Every ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Main Character’s Least-Terrible Moment

Frank Soaked His T-Shirt to Protect A 12-Year-Old Girl

If we had to pick Frank’s most noble quality, it would have to be how he definitely does not diddle kids — sometimes, he even doesn’t diddle them in a song. Like most of the “selfless” acts on this list, Frank jumping in front of the hose to protect the daughter of the owner of Paddy’s Pub’s biggest rival from exposure in “The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation” wasn’t completely altruistic, as I can’t imagine the bar would have stayed on the official pub crawl list if they found out that the Paddy’s Pub wet T-shirt contest featured contestants who could have been one of Frank Reynolds’ Little Beauties.

Dee Helped Carmen and Nick Start Their Family

First, the obligatory caveats — yes, Dee only did her surrogacy scheme to make money. And, yes, she probably lied to Carmen and Nick about her experiences with drug addiction as well as her generally checkered health history like she lied to her first marks with their impeccable pool. But, at the end of the day, Dee managed to carry a healthy baby to full term so that a transgender woman and her comfortably heterosexual partner could become parents, and that’s a more beautiful act than anything she’s done since. And, the episode “Dee Gives Birth” created the opportunity for another act of “selflessness”…

Dennis Tried to Get Dee A Better Hospital Room

In every other episode of It’s Always Sunny, Dennis treats his oft-abused sister like he wouldn’t care if she were set on fire in front of him. But, for one brief moment, the Golden God channeled his rage into abusing a woman other than Dee who, in his mind, stood between his sister and the working TV necessary to make Dee's birth plan complete. 

A runner-up for the typically predatory leader of the gang is the surprise party that he and Mac organized for Charlie in “Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats,” but I couldn’t attribute that one solely to Dennis seeing as Mac had an equal part in the planning and none of it would have happened if Frank didn’t try to trick them into throwing him a birthday party.

Mac Volunteered to Take Care of the Dumpster Baby

Now, of course, it barely took a day for Mac and Dee to slather D.B. in shoe polish to appeal to casting directors who wanted a more diverse baby, and the Child Protective Services caseworker rightfully took D.B. out of Mac’s care. And, even when he was D.B.’s adopted father, Mac didn’t do much heavy lifting in the child care department. But, for one brief moment, Mac stepped up to give a home to an unwanted child, and, without his scheme to turn D.B. into a star, that baby may not have been taken in by the professionals who actually know how to take care of parentless children. 

Charlie Saved Mac’s Life With A Homophobic Flying Kick

While there’s certainly an argument to be made that Frank initiated the life-saving with his hate speech, it was Charlie who put his own life at risk in order to save Mac from an early, Looney Tunes-esque demise in “Hero or Hate Crime?” And, of all the “altruistic” acts on this list, this one comes closer to being truly selfless than most, seeing as Charlie couldn’t have known that Mac was holding a $10,000 scratch-off lottery ticket when he launched into the flying kick that saved his sometimes-closeted friend. Ironically, this is also the only time in Mac’s life that karate actually helped him out of a jam.