‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Thesy Surface on Playing the Offensively Strange Margaret McPoyle

Even by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia standards, the McPoyle family is a lot.
This is a show that’s given us glue-huffing, rum-ham–loving monsters in human formand
somehow the clammy, milk-obsessed McPoyles still manage to stand out as nightmare fuel.

And then there’s Margaret McPoyle. The unibrow. The damp hair. The unsettling lip-licking.
The dead-eyed stare that could curdle milk faster than the McPoyles can drink it. When
Cracked.com sat down with actress Thesy Surface to talk about playing “the
most offensively strange” member of the clan, fans got a rare look at the skilled, very
non-McPoyle human behind one of the show’s weirdest creations.

This deep dive pulls together what Surface has said in interviews, the character’s on-screen
history, and fan perspectives to explore how Margaret went from a throwaway gag to one of
the most memorably disturbing figures in the whole Sunny universe.

Who Is Margaret McPoyle, Exactly?

In the lore of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the McPoyles are a feud-loving,
possibly inbred clan who always seem one spilled glass of milk away from total chaos.
Margaret is their deaf-mute sister, usually seen looming in the background of the brothers
Liam and Ryan while radiating pure, humid discomfort.

The character’s defining traits are simple but incredibly effective for comedy:

• A heavy, unbroken unibrow that looks permanently disapproving.
• Greasy, center-parted hair braided like a cursed school picture day.
• A habit of compulsively licking her lips at the worst possible moments.
• A tendency to mimic the people around her, sometimes a beat too late.
• A strangely intense crush on Mac, which somehow makes him uncomfortable for once.

According to the show’s lore, Margaret communicates mostly through gestures and mimicry,
echoing whatever bizarre energy is happening around her. That makes her the perfect mirror
for the Gang’s chaosshe doesn’t speak, but she amplifies everything that’s already gross
and wrong in the scene.

On paper, that sounds like a minor background role. In execution, Margaret becomes a
walking jump scare. When she appears at the football tryout in “The Gang Gets Invincible”
or at the infamous McPoyle-Ponderosa wedding, she doesn’t need dialogue to hijack the frame;
her physical comedy does all the talking.

Thesy Surface: The Woman Behind the Unibrow

If you only know Thesy Surface as Margaret McPoyle, you might assume she lives in a
basement, drinks warm milk, and stocks up on industrial-size tubs of petroleum jelly.
In real life, she’s an English actress with striking featuresso striking that multiple
interviews have described her as “model-like” or even “Greek goddess–level” beautiful.

Surface has trained and worked in a range of roles outside of Sunny, including theater,
film, and TV projects where she looks like, well, a normal human. She’s spoken in podcasts
and interviews about how surreal it was to be cast in such a deliberately “uglified” role.
When she first booked Margaret, she reportedly assumed the character would just be a quirky
background weirdonot a full-blown horror movie extra who looks like she crawled out of a
puddle behind Paddy’s Pub.

That disconnectbetween Surface’s real appearance and Margaret’s aggressively off-putting
lookis part of what makes the performance so fun to talk about. It’s not just a gag about
bad hygiene; it’s a showcase of how far an actor can go when they fully commit to the bit.

The “Uglification” Process: Becoming Margaret McPoyle

Surface has often described the transformation into Margaret as an exercise in “total
surrender.” The process reportedly took well over an hour and a half each shooting day.
Instead of the usual Hollywood glow-up, the makeup team’s job was to make her look like
she’d spent a week locked in the world’s least ventilated boiler room.

The look wasn’t just about slapping on a unibrow. It involved:

• Flattened, greasy-looking hair pulled into tight braids.
• Subtle skin work to make her look perpetually sweaty and slightly grimy.
• Eyebrows joined into a solid bar across her forehead.
• Under-eye work that suggested a lifetime of poor sleep and worse lighting.

Surface has also talked about how much of Margaret is physicality. The lip-licking tic is
now infamous among fans, and she’s mentioned having to practice it so it felt natural in
character but still unsettling for viewers. The vacant stare, the slow, delayed reactions,
and the awkward posture all contribute to the sense that Margaret is not quite operating on
the same frequency as everyone else.

