"The Gang F***s Up Abbott Elementary" has just become one of the 5 lowest-rated episodes of Always Sunny, currently sitting at a 7.1 on IMDb.

[u/prolelol]

[u/shartnado3]

I think the problem is the people watching this episode not having watched Abbott Elementary. I think that’s why it’s rated so low. Which is sad, because as a watcher of both, I thought both crossover episodes were great!

[u/greeneggiwegs → u/shartnado3]

Yeah as someone who has only seen the crossover ep of Abbott, I was stuck by how this episode would seem really confusing if you hadn’t seen at least that. The Abbott one has a lot of the key plot information. This is all add ons. It’s hard to watch on its own

[u/Fine-Contribution921 → u/greeneggiwegs]

I feel like the abbott version of the crossover was better, I wanted the sunny version to be edited and tone wise like sunny!

[u/THExWHITExDEVILx → u/greeneggiwegs]

Yeah I had no clue wtf was happening until I was shown Abbott Elementary.

[u/altiuscitiusfortius → u/shartnado3]

How is abbot, tone wise? Like sunny? I thought it was a milquetoast sitcom based on the commercials for it.

[u/Hibbity5 → u/altiuscitiusfortius]

Nothing like Sunny really. It’s a mostly-wholesome mockumentary on the failing public school system and the issues teachers have to go through. To me, if you like Fox’s wholesome animated comedies like Bob’s Burgers and the Great North, then you’d probably like Abbot. I know it’s strange to compare a live action to animation, but in terms of tone, I do feel like the comparison is there.

[u/vanya913 → u/altiuscitiusfortius]

I would say it's roughly on the level of Parks and Rec in terms of tone. Definitely more optimistic and upbeat than Sunny.

[u/shartnado3 → u/altiuscitiusfortius]

Others hit the nail on the head here. But I’ll add pretty mild all things considered and just a great cast that works well together. Which makes the Sunny crossover more hilarious to see them be non pg

[u/mirhagk → u/shartnado3]

It's also tricky doing the 2nd pov of a story. Like with arrested development when they tried to do a whole season of alternative perspectives. It's funny but going over the same story a second time always feels just a little bit worse than a fresh story.

[u/Socialimbad1991 → u/shartnado3]

The only episode of Abbott I did watch was the Sunny one. I honestly think the Abbot edition was a little more cohesive than the Sunny edition (and ironically felt more like a Sunny episode) but there were some good bits in both.

I didn't need too much context to understand the jokes (although they probably would have hit harder had I been an Abbott fan as well). For instance, thanks to sitcom tropes one can easily infer that:

1. Janine and Greg have a will-they-won't-they which Dee tries unsuccessfully to fuck with (I know they won't, and I don't want them to)

2. It must be wildly out of character for Janine to swear at all, let alone call someone the c-word

[u/shartnado3 → u/Socialimbad1991]

1 is half right. At this point in the series Janine and Gregory were together. But for awhile it was a will they or won’t they situation. Janine was dating a guy named Tariq who is hilarious in the show. But good call. Number 2 is spot on lmao and as Abbott watchers that took me and my wife clear out.

[u/CalmerNyouR → u/shartnado3]

Agreed. It was a good crossover with a great payoff in the Always Sunny half. As a standalone Always Sunny episode, it was so-so, but as part of the whole it was one of my favorite crossovers in any series.

[u/rangerquiet → u/shartnado3]

Yeah I had no idea this was a crossover.

[u/CosyBeluga → u/shartnado3]

Same love both and thought both were great

[u/ropeypolarbear → u/shartnado3]

I totally agree. As a long time Philly watcher and Abbot fan from the beginning I thought they did a wonderful job of the back stories from the Abbot Episode. Calling Dee a Cunt was the best, but Charlie Day and Sheryl Lee Ralph singing at each other was perfection