, if successful, win a weekend at a beach house with legends of Philadelphia sports. Meanwhile, in the other plotline, Frank records Dee and Dennis because he likes their “jib jab,” so they decide to make a podcast. Dee and Dennis envision discussions of various political hot topics while Frank has other plans.

For the first podcast, Dennis and Dee start off talking about technology. Dee has no opinion to offer, and they go silent. Fortunately, using rotisserie chicken as a lure, Frank brings in a special guest: Cricket. They set off to discuss the problems of the homeless. Cricket’s voice is bad due to an infected wound on his neck caused by Frank hitting him with a trash can in an earlier episode. Cricket tells a vivid story of waking up on the street with an aroused dog licking his neck. We also find out that Cricket is over his infatuation with Dee because he found out she was a whore. Awesome jib jab all around.

Mac and Charlie now take on their contest challenge. The problem is, Mac doesn’t know how to ice skate, much less shoot a puck, and he doesn’t want to look like a jabroni. Charlie has some peewee experience, so sets upon the task of teaching Mac with phrases like, “Loosen up and haunch.” They spend some time at free skate and get kicked out for an errant slap shot. They go back later for another go at it, and a hilarious montage ensues complete with bad eighties rock, split screen, and drinking a glass full of raw eggs. There’s also a bad mullet wig involved, you know, like Andre Agassi’s.

Let’s pause now for a brief commercial interruption. Or seven, where we bombard you with promos for ‘The League.’ Either FX is having problems selling air time, or it’s completely desperate for people to watch its other shows. Or both. This has got to stop. There was also an odd commercial for cougarlife.com, a dating site for finding hot older women. I’m still not sure if that was for real or not, but I’m not going to the web site to find out.

In the second attempt at a podcast, Dennis and Dee start off with stem cell research and sound effects. Then Frank brings in Ben the Soldier, former flame of Dee. Dennis has a great moment where he asks a number of questions like, “Is a war happening right now?” and, “Two? Now tell me, are these wars on American soil?” Frank rescues the situation by asking Ben and Dee to talk about how they used to bang. This bit is really great, not just because of the jib jab, but mainly because the actor who plays Ben looks a whole lot like Cary Elwes, and that’s a good thing.

For the next podcast, Frank brings in the Waitress. Conversation quickly turns to convincing her to drink soup from her shoe with her shirt off for $500. Somehow this ends with Cricket dumping mop water over her head. Again, brilliant jib jab.

The finale of the show brings us to the Flyers game. Dee and Dennis show up with hopes of shopping their podcast tape to the radio station. Mac, complete with his duster, makes a brilliant, epic display on the ice, and slams the puck through the cardboard goalie. Unfortunately for Mac, this turned out to be a dream. He’d fallen immediately upon hitting the ice, and Charlie took the shot and missed. The upside of this is that Mac’s fall will be shown repeatedly on ESPN.

They really nailed this episode. The podcasts bring out one of the best elements of this show, which is the jib jab. When the gang gets going and they ramp up to a swell of ridiculousness, it is a thing to behold. The episode also gives us some of the old familiar characters, and brings some new elements with the montage and the dream sequence. I think the series really hit its stride, and I’m looking forward to this week’s new episode, ‘Mac and Charlie: White Trash.’

3 comments

  1. Patrick A Crone

    I’ve tried and tried to like this show. My friends all stand by it as the #1 comedy on television. But everytime I sit through an episode I get the feeling I get when someone tells a story that you had to be there to find funny. I guess it’s just not my cup of tea

    • Junie Ray

      True, this type of humor is not for everyone. I’m not sure if I would go so far as to call it the #1 comedy on tv, but for some reason I do get a kick out of its absurdity.

  2. it’s odd and kinda mean, but i like the show, but i really, REALLY hate that an SD show upconvert is getting blu-ray releases from FOX, while they stop putting out other shows (BURN FUCKING NOTICE!) on BD.

    hope my season 5 review doesn’t disappoint the fans.

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