Characters / It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Dennis Reynolds

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Main Character Index
The Gang (Dennis Reynolds, Dee Reynolds, Charlie Kelly, Mac, Frank Reynolds) | The Gang's Families | Recurring Characters | Other Characters

Dennis Reynolds

"I am the Golden God of this place!"

Played By: Glenn Howerton, Charlie Carter (young, "A Very Sunny Christmas"), Seth Lee (young, "Pop-Pop: The Final Solution"), Jamal Mixon (dream, "The Gang Turns Black")

Debut: "The Gang Gets Racist"

"I hate listening to people's dreams. It's like flipping through a stack of photographs. If I'm not in any of them and no one's having sex, then I don't care."

One of the co-owners of Paddy's Pub and Dee's twin brother. The most sociopathic of the characters, Dennis is abrasive, narcissistic, self-absorbed, manipulative and callous.

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A-F

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: O.O.C. Is Serious Business in “The Gang Broke Dee '', as he has a Heel Realization that he can’t deal with his sister leaving, and begs that he’s sorry and he loves her. It’s probably the only real (non-Dee-depression) moment in the episode, as the others are faking support.
• Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality: Dennis is Camp Straight, and consistently shown mostly attracted to women... except for the pilot when Mac gets him blackout drunk and he apparently has a threesome with two other men.
• Alliterative Name: Uses the pseudonym "Hugh Honey" in "The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis".
• Alpha Bastard: Dennis is often the leader of The Gang and tends to be condescending and manipulative in order to make the others feel weak and inferior enough to follow him. He's also very dramatic, narcissistic, histrionic, and tends to act hostile and bratty when things don't go his way.
• Always Identical Twins: An aversion. He and Dee are fraternal twins (with Dee being the elder of the two), yet they look nothing alike beyond both of them having blue eyes.
• Ambiguous Criminal History: Downplayed, as he's unambiguously a criminal like the rest of the Gang, but the show occasionally drops hints to suggest that he may be even worse than he lets on and is actually a serial killer and/or rapist (at the very least he certainly seems to want to be the latter). He makes numerous creepy remarks (like wanting to pressure women into having sex with him using "the implication" that something might go wrong if they don’t), has a hidden compartment in his car filled with ropes and chloroform for binding, and flies into psychopathic rages at any provocation.
• Ambiguously Bi: Although Dennis is a serial womanizer, he also delves pretty heavily into this area as well:
  • In "Frank's Back In Business", he's willing to have sex with the Asian boy he mistakes for a prostitute (albeit more because he was trying to see how far he could go using another person's identity). Turns out the boy's a caddy, and Dennis backtracks.
  • He thinks he knows absolutely everything there is to know about gay sex, as seen in "The Gang Sells Out," and considers himself to be a power-bottom. What really helps reinforce this trope is that he's actually quite accurate about the gay slang he brings up.
  • In "The Gang Reignites the Rivalry", he tells Frank that back in college, he would stick the tip of his penis in his frat brothers' mouths and stick bananas up their asses. He also puts his balls in Mac's mouth in "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters."
  • He's just as excited as Dee is to see the dong shot in "Thundergun Express".
  • In "Frank Vs. Russia" Dennis reveals that he has a system for seducing men and refuses to tell his friends why he has it. He's also been sexting Mac in this episode using anal beads, albeit under a fake persona named Johnny, which he claims was to get Mac out of the apartment when he was being annoying.
  • He always wanted to be a male model, and whenever this ambition of his resurfaces, campiness ensues.
• Ambiguous Situation: Did he murder Maureen? The rest of the Gang think so, and it's very strongly implied that he did, but it's never been conclusively answered.
• AM/FM Characterization: He's fond of 80s rock ballads, music that came out during his Glory Days that also reflects his showmanship.
• Antagonistic Offspring: To his (adoptive) father, Frank; they often fight for control of the Gang and over each other. In "Frank vs. Russia" this comes to a head when Dennis unconsensually puts vibrating anal beads up Frank's ass and gleefully violates him
• Anti-Climax: After a dozen seasons of Dennis salivating over the idea of mortally harming another person, he finally manages to do so in "The Gang Carries A Corpse" when he pours scalding hot oil on Dee's Irish love interest Dr. O'Shaunessy with it being ambiguous if he survived it. It's Played for Laughs though as it happens offscreen, and Dennis is still feeling too lousy from his recent battle with COVID-19 and too tired from the titular act of helping drag the titular corpse of Shelley Kelly to actually enjoy his attempted manslaughter.
• Attention Whore: He's very vain, and only feels validated when he's the center of everybody's attention.
  Dee: You don't care about the money, you just like the attention.
• Ax-Crazy: In "The Gang's Still in Ireland", he comes after Dee with an axe while suffering a COVID-induced state of paranoia. Or so he believes. The start of the following episode reveals it was a hallucination and Dennis could barely lift the axe due to sickness, though he did want to attack Dee.
• Badass Boast: Dennis is incredibly skilled at giving these, and seems to take pride in his ability to belt them out off the top of his head. It's often deconstructed in that people tend to respond to them less with intimidation and more with baffled confusion, as you generally would when someone starts screaming about being a golden god.
  Dennis: [after Dee accuses him of having "peaked" in high school] Peaked? Peaked, Dee? Let me tell you something: I haven't even begun to peak. And when I do peak, you'll know. Because I'm gonna peak so hard that everybody in Philadelphia's gonna feel it.
  Dennis: [after a nurse tells him she can't change what hospital room Dee is in] If you do not get my sister her stories, and a new room, as soon as possible, then I WILL COME DOWN ON THIS HOSPITAL LIKE THE HAMMER OF THOR! THE THUNDER OF MY VENGEANCE WILL ECHO THROUGH THESE CORRIDORS LIKE THE GUST OF A THOUSAND WINDS!
  Dennis: [after a man calls his Range Rover a starter car] I have contained my rage for as long as possible, but I shall unleash my fury upon you LIKE THE CRASHING OF A THOUSAND WAVES! BEGONE, VILE MAN! BEGONE FROM ME! 'A STARTER CAR', THIS CAR IS A FINISHER CAR! A TRANSPORTER OF GODS! THE GOLDEN GOD! I AM UNTETHERED AND MY RAGE KNOWS NO BOUNDS!
• Bad People Abuse Animals: He's noted that he thinks people should be able to eat dogs, and he once snapped the necks of multiple crows as a kid.
• Bastard Bastard: The illegitimate son of Bruce Mathis, and as the rest of this page shows, quite the bastard.
• Beauty Is Bad: In-Universe, he's thought to be the most attractive member of the Gang. He's also the cruelest, and uses his good looks to prey on women.
• Been There, Shaped History: He and Mac caused some of the voting count delays in the 2020 Election by trying to advertise a fictional debate between themselves about whether Rocky Balboa or Donovan McNabb is a better athlete.
• Berserk Button: Claiming that he peaked in high school, questioning his success with women, or suggesting that he isn't the social god he believes himself to be is not a good idea. He'll also lose it if you diss his Range Rover.
• Berserker Tears: He has a tendency towards crying and shouting when undergoing a Villainous Breakdown (see "High School Reunion" for a particularly vivid example).
• Big Man on Campus: He believes himself to have been this in both high school and college, referring to his college self as "a goddamn legend." It's outright stated that he was never one of the popular kids in high school, and the evidence leans against his college days as well (considering he was utterly shocked to find I CHUG DICK graffitied on his picture there).
• Black Comedy Rape: All of the suggestions that he's a Serial Rapist are played for very dark laughs like everything else in the show.
• Blatant Lies: While on a date with a younger girl, Dennis (by this point in his mid-forties) claims that he's actually 26.
• Break the Haughty: Dennis holds his looks, his intellect, and his skills as a ladies' man in high regard. Whenever any of these qualities gets called into question, the results tend to be spectacular.
• Broken Ace: Granted, he could only ever be considered an Ace compared to the rest of the Gang but he still qualifies. He's arguably the smartest and most capable of them but also the most unstable and with some serious mental health issues.
