A caped, horned villain looms over a small boy hero on a crude community-theatre stage under a painted night sky, the writer watching rapt from the wings.

Original artwork, not a still

Charlie Kelly

The Nightman cometh!

— It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia · 2005

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The phrase is the title of Charlie's musical, so it works as the announcement of its villain and as a catchphrase in its own right. It sums up the show's central joke: a clearly unhinged project taken completely seriously by everyone involved. Fans quote it when something dreadful is about to arrive, and it has outlived the episode through the live stage version.

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In context

Spoilers for It's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaShow the scene

"The Nightman Cometh" is the thirteenth and final episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's fourth season (FX, 20 November 2008), written by Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney. Charlie announces that he has written a rock opera and recruits the gang to perform it, with Dennis and Mac swapping the roles of the Nightman and the little boy, Frank as the Troll and Dee as the Princess. The title is a play on Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. The cast later took the show on stage, performing it live in six US cities in 2009.

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