The first poster for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 18 is finally here, and no, it didn’t guzzle up gallons of water to create.

On Tuesday, FX announced that the long-running sitcom starring Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob Mac, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito will return on August 17 for its landmark 18th season, and shared a distinctly AI-looking poster to accompany that news. In the freshly released poster, each member of “The Gang” appears as the head of a lever on tap at Paddy’s Irish Pub, the central location of the series.

Immediately upon sharing the photo, however, fans started to scratch their heads at the seemingly artificially generated artwork, which highlights drinks like “The D.E.N.N.I.S. Golden Lager” and “Sweet Dee’s Stark Saison,” each named after a bit from the series. Viewers immediately sounded off in the comments on social media, leaving comments like “hey hire an artist” and “I hope this is just a joke aimed at AI slop for an upcoming episode because otherwise…gross.”

Well, fans, you couldn’t be more on the nose.

While it looks like the poster was created using the help of ChatGPT or Claude, according to a source who spoke with DECIDER, the artwork is merely meant to evoke the look of similar AI posters circulating on social media, playing off the current societal interest in AI. Pitchforks down, internet!

“Sunny has always had extremely stylized key art that is driven by artists and brought to life through graphic designers and talented copywriters,” the source shared. “The team used the same process for S18 that has been used many times in the past for Sunny art (including S14, S15, S16 and S17… all long before the existence of AI).”

Moral of the story: Just because “The Gang” has grown up on television over the last two decades doesn’t mean they are ever growing out of their classic shenanigans… even if that means pulling one over on the fans who are keen on spotting AI.

What’s more, it appears the not-so-AI poster even acts as a tease for one of the Season 18 storylines as the show will tackle “withstanding job loss at the hands of workplace automation” among other issues. According to a release from FX, Season 18 of the hit comedy will “return to its roots” with a 10-episode season that sees Charlie (Day), Mac (Mac), Dennis (Howerton), Dee (Olson), and Frank (DeVito) doing all the terrible, delicious deeds fans love to see them doing.

That includes “salvaging inheritances from a dead woman, surviving tent encampments and the great inside-outside divide between the haves and have-nots, embracing a newfound appreciation for neurodivergence, questioning the fabric of society against conspiracy theories, and of course — the biggest elephant in the room — outlasting the public’s pendulum swing against drinking. Not to mention battling nerds, LARPers, and a particularly petulant McPoyle clan at the Renaissance Faire or sportswashing their way back into the good graces of their community by sponsoring a Little League team. All the while trying to maintain order in their personal lives and at Paddy’s, which have become increasingly lawless and erratic.”

It’s going to be a good season and it’s only a few weeks away.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 18 premieres on FX/Hulu on Aug. 17. The first 17 seasons are available to stream on Hulu.

If you’re new to Hulu, the basic (with ads) price is $10.99/month. If you want to upgrade to Hulu ad-free, it costs $18.99/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the Disney+ Bundles, all of which include Hulu. These bundles start at $12.99/month for ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu and goes up to $32.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max, all ad-free.