• Butt-Monkey: More so as the series progresses. By Season 10, Dennis's mental health has deteriorated to the point where he has lost his position as the de facto leader of the Gang, repeatedly strikes out in social situations, suffers from severe anxiety and sensory overload, and is overall a pathetic mess.
• Camp Straight: Dennis is obsessed with his own body and wears make-up.
  Charlie: Are you wearing makeup?
  Dennis: I'm always wearing a little bit of foundation, but that's not the point.
• Can't Take Criticism: To the point the buzzer in "The Gang Goes on Family Fight" gave him an absolute breakdown.
• Casanova Wannabe: Downplayed. Dennis does well with women, but he isn't the magnetic charmer that he considers himself to be. Later seasons reveal him to be an emotionally manipulative serial rapist targeting women too dim, vulnerable, trusting, or young to know better. When his seduction techniques do fail, he is quickly reduced to pathetic desperation or disturbing rage. He considers these women to have been wrapped around his finger, when the reality is that they usually figure out he's a bastard whenever they aren't in the moment.
• Character Catch Phrase:
  • "I don't give a shit", said whenever the Gang reels him in yet another Zany Scheme.
  • When he is mad, he is prone to calling himself "the Golden God", and threatening to unleash his fury "LIKE THE X OF A THOUSAND Y!"
• Character Development:
  • Subtly undergoes this across Season 12, where he is repeatedly shown to have growing frustrations with how detached from reality the Gang has become, to the point of spending an entire episode actually trying to just spend a day bar-tending without coming up with any kind of wacky scheme. It reaches a head in the season finale, where he decides to leave Philadelphia to help raise his bastard son. However, Status Quo Is God still applies here, and come Season 13 he seems to have gotten all of this self-awareness out of his system, as he returns to Philly to resume getting into hi-jinks with the rest of the Gang as usual.
  • Season 16 is pretty significant for him because he doesn't flirt with any women at all. Even in "Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day," which takes place almost entirely in his imagination, he doesn't even think about hitting on the girls he meets. Time will tell if this will stick, but considering how hypersexual he's been throughout the series, it's pretty notable.
    • Alongside this development, this season is also the first time he openly admits to attracting and seducing men, even having a fully developed variation of the D.E.N.N.I.S. system for it. While he refuses to go into why exactly he's seducing men, it's still significant, especially considering how adamantly he's insisted that he was straight in previous seasons.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Largely as a result of his Flanderization. In the early seasons, Dennis was a vain, albeit relatively stable, Jerkass Casanova who has a desire to be a veterinarian, and even has a Pet the Dog episode with a cat. Later seasons really ramp up the Sanity Slippage and BPD, with intense sex issues coming out in being a Serial Rapist who actively enjoys doing it, and has snapped multiple head of crows.
  • An early episode characterizes Dennis as a former Big Man on Campus who peaked early. Later episodes reveal he was just as much of a loser as Mac or Charlie and was simply deluding himself into believing he was cool.
  • The first season specifically he seemed to be slightly more of the moral center of the guys, with "Underage Drinking: A National Concern" being mostly about Mac and Charlie trying to get around his hangups on allowing high schoolers in the bar. He was also a lot more sedate and apathetic about the various schemes. Later seasons he is the one with a Complexity Addiction and is the one describing the most sociopathic behaviors with a blank face.
• The Charmer: Considers himself to be this and, to his credit, is generally pretty good at making a good first impression on people.
• The Comically Serious: Of everyone in the main cast, Dennis tends to be the only one to generally take situations very seriously. Sometimes a bit too seriously, like when the Gang goes on Family Fight and Dennis tries to keep things sane and professional, only to go from giving weird answers to simple questions to having a full-on mental breakdown when he's unable to answer any of them in the final lightning round.
• Commuting on a Bus: In Season 13. Dennis returns at the end of the first episode following months of speculation about Glenn Howerton's continued role in the show, but his appearances throughout the rest of the season are fairly sporadic, with him being entirely absent from four of the ten episodes.
• Control Freak: Dennis could be the poster boy for control freaks. So much so that he orders dishes for the other members of the Gang at restaurants. A therapist becomes rather interested when he reveals that he's been keeping psychological dossiers of the Gang, having started Dee's 'file' when they were children. If he does not have anyone to order around, he begins to shout at anyone nearby.
• Cosmetic Horror: His vanity pushes him to disturbing extremes in pursuit of what he considers physical perfection — it's all but stated he has an eating disorder, and his bloodwork results in "Frank's Pretty Woman" reveal he has malnourishment-induced anemia. His ghoulish appearance in "Dee Day" after he takes off his makeup, falsies, and other cosmetic appliances is in part a reflection of that obsessive beauty regimen: damaged skin, a gaunt and hollow face, and stringy, thinning hair are caused by years of wearing heavy makeup and starving yourself.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: While it's mostly in the form of sexual conquest rather than any legitimate romantic interest, he has exhibited shades of this when he's competing with someone else over a girl's attention, especially when he's on the losing end. This is most notable in "The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation," when he and Charlie are competing over Sun-Li, the Korean girl who works at Paddy's rival restaurant. When she chooses and gets engaged to Charlie, Dennis starts plotting to sabotage their relationship, and it eventually becomes evident just how bitter he actually is about the situation.
  Dennis: I was thinking we could talk Charlie into having [Sun-Li] enter the wet T-shirt contest.
  Mac: We'll just tell him it's all part of Dee's talent show.
  Dennis: Right. When she jumps up on the stage, we'll blast her with the water, the crowd will go crazy. The other girls are gonna want to join in, and we will save the bar. And then she'll break up with Charlie, ruining any hopes of happiness that that son of a bitch ever had!
  Mac: I agree with the first part, but the second part seems incredibly harsh.
  Dennis: That's the best goddamn part!
• Creepy Child: According to Dee, he used to snap the necks of crows as a kid.
• Creepy Souvenir: He keeps an urn of his ex-wife Maureen's ashes under the bar. Dennis claims it's because she wanted to be buried in a pet cemetery, and refusing to do so is his way of spiting her.
• Crocodile Tears: It's revealed that he carries a piece of onion in his pocket to cry should the rest of the Gang ever expect him to appear sympathetic. When Mac learns that Dennis has been keeping him from reading the letters his dad sent him from prison, Dennis seemingly has a breakdown over the guilt he feels from hurting his "brother"... only for Charlie to spot the onion he has hidden in the palm of his hand and call him out.
• The Dandy: A compulsive primper obsessed with his body and physical appearance.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tends to snark on the others' idiocy with callous indifference.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Of the Only Sane Man. While smarter and more socially adept than his companions, he's nothing more than a callous, self-absorbed, sociopath who only associates with the Gang because their insanity makes him look better in comparison.
  • Of Casanova characters like Barney Stinson, whose elaborate schemes to get women into bed are usually Played for Laughs and enabled by their friends. Sunny explores what such a character might be like in real life, namely how such predatory behavior would not be treated like a wacky scheme but rather a series of dark and thoroughly despicable acts that even morally reprehensible characters like the rest of the Gang would be put off by it.
• Depraved Bisexual: While his sexuality is ambiguous in-universe, Dennis has committed non-consensual sexual acts against both men and women and is easily the cruelest member of the Gang.
• Dirty Coward: When getting mugged, he, like most of the Gang, ran away and pushed Dee closer to the mugger.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Dennis firmly believes that women can't rape men because A Man Is Always Eager. He was raped at fourteen by the school librarian, though he refuses to call it rape because he "wanted it".
• Dying Declaration of Love: While it's ambiguous how much he really means it, he does tell Dee that he loves her when he thinks they are about to drown in "The Gang Goes to Hell, Part 2". Dee, who's suffered abuse at his hands for her whole life (and by proxy, through their bitch of a mother favouring Dennis much more than her), just mutters a dismissive, "Ugh, whatever," and goes under the water.
