User:Hunter Kahn/It's Always Sunny

"Paddy's Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Originally broadcast on FX in the United States on October 16, 2008, it was directed by Matt Shakman and written by Scott Marder, Rob Rosell and David Hornsby. In the episode, the gang kidnaps a newspaper critic who writes a negative review of their bar.

Fisher Stevens guest-starred as Lyle Korman, the kidnapped writer from The Philadelphia Inquirer

Production
Lyle Korman was portrayed by Fisher Stevens, an actor, director and film producer. The Philadelphia Inquirer did not authorize the use of their newspaper's name in the episode. Jonathan Storm, a real-life reviewer for the paper, later wrote a tongue-in-cheek review jokingly condemning the show for it's treatment of critics and newspapers in general, particularly one line spoken by Dee: "This just in, poo-poo pants: people don't read newspapers anymore."

Cultural reception
The episode features several first-person camera shots of kidnapped victims looking up at the gang from a car trunk, similar to that used by film director Quentin Tarantino in his 1992 crime film Reservoir Dogs. In one scene, Mac refers to himself as the bouncer of Paddy's Pub and compares himself to actor Patrick Swayze in Road House, a 1989 action film about a bouncer in a roadside bar in small-town Missouri.

Reception
The Philadelphia Inquirer writer Jonathan Storm praised the episode as "absurdly hilarious" and said Fisher Stevens portrayed Lyle Korman "pitch-perfectly". IGN writer Seth Amitin called it a solid episode with several extremely funny moments, like Mehar's kidnapping, and Mac and Charlie helping Korman urinate. But Amitin felt the ending, with Korman simply deciding not the press charges, felt like a "copout" because the writers were "written into a corner". Noel Murray of The A.V. Club called the episode "an entertaining enough 22 minutes" but mostly flat, comparing it unfavorably to early episodes from the first season. Murray also felt Fisher was largely underused.