For an actor, that’s a surprisingly technical performance: you’re doing silent comedy,
matching the timing of rapid-fire dialogue scenes while offering a completely different
energy. It’s a big part of why Margaret sticks in people’s minds long after an episode ends.

Inside the Cracked.com Interview: Playing “Offensively Strange” on Purpose

In the Cracked.com interview, Thesy Surface digs into what it means to be trusted with
one of the show’s weirdest characters. Sunny is famous for pushing boundaries, but the
McPoyles live in a special corner of the universe where everything is dialed up to 11grease,
sweat, and social dysfunction included.

A few key themes stand out from Surface’s comments and other interviews that orbit the same
topic:

1. She Didn’t Realize Margaret Would Look That Intense

Surface has said that, early on, she didn’t fully grasp how extreme the final look would be.
She knew the McPoyles were oddballs, but when she saw herself in full Margaret mode, it was
a shock. Still, instead of fighting it, she leaned intreating the character like a mask
that let her go further with her performance than she might otherwise dare.

2. The Comedy Comes from Commitment, Not Cruelty

One of the big takeaways from the Cracked discussion is that the show’s humor doesn’t work
if the actors seem embarrassed by what they’re doing. Margaret is “offensively strange,”
but Surface doesn’t play her as a joke the audience is supposed to feel superior to. She
plays her as a fully committed person who happens to live in a world where milk-based
vendettas and courthouse meltdowns are normal.

That commitment is what keeps the character from feeling like a cheap shot at “weird”
people. Margaret is bizarre, yesbut she’s also oddly powerful. When she crops up in key
episodes, her presence destabilizes the Gang in ways very few side characters can.

3. Physical Comedy Is the Whole Game

Because Margaret doesn’t speak, Surface has to rely on body language, facial expressions,
and timing. She’s described choreographing her movements around the Gang’s dialogue so that
every lick of the lips or tilt of the head lands as a punchline.

This is especially true in ensemble scenes like the football tryout or the trial episode,
where every frame is crowded with loud personalities. Margaret still steals focus, not by
yelling, but by being the unsettling visual in the corner that your brain can’t quite tune
out.

Why Margaret McPoyle Works So Well in the “Sunny” Universe

The McPoyles as a whole are some of the most beloved recurring characters in
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Margaret is a key part of that dynamic. If Liam
and Ryan are the loud, theatrical side of the family, Margaret is their quiet, lingering
aftertaste.

From a storytelling and comedy perspective, Margaret works because she:

• Raises the stakes visually. Any scene she enters instantly feels more chaotic.
• Balances the brothers. Her eerily calm presence offsets Liam and Ryan’s noisy scheming.
• Embodies the show’s tone. She’s repulsive and hilarious at the same time, which is peak Sunny.
• Lets the Gang be the victims for once. Around the McPoyles, even the Gang looks like the normal people.

Critics and fans alike often single out the McPoyles when talking about the show’s best
recurring characters. They’re not just comic relief; they’re world-building. They flesh out
the strange ecosystem of Philadelphia that the Gang keeps crashing intoand Margaret is one
of the strongest visual anchors of that ecosystem.

Beyond the Laughs: Real-Life Challenges Behind the Role

Playing a character this distinctive can have side effects. Surface has spoken about how
recognizable Margaret became, especially among diehard fans. At conventions, live shows,
and online, people love quoting McPoyle scenes or doing their best lip-licking impressions.

Not all attention is fun, though. Reports have noted that Surface dealt with a disturbing
stalker situation in the early 2010s, reminding us that fandom can cross lines in ways that
have nothing to do with comedy. It’s a sharp contrast: on-screen, Margaret feels almost
invincibleuntouchably gross in a way that shields her. Off-screen, the actress is still a
person navigating very normal human vulnerabilities.

That contrast underscores just how much of a performance Margaret really is. When Surface
scrubs off the makeup and steps out of the McPoyle universe, she leaves that armor behind
and returns to a career that includes a much wider range of roles than “terrifying milk
goblin.”

Experiences and Perspectives Around Thesy Surface’s Margaret McPoyle (Bonus Deep Dive)

To really understand why this Cracked.com conversation resonated with fans, it helps to
look at how Sunny viewers and collaborators talk about Margaret and Thesy Surface
elsewhereon podcasts, behind-the-scenes features, and fan communities.