• Ephebophile: He has an obsession with younger women: e.g. he only dated freshmen in high school, and in his mid-thirties still likes to go for 18-year-olds. While he has been shown to be disgusted and disturbed after learning that a woman he was seducing was underage, "Hero or Hate Crime?" reveals that he keeps track of the birthdays of the younger women he targets to ensure that he is able to have sex with them immediately after they turn 18, showing that, while he's willing to obey laws concerning age of consent, he really pushes them as much as he possibly can.
• Epic Fail: Some of his attempts to seduce women end up going horribly, hilariously wrong. For example, in "Charlie and Dee Find Love", he tries to make a move on Charlie's new girlfriend by claiming to be good at tennis, and then removing his shirt in front of her to show off his body. Not only is he an embarrassingly bad tennis player who gets winded immediately, but the only thing Ruby has to say about his bare upper body is that he's very pale and in need of sunscreen.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: As much of a selfish and unfeeling sociopath Dennis is, he did love his mother to the point that he broke down in tears when he sees his mother's corpse.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • For all his horrible treatment of Dee, he appears to hold some amount of genuine brotherly affection for her that only comes up in the worst of times. In "The Gang Broke Dee", he is the only member of the Gang who seems legitimately worried about Dee's now suicidal depression and, in his own twisted way, attempts to cheer her up. His fantasy in "The Gang Saves The Day" is also notably the only one besides Dee's herself that doesn't have her abruptly dying at the beginning of it. In "The Gang Goes to Hell: Part 2', right as he thinks they're all about to die, he turns to Dee and says, "Sis? I love you."
  • "Dennis' Double Life" ends with him deciding to go to North Dakota and raise his son, though he returns by the end of the next season premiere, while implying he hasn't completely burned his bridges.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He refuses to sleep with underage girls and is horrified when he finds out that one of his would-be conquests is actually sixteen... even though that's the age of consent in Pennsylvania.
  • Even he seems to think staging a dead baby funeral is going too far (despite coming up with the idea), calling it the "darkest thing we've ever done".
  • He's outraged at Frank's story about throwing a balloon full of champagne at a bum.
  • He’s visibly appalled at the reveal of Dee’s trickery in "PTSDee" and calls it her "rock bottom".
  • He's horrified when Frank admits that he was in business with Jeffrey Epstein.
  • While his desire to have women in a situation, such as on a boat in the ocean, where they won't say no to sex with him out of fear or "the implication" as he calls it is certainly unsettling, he claims he would respect if they did say no and would never outright force anything or assault them.
  • He is just as appalled as Dee when he finds out that his mom had been lying to them and Frank about Bruce Mathis being their biological father. He's also in disbelief that his mom would be shallow enough to only marry Frank for money and treat the whole thing as trivial.
• Even the Guys Want Him: When Paddy's briefly became a gay bar. Mac also has feelings for him, which Dennis adamantly does not reciprocate in Season 13; by Season 16, however, this has become a little more ambiguous.
• Evil Is Hammy: The most evil member of the Gang just so happens to be one of its hammiest, rivaled only by, ironically, Charlie.
• Evil Mentor: To "Abby" in "The Gang Goes to a Water Park," teaching her how to hone her affinity for conning and manipulating people.
• The Face: He's the only member of the group who can function in certain social situations.
• Fake Danger Gambit: Dennis created a whole system called the "D.E.N.N.I.S. System" which he uses as a way to sleep with women and then emotionally manipulate them. First he Demonstrates value so he can Engage them physically (hit on her then have sex), then he Nurtures dependence by doing this, which for his example, he prank calls his date pretending to be a creepy stalker so she goes to Dennis for emotional support. Then he proceeds to Neglect her emotionally by continuing to make prank calls but not answer her back, then Inspire hope by coming back to her at her lowest point so they can have Sex for Solace. After that, he Separates entirely and never speaks to the girl again, before starting again with a different girl.
• Fan Disservice: Occurs In-Universe in the episode "Dee Day," when Dee makes him remove his makeup and other cosmetics, which in turn reveals his true, hideous, goblin-like appearance.
  Charlie: That's what his soul looks like.
• Faux Affably Evil: Dennis is quite capable of appearing charming and even likable, but there's a definite sense of cruelty to his actions and an ever-present sense of just how borderline sociopathic he really is.
• Feigning Healthiness: While Dennis's malignant narcissism makes him deeply delusional most of the time, it reaches dangerous new heights in his trip to Ireland, where he contracts COVID-19 (likely from his repeated exposure to Frank, who's an unvaccinated carrier). Because an illness would mean he was vulnerable or imperfect in some way, he refuses to admit his symptoms until the disease gives him a 105-degree fever, producing vivid hallucinations that he needs to chop Dee's head off with an axe. His chasing her around the castle was also a hallucination; as to be expected, he was so sickly and out-of-breath that he couldn't even lift the axe, and only collapsed and shit himself.
  Dennis: [Weakly] Y'know, Dee, uh... I'm startin' to think I might've had COVID.
  Dee: [Furious] Oh, yeah?
  Dennis: Yeah...
  Dee: Ya THINK?!
• Fetish:
  • Filming people (including himself).
  • Anonymous sex, particularly glory holes. This is a major plot point in "Mac & Charlie Die Part 2," though it doesn't go well.
  • Controlling someone else's life. Before it he was just creepily controlling over minor things like meal decisions, but Season 8's "Frank's Back in Business" confirms that it's a sexual thing when Dennis attempts to "get off" by impersonating a dead businessman.
  • In the Season 7 finale he claims he has a thing for bondage, which ties in with the control-freak tendencies mentioned above (though it's also implied that he was making it up on the spot, and that the real reason he uses duct-tape and rope is that he's dealing with women who are... less than eager).
  • By Season 13, it's revealed that he transformed his bedroom into a sex dungeon, and Dee outright says he gets off at the idea that his victims have no escape.
• Flanderization:
  • Like the rest of the Gang, Dennis' character traits become more exaggerated as the series progresses. Over time his interests in women have taken a dark turn into sexual predator territory, his behavioral patterns have become increasingly erratic and unstable, and his already massive ego has been inflated to A God Am I proportions.
    Dee: I can't get a read on him these days. He's just always cranky and irritated.
    Frank: Rage-filled. Rapey.
    Dee: It's like as the years go by, he just gets more and more irrational.
  • The latest seasons actually make a conscious effort to reverse some of Dennis' Flanderization, at least in the context of his sociopathy. He is explicitly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder rather than sociopathy in "Psycho Pete Returns" (although that doesn't rule it out), and "The Gang Tends Bar" has him outright state that he finds it incredibly hurtful and frustrating when his friends openly treat him as though he is devoid of any emotion. "Dennis Takes A Mental Health Day" has him construct an elaborate fantasy to control his rage rather than spewing it out and hurting someone.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • His amoral father Frank relentlessly emotionally abused him. On the other side, his mother heavily favored him over Dee, constantly feeding his ego to the point that by high school he referred to himself as a "golden god." "Frank Vs Russia", where he details that getting any man to love you and think you're hot is to act like his mom, expands on that further, as what she did (isolating him, making him feel powerful and powerless, getting him to depend on her and crave her attention) sounds like grooming.
  • It is revealed that he lost his virginity to his high school librarian (basically, he was a victim of statutory rape, but convinced himself that he wanted it anyway), which certainly explains a lot about his misogyny and unhealthy sexual behavior. The original script for "PTSDee" - where he tells Charlie "it's better if you just do what they say" - implies heavily he's learned "the implication" from somewhere.
  • Having to watch Frank bang a hooker, and Frank’s Never My Fault assumption that Dennis was just whining about something he wanted to see, is portrayed as the final nail in the coffin of him ever trying to be even slightly decent and going back to his creepy predatory ways.
• Freudian Excuse Denial: Even though it’s clearly warped him horribly, Dennis firmly (if very unconvincingly) denies that Ms. Klinsky had any sort of effect on him, and if it did he’s over it. He does acknowledge that Frank’s awful parenting has made him full of rage, but that’s in the context of thanking the guy, and nonchalantly projects that his mom was the very start of his sex issues like it happens to every man.
