We get it in our heads that some flavors could never, ever work together — only for their collision to yield something wonderful. Kids make these discoveries all the time. Inebriated people do too. Separately, we hope.

Placing ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and FXX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” into the same lunch tray compartments feels higher risk than, say, mixing red gelatin into your tater tots instead of ketchup. But that’s probably why anybody who watches both shows will appreciate what their respective creators Quinta Brunson and Rob McElhenney have pulled off with "Volunteers," its midseason return.

It’s natural to view the temporary mixing of Willard R. Abbott’s earnest teachers with the scuzzy simpletons who barely run the worst bar in America as, um, entirely unnatural.

Temporarily merging the two series stirs up excitement and fear in equal measure.

Brunson’s Janine Teagues and her colleagues are nurturing educators eager to set up their under-resourced students for a fighting chance in life. McElhenney’s Mac and his partners in business and crime Charlie (Charlie Day), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Frank (Danny DeVito) are living proof of what happens when you don’t take learning of any kind seriously. Also, as any longtime “Sunny” viewer knows, the show has provided many reasons why the Paddy’s Pub gang should not be allowed within 100 yards of a school — or any child. A clip from a Season 13 episode settles that for all time.

Warning: although the following video features kids, it is definitely not for young children.

Needless to say, temporarily merging the two series stirs up excitement and fear in equal measure.

A crossover between “Abbott” and “Sunny” is unusual enough to wrap our heads........

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