Fan Reactions: “I Can’t Look Away, and I Hate That”

Among It’s Always Sunny fans, Margaret inspires a very specific kind of reaction:
half-horror, half-adoration. On Reddit threads, people describe her as “the grossest thing
on the show, and somehow that’s a compliment.” Others joke that the true test of
friendship is whether your friends can sit through a McPoyle-heavy episode without
flinching.

One recurring theme is how much people appreciate Surface’s commitment. Fans who’ve listened
to podcast interviews with her often come away shocked at how different she soundswarm,
articulate, and funnycompared to the silent menace they’re used to seeing on screen. That
disconnect makes the performance feel even more impressive. It’s one thing to play a
charismatic character. It’s another to disappear so completely into a role that people
forget you’re acting at all.

Podcast Insights: Living in the McPoyle Skin (Temporarily)

In podcast conversations, Surface has talked about the oddly liberating side of playing
Margaret. Without dialogue, she has to let go of vanity and lean into pure physical
storytelling. She’s described the experience almost like donning a full-body mask: once
the braids, sweat sheen, and unibrow are in place, she can move differently, stare longer,
and break every unspoken rule of “normal” on-camera behavior.

Hosts who’ve interviewed her often highlight how game she is. She’s not bitter about being
known for such an extreme role; if anything, she seems genuinely delighted that this
bizarre, specific character has carved out such a loyal niche in the fandom. For a lot of
character actors, that kind of cult status is gold.

Behind-the-Scenes Stories: The McPoyles as a Comedy Laboratory

Cast and crew members have described McPoyle episodes as their own brand of chaos. Because
the family is already so exaggerated, the writers and actors have a bit more freedom to
push scenes into surreal territory. That includes physical bitslike Margaret lurking
slightly too close to someoneor reaction shots that play almost like horror-comedy.

In behind-the-scenes featurettes, the actors playing the McPoyles talk about developing a
shared physical language: the slow blinks, the odd stillness, the way they occupy space
like they haven’t seen sunlight in years. Surface slots seamlessly into that physical
vocabulary, even though she’s working with the added challenge of portraying a deaf-mute
character respectfully while still leaning into the show’s outrageous tone.

That’s not a simple balance. Sunny thrives on exaggeration, but the actors still have to
be smart about what the joke is and where it lands. Surface’s take on Margaret makes it
clear that the humor is aimed at the McPoyle universe itselfthe exaggerated sweat, the
milk cult vibes, the endless grudgesnot at real-life people with disabilities.

Why the Cracked.com Conversation Matters to Fans

When Cracked.com shines a spotlight on a niche character like Margaret McPoyle, it sends a
message that the show’s world-building weirdos are worth serious attention. Fans love
seeing their favorite side characters treated as subjects for real analysis, not just quick
meme fodder.

Surface’s openness in talking about the rolehow she found Margaret’s physical language,
how she reacted to the initial makeup tests, how she sees the character fitting into the
Sunny universegives longtime viewers fresh angles on scenes they’ve watched a dozen
times. Suddenly, that lip lick you laughed at becomes something you appreciate as a crafted
comedic beat, not just a random gross-out.

In a way, the interview cements Margaret as more than a background freak. She becomes a
symbol of how far It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is willing to goand how much
care and skill it quietly takes to make that level of absurdity feel effortless.

Conclusion: The Art of Being Offensively Strange

Margaret McPoyle may never deliver a dramatic monologue or get a heartfelt redemption arc,
but she doesn’t need to. Thanks to Thesy Surface’s fearless performance, the character
occupies her own unique corner of TV history: a silent, lip-licking embodiment of
everything that makes It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia so oddly compelling.

The Cracked.com interview pulls back the curtain just enough to show how intentional that
weirdness really is. From the painstaking “uglification” process to the carefully calibrated
physical comedy, nothing about Margaret is accidental. She’s proof that even the strangest,
sweatiest side character can become iconic when an actor commits fully and a show knows
exactly how to use them.

In a universe full of bad decisions and worse people, Margaret McPoyle stands tallbraids,
unibrow, and allas one of the purest distillations of Sunny’s twisted magic. And thanks
to Thesy Surface’s work, she’ll probably haunt our collective comedy brain for years to
come.