• Freudian Slip:
  • In "The Gang Gets Cursed", he accidentally lets slip that he was "murdered" to Maureen, only to quickly amend this to "married" when Dee picks up on it.
  • In "The Gang Gets New Wheels", he describes himself as being "one part of a twin", showing he doesn’t see himself or Dee as two full whole people, just making a set.
  • Made to feel powerless by older women who aggressively want to see his dick, he calls young girls "age appropriate" for him, not like "those perverted librarians... cougars."
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The Season 13 premiere has everyone agree that he is a "bastard-man," but they are so codependent on him that they welcome him back with open arms the minute he returns.
• Future Loser: Frequently states that he was the Big Man on Campus while in high school (Dee spitefully notes that this was also the time when he peaked). The Season 7 finale reveals that this was all a lie; Dennis was no more popular than Mac and Charlie. He was just deluded.

G-N

• Gaslighting: "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" has him outline in detail his methods of getting a woman to sleep with him, systematically destroy her sanity, make her break up with him, convince her she is being stalked and then get back with him because he had successfully convinced her she was in danger from someone else.
• Gibberish of Love: Dennis is usually smooth and elegant in his attempts to attract women, but in the episode "The Storm of the Century", Jackie Denardo's buxom figure turns him into a stammering creep when he tries to hit on her.
• A God Am I: For some reason, realizing that he controls his own life in "Charlie Rules the World" leads to this mindset. Later episodes show that he's believed himself to be a "Golden God" since at least high school and will take any excuse he can get to confirm it.
• Going Cold Turkey: Dennis and Dee get addicted to crack in a Season 2 episode, and then go cold turkey to get back to normal. Seasons later Dennis still occasionally gets the urge to smoke crack (which he suppresses).
  Mac: What do you want more than anything else in the entire world?
  Dennis: Crack.
  Mac: Oh. I thought you were going to say pizza.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: While he starts the series as a fairly cool-headed person, in later seasons even the slightest provocation sets him off. He himself lampshades this in "The Gang Misses the Boat". See Sanity Slippage, below.
  Dennis: I fly off the handle every five seconds now!
• Handsome Lech: Although Dennis isn't nearly as much of a Casanova as he thinks, he is still a serial womanizer. And he gets plenty of women and gay men interested in him. Just not as much as he thinks. In fact, many women are turned off his behavior, either thinking he's a Jerkass or Camp Gay.
• Has a Type: Seems to have a particular affinity towards blondes with comically oversized breasts. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he usually seeks out younger, petite girls, though it's often not clear if he finds them attractive for their bodies or because they're often more trusting and easier to manipulate.
• Heel Realization: Mixed with a Jerkass Realization at the end of "Dennis' Double Life", where after holding his son for the first time, Dennis realizes what an asshole he's been and how he's wasted his life in the process, and leaves to make sure his son never grows up like him. At least until "The Gang Makes Paddy's Pub Great Again", where he returns to the pub to go back to his old ways.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Mac. The two live together, work together, spend all their free time together, and check in with each other several times a day to make sure the other is okay. The commentary for "Mac and Dennis Break Up" has the staff (possibly jokingly) talk about the fact that Mac and Dennis are possibly gay and in a pre-sexual romantic relationship that neither is completely conscious of.
  • Deconstructed in "Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs." The two buy a suburban home, with Dennis commuting to work and Mac being the "house-husband." As the weeks go by, the two take on all the qualities of a married couple—and this drives them both completely insane. Mac is so frustrated by his lack of attention that he kills the dog Dennis bought to keep him company and feeds it to Dennis in his macaroni and cheese, while Dennis is sucked dry of his already-limited emotions thanks to the stress of commuting (plus not being able to participate in Frank and Charlie's schemes) and becomes an unfeeling, unblinking wreck ready to murder people at a moment's notice.
• Hidden Depths: The later seasons make him out to be the member of the Gang most consciously aware and concerned with how disconnected the group has become from reality, and he finally admits - after years of bragging that he's emotionless and Surrounded by Idiots - that of course he has feelings, big feelings, and he's in pain from them.
• High-School Sweethearts: In "Mac Fights Gay Marriage", he gets married to his high school girlfriend, Maureen Ponderosa. In a not-so-surprising turn of events, he quickly grows tired of her and they end up getting divorced a few weeks later, though with Dennis now having to pay her alimony.
• Hollywood Atheist: As a foil to Mac, he is (or claims to be) governed by logic and science, though he proves himself to lack an actual understanding of things like evolution outside of "there are papers by scientists saying so". He also considers converting to a belief in God when Country Mac makes religion sound appealing.
• Hot-Blooded: Dennis can get very... intense when it comes to his ego being bruised or his authority being questioned. A standout example is when he ends up screaming about the thunder of his vengeance echoing "like the gust of a thousand winds" when a hospital receptionist fails to meet his list of demands.
• Ignored Epiphany: While approximately the most awful member of the Gang, he is roughly the most high-functioning and briefly has moments of insight as to how badly he and his friends have decayed both morally and mentally over the years such as in "The Gang Misses the Boat" and "The Gang Gets Trapped". Inevitably, he manages to shake off these realizations by the time the episode in question ends.
• I'll Kill You!: When he finds out it was Mac, and not Tim Murphy, who slept with his high school prom date.
• Incest Subtext:
  • He has a weird habit of calling his sister "baby", "babe" and "babygirl". They also slow-dance in "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off". While he's very loud about Dee's (perceived) physical flaws, even Frank points out that he's protesting too much, and he's initially grossed out about being the father of her baby but by the time she's in labour he's excited about "we're having a baby". In "The Gang Broke Dee", he gives her a long speech about how he's the perfect guy for her, and while there's a need to still be in control, the fact that he tells her again he loves her when thinking they're going to die in "The Gang Goes to Hell", and gives up on trying to keep his head above water when he thinks she's rejecting him, heavily implies it was the only real thing in the episode. The promos for Season 9 lean into the subtext as well. "CharDee MacDennis" shows that the team photo he owns is an edited cover of a romance novel with his and Dee's faces taped on, making Dee fondle Dennis' abs in the image.
  • In "Frank vs. Russia", he and the Gang roofie Frank and put vibrating anal beads up his ass against his will. While Charlie's reasons were strictly nonsexual (to signal him moves to win a chess match), Dennis obviously takes pleasure in violating his adoptive father.
  • The way he describes/projects his relationship with Barbara can look an awful lot like grooming, as she inflated his ego and made him feel powerful, treating him far nicer than Dee or even Frank, but she also made sure he was dependent on her, actually powerless and got him desperate for her approval, leading to intense misogyny, a mommy kink but also terror of older women, and spreading the misery by raping girls as soon as they hit legal.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Dennis' extreme vanity and over-inflated sense of self-importance are shown to be a front for intense insecurity, self-consciousness and self-loathing, and the smallest critiques tend to disproportionately distress him (e.g. Dee saying he has a "fat face" leads to Dennis not eating for three days). This is further illustrated in "The Gang Goes on Family Fight", where he is rendered near catatonic whenever he hears the wrong answer buzzer. Glenn Howerton has said that Dennis is actually the most fragile and insecure member of the Gang. He claims Dennis isn't a sociopath, but has strong emotions he can't handle and can only express it by getting angry. By this logic, his desire for control and manipulation of others is his way of assuring himself he'll always have their love and devotion (or at least their company).
• Insufferable Imbecile: Dennis presents himself as the voice of reason in the group. While it's true that he is more socially adept than the others, and somewhat more sensible, he is a vain, lustful, manipulative creep who displays almost sociopathic levels of Lack of Empathy, severe emotional instability, and is heavily implied to be a Serial Rapist who is clearly only better by comparison (it's implied he hangs out with the others mostly to make himself look better and because he enjoys manipulating them). He's admitted to not understanding basic economics, misunderstands the basic point of psychology (seeing its only purpose is to torture and control people), and believes any signed agreement (even non-officiated, made under duress or flat out illegal) is legally binding and can't be broken.
