Gun Fever Outside of Just Philadelphia

For my blog post I chose to critique an episode of the T.V. show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In their episode, "Gun Fever Too: Still Hot", the Philadelphia gang uses extreme hyperbole, mass hysteria, and irony to shed light on how ridiculous the US’s approach to gun control is. Throughout the episode, Dee and Dennis dramatically shift view points from thinking guns as a whole should be outlawed; All the way over to believing  that every single citizen in the U.S. should be packing heat. This shift is dramatized by the fact that they cannot themselves legally purchase a gun, which would assert that Gun Laws in the U.S. are strict enough, if it were not for the fact that they were both convicted felons. Moreover, even being convicted felons, they were still who on the verge of getting guns were they able to keep their emotions in check long enough to not ridicule the gun show owner. The irony behind them not being able to get a gun after they critiqued how easy it was, is in itself ironic because it insinuates that even for people as unhinged and violent as them, getting a gun in America is simply too easy.

Furthermore, the show uses the mass hysteria of the American public who believe their Second Amendment rights are about to be infringed upon to show how ridiculous gun nuts in the U.S. are. The sad thing about this is that while the show attempts to use Hyperbole to depict the public's reaction, it is more similar to the real world reaction than different. People’s rush to buy arms is completely the same as the public's recent rush to buy the bump stock which turns single shot assault rifles into burst/automatic weapons.

While this episode is hilarious and clearly is trying to make a point about weak gun laws in the U.S., as people react more and more similarly to the hyperbole of the show, the jokes becomes less funny and agenda pushing, and more of a harsh reality that U.S. citizens are struggling to deal with.