Anthony's Post

In the opening season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Charlie tells Dennis that he has cancer because he likes a girl, and Charlie knows that Dennis will do everything he can to set Charlie up with this girl if he thinks that Charlie’s time is limited. That is exactly what happened. This scene can clearly be seen as offensive to everyone that watches, but especially towards those with cancer and cancer survivors. Cancer is no joke, and has taken the lives on many people. It seems as though the writers looked for the worst thing they could’ve said, and just put it into an episode. With that said though, many people fail to see the reaction that Dennis has when he finds out that Charlie did indeed fake having cancer. Dennis is furious with Charlie, and begins yelling at him for how immature and ignorant it was for him to do so.

Once again, in season 8, episode 6, Charlie tells his mom to fake having cancer so that they can get people to feel bad for her and donate her money when she asks. Charlie gets his mother to put on a bald cap, and she begins delivering a speech to those present that she is going to die soon and that they should give her money. In the middle of giving this speech, she stops and is visibly disgusted with herself, and admits that she does not have cancer to the crowd.

The crowd is shocked, because it is unbelievable that someone would go to such lengths for money. What she did was an inexcusable and disgusting act, and is offensive to so many people. So many cancer patients have to go through chemotherapy and end up shaving their head since their hair begins falling out, so it is terrible that she even put the bald cap on in the first place. No cancer patient wants to be bald. Anybody watching this could easily be offended by this. Many people fail to realize that the writers may be using the reactions from others as a way to show how terrible faking cancer is. Dennis’ reaction may be used to show people that cancer is not something to joke about. By the end of the episode, the viewer understands that what Charlie did was incredibly offensive, and in no situation, would it be okay to fake having cancer. In the episode with Charlie’s mom, the crowd that she is delivering the speech to is shocked and disgusted by what she has done, and that shows the viewer that the writer might be trying to display the message that faking cancer is one of the worst things that you could possibly do. Just by watching the episodes, one might not think about it that way, but if you analyze it deeper, it is possible to see it either way.