• Instant Expert: Thinks of himself as a cultured and multi-talented renaissance man who can pick up nearly all things with ease, but the reality is otherwise.
• Intentional Heartbreaker: Has an entire system to do this to women, the D.E.N.N.I.S. system: Demonstrate value, Engage physically, Nurture dependence, Neglect emotionally, Inspire hope, Separate entirely.
• It's All About Me: He couldn't care less about his friends most of the time.
• Ivy League for Everyone: He went to University of Pennsylvania and, unlike his sister, he graduated. Naturally, this fed into his ego and makes him think he can talk down to his therapist.
• Jail Bait Wait: Keeps track of the birthdays of under-aged girls so that he can have sex with them as soon as they turn 18.
• Karma Houdini: The most likely member of the Gang to occasionally escape punishment.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Acts like he knows better than the rest of the Gang at almost all times, when in reality he is, at best, only marginally smarter than the rest of them and just as ignorant.
• Lack of Empathy: He seems perfectly okay with horrible things happening to regular people. See The Sociopath entry for more details.
• Large Ham: Dennis is by far the most theatrical member of the Gang. The long-winded rants that he gives whenever he feels wronged make up a sizable chunk of the show's most often quoted dialogue.
• The Leader: While the Gang constantly attempt to wrestle power from each other, Dennis, due to his comparative intelligence and status as a Manipulative Bastard Control Freak, tends to assume the position of leader most frequently. His power over the others is usually circumstantial at best, however, and he can just as often come across as more of a Leader Wannabe.
• Like Father, Like Son: "The Gang Dines Out" and "The Gang Escapes" both show he and Frank (not his biological father, but the man who raised him) expressing the same twisted ideas of how to be "dominant". He and Frank are also both sex addicts who hook up with multiple women, and they're the two members of the Gang most likely to be a semi-competent leader.
• Locked Out of the Loop: In "The Gang Broke Dee", he's the only member of the group besides Dee herself not to be in on the plan to trick Dee into thinking she's become a successful comedian. Dennis does not take it well and has a major breakdown when he finds out. Mac happily shrugs it off by saying they may have broken Dennis, too.
• Logical Weakness: Given his extreme vanity, obsession with his appearance, incredibly fragile ego, and constant need for attention, any attack on his self-esteem is almost inevitably guaranteed to shatter him completely. It's best seen in "Dee Day" when one of Dee's challenges to Dennis is making him take off all of the cosmetics he uses to appear youthful (including concealer, hair dye, pectoral padding and tape to keep his face looking taut). When he does and shows his true haggard appearance, he's reduced to a babbling creep who can barely talk to women, let alone flirt with them.
• Manipulative Bastard: The D.E.N.N.I.S. system is a masterclass in heartlessly manipulating a woman into having sex with you, stringing her along in a semi-relationship and then dumping her for the thrill of having her fall in love with you. (The acronym stands for Demonstrate value, Engage physically, Nurture dependence, Neglect emotionally, Inspire hope, Separate entirely).
• A Man Is Always Eager: He seems almost completely dominated by the whims of his dick, using his seduction system on every attractive woman he comes into contact with whether he consciously knows it or not.
  • In "Wedding Massacre" , he spends the whole episode trying to get his ex-wife Maureen (who was just getting married) to sign a contract to free him of alimony. By the end of the episode, he sabotages his own plan by having sex with her solely because she had a boob job. He then proceeds to cry out for help post-coitus when this causes Maureen to want to get back together with him.
  • In "Charlie and Dee Find Love", Dennis takes off his shirt and asks Ruby what she thinks of him. Frank then questions why he did this (since they are trying to encourage her relationship with Charlie) only for Dennis to point out that he must have done it unconsciously.
  • In a slightly darker and more serious case of this trope, it's later revealed that Dennis was a victim of statutory rape as a teenager when he was taken advantage of by an adult in high school. When Dee tries to point this out to him he insists that it couldn't be rape due to this trope, despite how flimsy it sounds.
  • In another dark version, his last step of his SINNED System (how to attract men, which is basically just how to attract Dennis) is a long and thinly veiled projection of his childhood dynamic with Barbara, whose isolating, boosting his ego but also making him feel powerless ends up in Dennis chasing that high and validation for the rest of his life.
  • Subverted in “The Gang Gets Whacked”, as old women are already his Trauma Button and Frank is in control as well as taking all the money that Dennis earns, so he feels really dirty having sex he doesn’t even want.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: With his sister Dee. Dennis is a Non-Action Guy, the more polite and cultured of the two (as far as someone like him could be), and Camp Straight. Also, unlike his more overtly aggressive sister, he normally demonstrates cruelty through snide put-downs and manipulation.
• Mask of Sanity: He's usually able to pass as the most rational, sane and normal member of the Gang, and can interact with normal society relatively well. However, it doesn't take much inconvenience or disrespect for the mask to drop and reveal the delusional egomaniac undernearth.
• Mistaken for Gay: His Ambiguously Bi, Camp Straight tendencies make him a frequent recipient of this attitude:
  • In "The Gang Gets Racist", Terrell, Dee's friend from acting class, is quite interested in Dennis. When they turn the pub into a gay bar, the vain and greedy Dennis is perfectly comfortable with letting all the guys flirt with him as long as he's making cash and feeling good about himself.
    Dee: You're not gay, you're just really vain.
  • In "Charlie Wants an Abortion", a woman at the free clinic assumes Dennis is gay and waiting for his HIV results.
  • In "The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell", his 1776 counterpart gets called a "sodomite".
  • In "High School Reunion", a married woman who he's hitting on is confused when he says that he wants to show her what a boring piece of shit her husband is by doing sexual things to her: she thought he was gay because he gossiped about her husband and wore makeup and a girdle.
• Mistaken for Murderer:
  • In "Mac is a Serial Killer", Dee and Dennis pretend to be serial killers and stalk The Waitress. They get really into it, especially him.
  • He's also a person of interest in the "accidental" death of his ex-wife, Maureen Ponderosa. In this case, however, it's strongly implied Dennis actually did have a hand in sending her on her way; in "Paddy's Has a Jumper" he gets defensive claiming it was never proven that Maureen was murdered, and smirks when he claims that her hypothetical killer certainly made it "look [like an accident]". At the very least, the rest of the Gang believe Dennis killed her, with Dee and Frank assuming the urn he keeps of Maureen's ashes is a Creepy Souvenir to remind him of her murder.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: In "Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender", Dennis tries making neighborhood relations to distinguish himself from Wendell Albright, a sexual predator who moved in nearby (and happens to look exactly like a fatter version of Dennis). Dee suggests he take off his shirt and wear a fake mustache to avoid looking like Wendell. Then she tells him to show that he cares about the kids at a playground by showing them fitness exercises. Dennis is convinced to do just that, and while he does so, Dee goes directly to the fathers to point out the half-naked sex offender hanging around their children.
• Momma's Boy: Compared to Dee, Dennis had a loving relationship with his mother and he even breaks into tears when he sees her decomposed corpse that Frank tricks the twins into digging up.In a flashback, Frank complains that Dennis will go crying to his mother like normal, and “Frank vs Russia” implies they were maybe too close, with the… implication being that a lot of his horrific ideas about sex came from craving her approval.
• Mr. Fanservice: Certainly considers himself to be this, and while Glenn Howerton is quite attractive Dennis' efforts to be a Walking Shirtless Scene usually come up short because he's trim but not excessively muscular. His obsession with remaining slim to the point of anorexia is frequently played for Fan Disservice.
• My God, What Have I Done?: “Dennis Takes A Mental Health Day” heavily implies he realises his systems are a result of his abusive childhood, and he in turn has carried on that victimising to everyone else.
• Narcissist: For the ultimate example, in "Charlie Rules The World" he blows himself in a state of realization that he is God of his own universe. An example that is surprisingly true to the myth from which the term "narcissist" is derived is from "The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty Magoo," when he considers himself the only model beautiful enough to show off his dress designs to Ingrid.
