The cast of the FX series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia doesn’t just keep the jokes going on screen. Some of the best moments happened off the set for the actors. In fact, in the early years of the series, DeVito played the perfect cruel prank on his co-stars that still has them in stitches.
On The Always Sunny Podcast, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney relive some of the best moments from the show. In a recent episode, the three shared that one of the most memorable moments happened off-set between them and DeVito.
Day explained that they were staying at a hotel in Washington D.C. before a screening of the show. “I think FX pays for the flight and the hotel. And we get to the hotel and they say, ‘Oh, we’re so sorry.’” Apparently, the staff said only one room had been booked for them.
Sadly, the stars quickly believed that FX had only paid for a single room for all of them. “It didn’t surprise us,” Day recounted. “It was so early in the show, and we were such a low budget thing. We were like, ‘Oh man. They’re sticking us all in one room together?’”
The hotel staff even took it a step further and apologetically told the cast that every other room was booked; they were going to have to sleep in the only room available. Looking at McElhenney, Day remarked, “I remember you were very unhappy.” McElhenney concurred and said, “I do not handle those situations well.”
Not only had they all just gotten off a long flight, McElhenney also felt disrespected. Still, the three actors gave in to the hotel staff’s request to at least take a look at the room. Once they entered the room, things got real when the hotel staff explained, “We have a cot set up in the corner.” To their horror, there actually was a cot waiting for one of them!
“It was a level of disrespect we had become accustomed to,” Howerton acknowledged. Finally, just before the exhausted actors barged out of the room, DeVito popped out of the closet. The three actors realized they had been pranked by the best.
The thing is, the prank never could have happened without the great acting by the hotel staff. Plus, even though they were four seasons into the series by this time, McElhenney recalled, “Everywhere we went, nobody knew the show … The suggestion that all four of us would stay in the same room was not that crazy.”
Even so, getting pranked by DeVito is worth it!