Dennis Reynolds in a hardware store captioned 'because of the implication...'

Because Of The Implication

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Published September 24, 2026

Because Of The Implication is a catchphrase from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, delivered by Dennis Reynolds in the 2010 episode 'The Gang Buys a Boat' as he explains why women on a boat would supposedly agree to sex. The line became internet shorthand for menacing subtext hiding inside an innocent-sounding plan.

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Overview

"Because Of The Implication" is a catchphrase from the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, delivered by character Dennis Reynolds while the gang shops for a used boat3. Dennis argues to Mac that women on a boat would be more likely to agree to sex because they cannot easily leave, then insists nothing bad would actually happen if one said no4.

The joke hangs on Dennis's baffled inability to see what Mac clearly hears, and the phrase soon became internet shorthand for menacing subtext hiding inside an innocent-sounding plan5. Fans still trade GIFs of Glenn Howerton stammering through Dennis's own logic, usually captioned with the exact line5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Television / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Date
2010

The scene first aired on September 30, 2010 in Season 6 Episode 3, "The Gang Buys a Boat"2. Two days later, on October 2, 2010, the sunnyonfx YouTube channel uploaded the clip, which pulled in more than 1.65 million views and around 1,300 comments over the six years that followed1.

How It Spread

On October 5, 2010, gender justice blog Gender Across Borders published a piece unpacking the ethics of the exchange, and by April 2011, FX's online store was selling shirts printed with Dennis's face and the caption "The ladies can't refuse because of the implication"4. On November 20, 2013, PopMatters listed the scene in an appreciation piece about the show's political incorrectness, and on September 3, 2014, UpRoxx put it near the top of a ranking of Dennis Reynolds at his worst3.

The clip found a second life on Reddit on June 22, 2015, when a user posted it to /r/videos where it collected more than 2,500 votes at an 85 percent upvote rate6. Weeks later on August 8, 2015, Imgur user brb4ever posted a captioned screenshot gallery of the scene that pulled in over 392,000 views and 740 comments across the following seven months4. On November 19, 2015, Redditor takeme2infinity reposted the video to /r/videos and picked up over 6,400 votes with 1,200 comments in three months6.

On February 27, 2016, a Tumblr blog called Because of the Implication launched to archive GIFs and clips built around the scene5. A week later on March 4, 2016, Redditor bundys started a /r/OutOfTheLoop thread asking why the phrase kept showing up in unrelated posts about sex, a sign the line had drifted well beyond the show's core audience6.

How to Use This Meme

Posters typically caption a reaction GIF of Dennis speaking the line, or drop the phrase itself into text conversations when someone hints at coercion without saying it outright5. Common convention is to invoke it when a plan sounds harmless on paper but obviously carries an unspoken threat, letting the reference itself do the pointing.

Frequently Asked Questions