• Neat Freak: Keeps everything he owns in pristine condition, and freaks out when this gets threatened. He and fellow Neat Freak Mac do, however, manage to trash Dee's apartment and the suburban home they buy to escape it.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Extremely dark example. He had a non-consensual Teacher/Student Romance at 14, plus made to feel dependent on his mom (while she inflated his ego at the same time), and refuses to admit any trauma or victimhood over either even though both have obviously warped him. His ideas of love and sex are always someone in control and the other person in pain, he wants there to be a war on women so he can “take back the power”, he assumes that if he doesn’t dominate someone first then they’ll dominate him, and even Charlie points out All There in the Script he’s doing to girls what Ms. Klinsky did to him.
  Dennis: Living in the city has forced me to develop these sharp edges. For protection, you know?
• Nightmare Fetishist: In "The Gang Texts", he gets an erection at the idea of watching a lion maul a goat to death, and is disappointed when he doesn't get to witness it in person.
• Non-Action Guy: While none of the Gang are particularly good fighters, Dennis is not only shown to be useless in a fight but in terrible shape, to the point of getting winded after playing a few seconds of tennis.
• Noodle Incident: It isn't entirely clear what brought him back to Philadelphia after making a big deal out of wanting to leave the city to raise his son at the end of Season 12.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Dennis is only really socially adept in comparison to the other members of the Gang. When speaking to ordinary people, his Hair-Trigger Temper and fragile ego cause him to Freak Out constantly, making his instability obvious.
• Not Good with Rejection: Dennis gets rejected hard, to his face, when he tries to woo Mac and Charlie's respective mothers, and starts to break down emotionally because of it.
• Not So Above It All: Dennis, apparently the most normal of the Gang, is steadily revealed to be the most sociopathic of them all over time.

O-Z

• Oblivious to Love: Dee really does love and care about him, and tends to show it by staying by his side more often than not, but Dennis just assumes that if he doesn’t torture or manipulate her into staying, she’d automatically leave him.
• Obsessed with Food: It’s very clear to everyone that Dennis has an eating disorder, and he’ll go on about carbs at any given point. Dee has got calling him fat as a manipulation tactic down to an art form.
• Obviously Not Fine: Maintains that he’s the Only Sane Man in a group full of crazies and keeps a list of their weaknesses so he knows where to push, but he refuses to admit any sort of feeling or trauma until it comes out in a fireball of rage.
• Of Corsets Funny: Dennis is so obsessed with primping that he wears a girdle when he wants to look his best.
• The Oldest Profession: Frank forces him to become a prostitute and service old women in “The Gang Gets Whacked”. He’s got some repressed trauma over it, with the stripper music becoming his rape dungeon music in Season 13 ^note according to the podcast it was an intentional Call-Back, and casually thanking Frank for the abuse and neglect that made him so horrific.
• Only Sane by Comparison: Tends to play the Only Sane Man more frequently than the rest of the Gang, being generally the most rational and intelligent one among them at any given time. However, this is horribly subverted just as frequently, as Dennis' Not So Above It All moments almost always verge into The Sociopath territory. Later seasons also consistently portray Dennis as the member of the Gang most conscious of and concerned with just how heavily the group has undergone Flanderization.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In “The Gang Gets Whacked”, he pretty much gives up and stops fighting when Frank smacks him around in order to keep him as a whore. It takes Mac to snap him out of it, Dee and Charlie are uneasy with him just doing what Frank says with no fight, and the podcast mentioned it was essentially accelerated grooming, Frank getting Dennis to completely bend to his will.
  • In “The Gang Broke Dee”, he begs Dee to take him with her, because he’s sorry he’s hurt her so much, he’s in love with her, and he knows she can actually succeed. You can count the number of times Dennis has actually either said he’s sorry or he loves someone on one hand.
  • When it comes to older women in sexual situations, Dennis is always more shut down and compliant. He doesn’t even want to have sex with Mrs Mac or Bonnie, but he’s still miserable and crying when they reject him instead of his usual rage.
  • Twofer in “The Gang Tends Bar”, as the Gang are lost when he starts being obsessive about actually doing his job, assuming it’s some kind of manipulation scheme like normal, but then are stunned when he admits he hates Valentine’s Day because everyone just assumes he doesn’t want anything. Instead of Berserker Tears, he’s Trying Not to Cry.
  Dennis: And I have feelings! Of course I have feelings! I have big feelings, okay? A-and it hurts.
  • When Dee forces him to remove his make-up, the fake pecs and hair product, the Golden God is reduced to a meek Shrinking Violet who flinches if he’s touched. This is, of course, all part of Dee's plan, wanting to see him flirt with all his confidence destroyed.
  • While Sanity Slippage and Dennis are good friends, and as much as he threatens her, Dee is never really scared of him beyond thinking he’s creepy sometimes (mostly because she can easily take him in a fight or calm him down). Even when she’s disturbed by the rape dungeon she fully goes into Hypocritical Heartwarming when the other woman calls it out. When they’re in the castle and he’s talking to it about beheadings, she is openly freaked out and wants to take him to the hospital.
• Operation: Jealousy: While he seemingly has no actual interest in Mac beyond control, power and not wanting to get left, he’s not above baiting him with Wounded Gazelle Warcry kindness to Charlie or Dee and ignoring Mac.
• Pet the Dog:
  • His friendship with Jack Bauer the cat. Also with Charlie, who he treats with slightly more patience than he does the rest of the Gang. He also has shown that, very deep down, he does love Dee, such as when he immediately gets fiercely protective of her at the hospital when her water breaks.
  • When he meets a little girl at a water park with similar conning abilities to his, he grows genuinely impressed with her. In their final interaction she describes him as 'the only adult who's ever given a shit about me', and he's disappointed in the implication that her mother is holding her back from her true potential. Granted, it's not clear how much of what she told him was a lie, but his respect for her was genuine.
• Pluralses: In the episode "Flowers for Charlie", The Gang (minus Charlie and Frank) is trying to catch a mouse in the bar. Eventually they get sidetracked, sniff some gasoline to get high, and watch cat-vs-mouse cartoons. Dennis comments that, based on watching the show, "There's no winning with mices."
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from his sexism, several episodes imply he has some serious racist tendencies. He does have enough awareness to keep his racism "presentable", though. And due to his privileged upbringing, he has some classist views, seeing himself and Dee as more cultured than Mac and Charlie as a result.
• The Pornomancer: Although Dennis doesn't necessarily live up to his ego, a lot of people have shown attraction to him. He has drawers full of sex tapes he's made of him and his partners.
• Present Absence: Despite him being absent throughout it, "Make Paddy's Great Again" revolves entirely around showcasing the stranglehold Dennis has over the rest of the Gang, to the point where they allow a sex doll in his likeness to completely dominate their lives. His grand return in the final few minutes quickly undoes any lingering changes to the status quo his absence had caused.
• Pretty Boy: Deconstructed. Regularly called pretty, he is still deeply unhealthy with an obvious eating disorder, thinks he only really has any worth if people find him attractive, and when Dee forces him to go without make-up, all the confidence disappears and he'd rather fade into the background.
• Promiscuity After Rape: His hypersexuality and disturbing notions about consent and women in general are implied to have come about as a result of him subconsciously attempting to cope with having been raped by a librarian when he was 14.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While Mac and Charlie are more openly immature and childish, and Dee is more impulsive, aggressive, and drama-hungry, Dennis' immaturity takes form in the spiteful way he reacts when not given his way, his lack of responsibility and self-awareness and his inability to see the considerable psychological damage he inflicts on everyone around him as anything more than a game.
• Put on a Bus: Subverted. He leaves Philadelphia in the Season 12 finale and moves to North Dakota in order to be a father to his infant son. He returns in the following season's premiere, though not without making a point of saying that he's only back "for now".
