History Recap / ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaS04E13TheNightmanCometh

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In-universe, all the Gang understand that Charlie is (unintentionally) working out his issues with Uncle Jack and potentially his mother implied to be the Troll. Meanwhile, Frank plays the pimp Troll to Dennis's little boy, and the live show is more explicit about the reminder of "The Gang Gets Whacked".

* HiddenDepths: Charlie writes an ''entire musical'' by himself (although Dennis helped a little with Dayman's theme), and the entire gang get to show off their singing voices.
** There's also Artemis, who's apparently able to understand Charlie's "picture language" to a point where she can easily translate it to English. Contrast this with the rest of the gang, who've known Charlie for years and can't even begin to read it.

* RagingStiffie: Dennis accuses Mac of having a boner during the rape scene. Mac doesn't deny it.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: InUniverse. It is heavily implied that the Nightman and what he does to the Little Boy is based on Charlie's experiences of having been molested in his childhood by [[CreepyUncle Uncle Jack]].

* AdaptationExpansion: When the episode was touring as a theatrical performance, it added three songs to ''The Nightman Cometh.'' A new VillainSong for Antonio, ''It's Nature, Shit Happens'', a CutSong from the original episode, and the titular number from ''[[Recap/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaS03E09SweetDeeDatingRetardedPerson Sweet Dee's Dating a Retarded Person]]''.

* {{Malaproper}}: Frank keeps mispronouncing "boy's soul" as "boy's hole" in his song, giving it a very different connotation to the one intended.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The audience of the musical-within-a-musical was specifically selected for being unfamiliar with Sunny and they were told this was an actual attempt at a musical. As such, their bafflement was very real.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: InUniverse. Thanks to Charlie's lack of writing skills, the relationships involved in the play are laden with unintentional subtext; both the Coffee Shop Princess and the Nightman [[MistakenForPedophile come across as pedophiles]], when one is intended to be in love with a grown man and the other is intended to be a Grim Reaper figure with no sexual interest in his victim.
-->'''Mac:''' Ummm... I think we have to be very careful about how we do the rape scene.\\
'''Frank:''' Yeah.\\
'''Charlie:''' Wh-what in God's name are you talking about? There's no "rape scene".\\
''(Mac and Frank give Charlie a confused look)''\\
'''Mac:''' ...Well, sure. I pay the Troll Toll and then I rape Dennis--\\
'''Charlie:''' ''No!'' You don't rape him! You ''become'' him! You do ''not'' rape him!\\
'''Frank:''' He doesn't?

* IncestuousCasting: InUniverse siblings Dennis and Dee are cast as the Little Boy/Dayman (the protagonist of the play) and the Coffee Shop Princess (the LoveInterest) respectively, leading to much awkwardness. Charlie states that he initially cast Mac as the Little Boy and Dennis as the Nightman in an attempt to avoid this, but they insisted on swapping roles so that Dennis could have the larger part and Mac could play the "badass" villain.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: It is heavily implied that the Nightman and what he does to the Little Boy is based on Charlie's experiences of having been molested in his childhood by [[CreepyUncle Uncle Jack]].

** Frank's also the only member of the Gang who doesn't try to steal the spotlight and make the show about himself -- note that of all of the performers, he's the lone person who doesn't add lines or improvise, basically doing what Charlie tells him without arguing. He does repeatedly sing "boy's hole" instead of "boy's soul," but he genuinely believes that he's pronouncing the phrase correctly. Even in the beginning when Charlie was casting the parts, Frank was trilled with the part Charlie gave him, even as everyone else was trying to drop out or switch parts.

'''Charlie:''' ''No!'' No, you don't rape him! You ''become'' him! You do ''not'' rape him!\\

* RelationshipWritingFumble: InUniverse, the relationships involved in the play are laden with unintentional subtext; both the Coffee Shop Princess and the Nightman [[MistakenForPedophile come across as pedophiles]], when one is intended to be in love with a grown man and the other is intended to be a Grim Reaper figure with no sexual interest in his victim.

* HerCodeNameWasMarySue: It's barely a plot twist that the all-powerful warrior Dayman is meant to be Charlie and the Princess who loves him is meant to be the Waitress. (By extension, it's easy to guess the Nightman to be Charlie's CreepyUncle Jack.)

* HerCodeNameWasMarySue: It's barely a plot twist that the all-powerful warrior Dayman is meant to be Charlie and the Princess who loves him is meant to be the Waitress. (By extension, it's easy to guess the Nightman to be Uncle Jack.)