Up until last night, Danny DeVito thought that his It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star Rob Mac’s new name was a typo, and that whoever was in charge of the credit roll was just the real-life inspiration behind Charlie Kelly.
Last week, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fandom erupted into outrage after learning that the series star and creator who once went by Robert McElhenney III had filed legal paperwork to have his name shortened to “Rob Mac,” a moniker that would be easier for Latin American fans to say and spell after he and Ryan Reynolds finally buy a second soccer team in Mexico. Despite both his fans and his family being against the change, McElhenny defended his decision in a recently released address to the public wherein he pointed out that McElhenney is, itself, a revision of his family’s original title.
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Then, last night, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast held a panel at the television convention PaleyFest in Los Angeles where Mac fielded a question about the controversial rebrand, prompting a flabbergasted DeVito to interrupt the Q&A with his own incredulous question as he asked his cast mate, “Is this true?!?!”
Although the Rob Mac rebrand has been easy to criticize as a fan with no personal connection to the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and creator, I have to hand it to Charlie Day — the fact that, after nearly 20 years of working together, DeVito didn’t know how to spell “McElhenney” probably means that Mexican soccer fans were going to struggle even worse. For that reason, Mac may be right about the new name being a savvy business move.
At the same time, Day’s hilarious mentioning of Mac’s first attempt at a rebrand back in high school simultaneously makes the “Rob Mac” move even more embarrassing, although the hordes of Always Sunny fans on Twitter and Reddit who hate the change with a passion should thank whatever wrathful, bloody God they worship that we’ll never be forced to refer to the series creator as “Blaze.”