• Questionable Consent: While he claims he would never force a woman into sex or commit assault, he's really into the idea of women feeling obligated to sleep with him out of fear, or "the implication" as he puts it when describing his plan to use a boat to seduce women to Mac.
• Rape as Backstory:
  • Season 11 reveals that he was the victim of statutory rape at the age of 14 by a librarian 40 years older than him.
  • He also gets raped in the pilot when Mac/Dee get him hurt-himself-drunk and two guys have sex with him, his mom was… weird with him, he feels violated again when the “cougars” (and a main one who looks so much like Barbara) want their stripper to show them his dick, and when he gets pimped out in “The Gang Gets Whacked”, he gets pegged by old women who don’t care that he’s not enjoying it.
• Really Gets Around: As the Gang's resident Handsome Lech, he has quite a long list of conquests over the course of the series, though it's been all but outright stated that at least a handful of these encounters were less than willing.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Blue Oni to Mac's Red, though it's played with a bit. Dennis is generally more controlled and calculating than Mac is, but is also extremely prone to having full on screaming mental breakdowns whenever things don't go his way.
  • He's also the Blue to Dee's more reckless and impulsive Red Oni.
• Renaissance Man: Dennis readily describes himself as such. He really, really isn't.
  Dennis: I'm kind of a jack of all trades, if you will. So really, the question isn't what do I do, it's what don't I do.
• Sadist: At the very least implied. In Season 14, Dennis half-way admits at one point that seeing other people cry makes him aroused.
• Sanity Slippage: While Dennis starts out as the Only Sane Man of the group, he is slowly revealed to hide anxiety, feelings of emptiness, anger issues, disordered eating, and mood swings beneath his Mask of Sanity. As he grows older, he finds it harder and harder to keep these issues under wraps, and he is eventually diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and prescribed medication.
• Security Cling: Has a tendency to cling to Dee when he's particularly distressed or scared, such as when they dig up their dead mother.
• Self-Serving Memory: Numerous times, most notably how he truly believes he was a "Golden God" in high school when in truth, everyone just thought he was a loser and rarely gave him any thought at all.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Played with in his dynamic with Mac. Despite being a waifish metrosexual, Dennis is clearly the more dominant, coldhearted and controlling half of the pair.
• Serial Rapist: Frequently Played for Laughs, but the most notable example is probably his horrifying explanation of "the implication".
• Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Wrath and Vanity.
  • Lust: Dennis is canonically a sex addict and would-be pickup artist and is heavily implied to be a rapist as well. He has an environmental activist chained to a tree while he bangs his girlfriend just because he was rude to him earlier in "The Gang Finds A Dumpster Baby", sabotages his own plan to get out of paying alimony to his ex-wife in "Wedding Massacre" by seducing and having sex with her when he sees that she had a boob-job, and he gets himself throw into the brig when he stalks and comes on to a random cruise-goer in "The Gang Goes to Hell Part 1", making it seem like he was going to rape her. It is especially telling when he himself lampshaded that he has a problem with his lust earlier in the episode and vowed to not give in.
  • Wrath. Despite seeing himself as the most level-headed of the Gang, he is the most likely to snap into a rage before everyone else for even the smallest of things, a problem that has escalated as the series progresses.
  • Vanity: He is shown to be very vain, using questionable methods to maintain or enhance his appearance, like trying to use a chemical bath to improve his skin like in "How Mac Got Fat" or starve himself to the point of becoming a heath-risk in "Frank's Pretty Woman". He was even deluded into having a God complex, thinking that he was a popular powerhouse in High School when really he was anything but.
• Shirtless Scene: From time to time, Dennis has been known to "pop [his] shirt off".
• Show Some Leg: Much like his sister, Dennis often volunteers to seduce (or is tasked with seducing) somebody in order to further the Gang's plans.
• Significant Anagram: As he points out in "Frank Versus Russia", his name is "Sinned" backwards.
• Sissy Villain: He's a Camp Straight Villain Protagonist.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: While he's not a nice person to start with, over the seasons Dennis slowly becomes more unhinged and sociopathic. (See Sanity Slippage, above).
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • So much that this trope could accurately be renamed The Dennis. He has amounted to absolutely nothing in his life beyond having rich parents, yet has been referring to himself as a "Golden God" since high school!
  • He also has a high opinion of his body, comparing himself to the Vitruvian Man in the Season 15 finale. In the same episode, he describes his back as pure muscle but only proves to be the weakest member of the Gang as his assistance only makes it harder for the Gang to carry a dead body up a hill.
• Smug Snake: Nowhere near as smart or charming as he clearly thinks he is.
• The Sociopath: Frequently implied throughout the first nine seasons (as evidenced by the examples below) but possibly subverted in "Psycho Pete Returns" when he's officially diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, not sociopathy/antisocial personality disorder - but this was based on a single therapy session, so not only are other comorbid psychological issues, including sociopathy, not ruled out, but it'd be damn near impossible to accurately diagnose all of his issues in such a short amount of time.
  Dennis: I am having - this is crazy - but I'm having feelings again, like some kind of 14 year-old kid or something. I mean, you remember feelings, right?
  Mac: Yeah. I have feelings every single day of my life.
  Dennis: Do you?
  Mac: Are you saying you don't have feelings?
  • It gets really creepy in "The Gang Buys a Boat", where Dennis tells Mac the reason they bought the boat would be so he could bring women on it and have guaranteed sex with them. By his logic, a woman would never say no to sex on a boat because of "the implication."
  • His session in "The Gang Gets Analyzed" has him reveal to the therapist that he keeps "psychological dossiers" of the Gang (he started Dee's in second grade), and proceeds to make a speech about how controlling people is like "standing next to the executioner's switch and knowing that at any time you could pull it".
  • His whole subplot in "Charlie's Mom has Cancer" revolves around how he's stopped feeling emotions; lack of emotion is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) signs of a sociopath.
  • When he reveals that he has an entire system for emotionally manipulating and abusing women, Dee straight up calls him one, with good reason. Other gags in various episodes imply he's perfectly comfortable with outright raping women, to the point of having a special hidden compartment in his car for duct tape and ropes.
  • In "Psycho Pete Returns", Dee tries to con a psychiatrist into giving them a drug prescription (which they would then give to Psycho Pete) by pretending she's schizophrenic. Dennis, fed up with her bad acting, says the following with what appears to be complete sincerity, and everyone in the room is understandably horrified:
    Dennis: Dee... I swear you would be of more use to me if I skinned you and turned your skin into a lampshade... or fashioned you into a piece of high-end luggage. I can even add you to my collection!
    Dee: ... are you saying that you have a collection of skin luggage?
    Dennis: Of course I'm not, Dee. Don't be ridiculous. Think of the smell. You haven't thought of the smell, you bitch! Now, you say another word and I swear to God I will dice you into a million little pieces... and put those pieces in a box. A glass box... that I will display on my mantel.
    Dee: [gasps in horror]
  • "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer" reveals that he ripped off the heads of an entire murder of crows as a child for fun, as well as the fact that he is capable of sitting in total silence for several hours without fidgeting even slightly. While he's revealed not to have been responsible for the death that the episode focuses on, even more evidence is provided to suggest that he has killed a person in the past, or is at least fully capable of doing so. Then "Paddy's Has a Jumper" all but confirms he did kill the subject of the documentary too (his ex-wife).
  • "Charlie Catches a Leprechaun" sees him inadvertently kidnap two young women who protest that they don't want to be on his "weird" website. He responds that the women will end up on the weird one and not the one he's actually filming them for if they don't cooperate, implying that he keeps a darker website that showcases something.
  • In "The Gang Goes to Ireland" he casually mentions he has experience covering up blunt force trauma.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: During his creepiest moments, Dennis speaks in an eerily calm and quiet voice.
• Spoiled Brat: Probably the worst possible example of what can happen to one. Not only is he incredibly vain and incapable of doing anything for himself, but he also has an enormous god complex, is totally amoral, and is heavily implied to be a serial rapist with sociopathic tendencies.
• Stepford Smiler: His affable, attractive exterior masks mental illness and feelings of emptiness.
