In the season 9 episode 3 episode of IASIP, The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award, sees the gang try and switch up their marketing for the bar in hopes of finally getting nominated for an award, let alone try winning an award. In part of this switch up it sees Mac an Dennis practicing lines they’d use on potential customers kinda just going over some bartender talk where we see the following conversation partake:
Mac: Hey, I’m Mac. Welcome to Paddy’s Pub. I would like to recommend to first-timers our signature blended drink, Caribbean Paradise. People say it’s better than an orgasm.
Dennis: Not that he’s ever had one.
Mac: I’ve had orgasms! I’ve had tons of orgasms! I’ve had one with your mom, dude! I will strangle you, I’ll stick my goddamn thumb through your eye!
Now at first glance it may be confusing as to what did Mac mean by that. Was he simply poking some jest at his friend in a typical I slept with your mother manner that many men jest about today? Or did he actually have relations with Dennis’ mother? Now I know what you seasoned IASIP fans may be saying, “But Mac did have relations with Mama Reynolds, it’s canon. It actually happened.” But this is where I emplore you to use the 95% or so of your brain that is like turned off by default. Maybe the show runners (Charlie, Glenn and Rob) want us to go further into this quote and realize what may be the true secret. MacDennis.
MacDennis is the shipname I’ve discovered on X, formerly Twitter, between Mac and Dennis. It really is that simple. Mac and Dennis have kept a tight-knit friendship, budding on homoerotic friendship throughout the show, though they occasionally butt heads. Their shared routines include a weekly movie night every Tuesday and a monthly dinner at Guigino’s Italian Restaurant. At one point in the show, Deandra “Dee” Reynolds, Dennis’ sister, accuses them of being “codependent losers,” prompting Mac and Dennis to try spending some time apart. However, their clinginess becomes so unbearable for the rest of the gang that Dee ends up scheming to reunite the pair.
In Mac & Dennis Move to the Suburbs, Season 11, Episode 5 Mac and Dennis decide to leave their chaotic city lifestyle behind for a quieter, more affordable life in the suburbs, albeit in part to a bet they have with Frank. While the episode is primarily about their attempt to live a suburban lifestyle, their platonic semi-homoerotic dynamic takes center stage. The entire premise revolves around the idea that Mac and Dennis are inseparable. They move together despite the option to live separately, reinforcing how tied they are to one another.
Throughout the episode, Dennis increasingly loses his mind, and Mac’s passive, clueless, kinda Charlie-like behavior only furthers Dennis’ frustration. Despite their constant bickering and fighting, neither one seriously considers ending the arrangement, which speaks to their underlying reliance on each other, even if it’s only for the bet with Frank. Even in the episode’s climax, after Dennis reaches a full mental breakdown, Mac still stays by his side. The fact that they endure this disastrous suburban experiment together reflects a twisted sort of loyalty in a way that their dysfunctional bond is too strong for either of them to walk away. Mac starts feeling like a cooped-up housewife and Dennis falls into the role of a working husband, under pressure from road rage and the same dinners every night.
But back to before Mac officially came out of the closet, the MacDennis dynamic was already filled with moments that fueled fan theories and shipping. Throughout the earlier seasons, Mac’s admiration for Dennis often crossed into territory that even to the average viewer seemed more romantic than platonic. Mac frequently complimented Dennis’s looks, obsessively sought his approval, and I mean obsessively, and his character just flat out displayed an almost desperate need to be close to him. Do you remember the duster? What a jacket.
One standout example is Mac’s tendency to make Dennis the center of his world. He often tried to impress Dennis, sometimes going to extreme lengths to earn his respect or attention. In Season 5, Episode 10’s The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, Mac clings to Dennis’s hilarious but manipulative dating guide, idolizing him as the master of seduction, as the true GOLDEN GOD.
A simpler example comes in Season 6, episode 8’s Mac’s Big Break, where we see Mac is devastated when Dennis refuses to join him on his radio show, showing how much he values Dennis’s presence in his life. This one can be chalked up to friendship and vibes but I’m still gonna add it.
As every sunny fan knows, there’s also a running joke that Mac is deeply repressed about his sexuality throughout the earlier seasons, and his behavior around Dennis often highlights this. Mac’s constant shirtless workouts and his attempts to showcase his body always seem directed at Dennis more than anyone else. In season 5, episode 7’s The Gang Wrestles for the Troops, Mac openly gushes about Dennis’s physique, calling him “THE GOLDEN GOD”, the term that Dennis himself embraces.
Their dynamic starts to change after Mac comes out of the closet in the 12th season episode, Hero or Hate Crime. Honestly this episode is one of my favorite’s of the whole series, the fact that through the whole show it is alluded to that Mac is gay, and for him to finally come out of the closet for what ends up being a $14 scratch off ticket. But this episode is probably the one that I put on when I want to tell people what Sunny is all about. But after this moment, Mac’s feelings for Dennis become more obvious, while Dennis starts to become increasingly irritated with Mac. During a sexual harassment seminar, Dennis bluntly tells Mac to stop kissing and touching him, adding, “it’s never gonna happen, not willingly.” Despite this, Mac continues to pursue Dennis, even going so far as to poison him to keep Dennis reliant on him.
So up until this point the ship has seemed like a one-way crush, one that is not rooted in anything. But that ladies and gentlemen is where season 16 further fuels the MacDennis fire. Season 16, episode 4 Frank vs. Russia, re-introduces the fan favorite theory back to the show the D.E.N.N.I.S system. But this time it is for how to approach/date a man so it is easily flipped to be the S.I.N.N.E.D system. So in this episode we find out that Mac starts an online relationship with a guy named Johnny, communicating with him through texting and actually using anal beads. Dennis, appearing seemingly irritated by Mac’s new romance, attempts to set him up with someone else. However, his plan backfires when Mac declares he’s in love with Johnny. This prompts Dennis to confess that he was actually Johnny all along, claiming he only pretended to be Mac’s online boyfriend to get him out of their apartment. Now why would Dennis be doing all of that if he didn’t secretly have feelings for Mac? I don’t know.
Even Dennis, for all his supposed indifference, shows these signs of returning Mac’s affection in subtle ways early on in the show. In season 5, episode 9’s Mac and Dennis Break Up, Dennis, the pinnacle of man, the GOLDEN GOD finds himself struggleing emotionally when the two decide to spend time apart, hinting that their bond is stronger than either of them would admit. Despite Dennis’s outward frustration with Mac, he consistently keeps him close, almost as if he enjoys being the object of Mac’s devotion.
Now what does this have to do with the quote from above? Yea I lost the plot. I just wanted to talk about MacDennis It actually just is a riff back to one of the early episodes of the show when Mac had sexual relations with Mrs. Reynolds, but in typical Mac fashion he gets aggressively loud and defends himself to a tee, a T, you know the saying.
Honestly this is my absolute favorite show of all time so I’m going to write a little bit more about it going forward. I think the next one will be me breaking down the lyrics of Charlie’s hit song Nightman. This song actually lives on my body now forever in the form of a tattoo so it is obviously very meaningful.
SebastianMParente.com 
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