  Dennis: I need something. I mean, I got this, uh, this giant, gaping hole inside me. And I'm... I'm always trying to fill it with something. I like to call it my, uh... my "God Hole". And I think a lot of people in this world, they fill it with religion. But I don't believe in God.
• Straw Misogynist: Considers Susan B. Anthony an example of a "bad woman."
• Suddenly Shouting: Dennis is the master of the trope; whenever he becomes "untethered", he starts out somewhat soft-spoken but the anger is still noticeable before instantly exploding into a screaming rant.
• Teacher/Student Romance: He had sex with his high school librarian when he was only fourteen. Dee, Charlie and Mac all try to get it through to him that he was actually taken advantage of, but he won’t hear it.
• Tenor Boy: Plays one of these during the production of "The Nightman Cometh" and in general isn't afraid of showing off his incredible falsetto.
• Terrible Artist: His "sketches" of women amount to little more than stick figures with comically oversized and simplistic-looking breasts.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: A darkly comedic example. Dennis appears to be the most well-adjusted, competent, and personable member of the Gang at first glance. Under the surface he's a ruthless sociopath whose favorite activities include manipulating women into sex and exercising total control over his friends' lives.
• Tin Man: Dennis considers himself to be "the only rational and emotionless" person among his friends and claims he's incapable of feeling anything (see The Sociopath, above), but he's actually the member of the Gang most governed by emotions (albeit negative ones) and the one most likely to break into tears, rage or manic laughter at the slightest provocation. His rant in "The Gang Tends Bar" amounts to "no shit I have feelings", and he tells Mac he's been shoving them down since he was fourteen.
• Token Evil Teammate: While the whole group is made up of horrible people, Dennis is regularly proven to be the most despicable of them all.
• Toxic Friend Influence: While technically each member of the Gang is guilty of this to some extent, Dennis deserves special mention. He is constantly being a domineering, condescending and manipulative bully who emotionally abuses his friends to a point where they are essentially barred from growing as individuals. More often than not, the rest of the Gang tends to be much more enthusiastic and supportive of one another whenever Dennis isn't around to crush their self-esteem.
• Tranquil Fury: Usually, when Dennis gets angry, he's a Large Ham who screams abruptly. In "The Storm of the Century", however, he gets upset when he hits on two girls who are then revealed to have boyfriends:
  Blonde girl: Sounds like fun. Can our boyfriends come too?
  Dennis: [after his smile immediately turns into a scowl] ... you two have boyfriends? [in a low, calm voice] How did you not know... that the reason I invited you back to my bar... was to bang you?
• Trauma Button:
  • The buzzer that goes off when someone gets an answer wrong in Family Fight. Hearing it over and over caused him to have a nervous breakdown during the "Fast Money" round.
  • He Freudian Slips in "PTSDee" that old women remind him of the librarian so that's why he obsesses over women who are barely legal.
  • Despite being a Depraved Bisexual rapist himself, he (and Charlie) ultimately can’t go through with a False Rape Accusation on the guy who shushed them. Not a case of Even Evil Has Standards, because the backtracking is not really about decency and more even fake admitting getting hurt is too much.
• Troubled Abuser: A Serial Rapist who loves enforcing consent without actually getting it and possible Serial Killer who treats his friends and sister like slaves. He's also deeply fragile and insecure, assumes he’s only worth his looks and sexual prowess, is a Control Freak because he’s scared he’ll get abandoned by his friends, and much of his warped view on sex comes from being raped at 14 and some kind of grooming from his mom where he felt like he wasn’t allowed to say no.
  Howerton: What he’s doing is awful. Awful. Okay? But it has to feel like it’s coming from a place of deep insecurity, deep sadness, and sort of a desperate need for control. If you’re gonna create a monster like Dennis, you better be damn sure and make it clear that that guy is real fucking sad on the inside.
• Ugly All Along: In "Dee Day," Dee forces him to remove all of his makeup (plus a hairpiece and his prosthetic pecs), revealing that he basically looks like a living corpse.
• The Unfettered: There isn't a character in the series who comes close to fitting this trope as well as Dennis does; "the ends justify the means" could be his motto. As long as the result is one that he desires, he will do whatever it takes to get there, including (but not limited to) deliberately hurting other people so he can swoop in and be their savior. He's made girlfriends think someone is stalking them so Dennis can "save them" from said imaginary stalker, and he coerced Charlie into getting The Waitress stabbed (going as far as to specifically state that it's better if a major artery is hit) so Charlie could save her. In "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down", Frank, under Dennis' advisement, gets Dee to drink so much cough syrup that she sleepwalks and falls down a flight of stairs, all so he could look like a good father by nursing her back to health.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If "The Gang Buys a Roller Rink" is to be believed. Once, Dennis was fairly nice, if not snobbish, and was actually disturbed by Frank's immorality. Of course, the "heart of gold" part faded away to almost nothing.
• Villainous Breakdown: And each one is more glorious than the last.
  • "I REIGN SUPREME OVER EVERYONE IN THIS SCHOOL! I AM THE GOLDEN GOD OF THIS PLACE! I REIGN SUPREME! I! I!"
  • When he's rejected by the wife of the man who had sex with his prom date at his high school reunion, he rushes out to his car and fetches items including ropes and duct tape. When questioned, he begins screaming that he needs his "tools" and that he needs to "bind and be bound."
  • When he's rejected by his old fraternity, he becomes increasingly unhinged, screaming in harsh falsetto that they're all "idiots!" and he's "a goddamn legend!"
  • In "The Gang Group Dates", he drives himself crazy over a dating app's rating system.
  • Don't call his Range Rover (Eddie Bauer edition) a "starter car."
  "I have contained my rage for as long as possible, but I shall unleash my fury upon YOU...LIKE THE CRASHING OF A THOUSAND WAVES! BE GONE, VILE MAN, BE GONE FROM ME! A STARTER CAR?! THIS CAR IS A FINISHER CAR. A TRANSPORTER OF GODS. THE GOLDEN GOD! I AM UNTETHERED AND MY RAGE KNOWS NO BOUNDS!"
  • In "Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs," the combination of his daily commute, not being able to scam people, and Mac's obsession with attention drive him so far over the edge that he's ready to murder people with a fireplace poker.
• Weight Woe: He has a very unhealthy relationship with food and with his body image, and on occasion starves himself to boost his attractiveness.
  Dennis: I am going to be 20 forever, Mac, because the older I become, the more vigilant I am. I don't eat lunch anymore, for instance. And on odd days, I don't eat breakfast.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Happens in the pilot when he wakes up the morning after getting blackout drunk, and finds himself naked in bed with someone who turns out to be a man. Becomes less ambiguous what happened when a second man emerges from the other room, slaps Dennis' rear, and asks him, "How's that ass feeling?"
• What If the Baby Is Like Me: His concern about his son having as bad of a childhood as he did is what motivates him to leave Philly to help raise it.
• Wicked Pretentious: Dennis is a narcissistic creep who often sees himself as a cultured intellectual who's above everyone else, but he's pretty much a pathetic and immature delinquent who's not as cool and intelligent as he believes himself to be.
• Will Not Be a Victim: Dark version. Dennis will never admit (unless it's a fantasy) he’s been a victim of anyone — not his friends, not his family, not the librarian who raped him — and victimises so many people because of a desperate need to take control back, or the certainty they’ll hurt him first.
• Will They or Won't They?:
  • Has plenty of Ship Tease moments with Mac, particularly in the later seasons; see Heterosexual Life-Partners above. Glenn Howerton agrees with the opinion that the two are the "greatest 'will they, won't they' in television sitcom history."
  • Also with Dee, as even Kaitlin Olson confirms they're secretly in love with each other.
• Worthy Opponent: When tutoring a young girl in the art of deception, he is initially shocked but then very impressed when he realizes she was conning him the entire time.

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"Because if the girl said no, then the answer obviously is no. The thing is, she's not gonna say no. She would never say no... because of the implication."