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=== This series features examples of: ===
* [[A-Cup Angst]]: In S2 Ep17, "Two Monkeys and a Panda", Haley insults Alex after Alex complains about Haley wearing Alex's sweater without asking. Haley replies it was the first time the top half got any exercise. (Which is really quite humorous in this episode since the sweater is a form hugging one which made it very clear that Ariel Winter was growing "outward").▼
* [[Abraham Lincoln]]: "Robot Lincoln" is [[Your Favorite|Jay's Favorite]] Disneyland attraction.
* [[Absentee Actor]]: Ariel Winter missed several episodes in season 2 for unknown reasons (some people think it's because she's under 14 and therefore subject to child labor laws - Nolan has been absent for quite a few episodes too for what many suspect the same reason).
* [[Absurdly Youthful Mother]]: Gloria, of the stepmother variety. She's actually 14 months ''younger'' than Claire.
** In real life, Sofia Vergara has a son in his twenties, so it's both a partial [[Actor Allusion]] and a serious case of [[Older Than They Look]] for Gloria.
▲* [[A-Cup Angst]]: In S2 Ep17, "Two Monkeys and a Panda", Haley insults Alex after Alex complains about Haley wearing Alex's sweater without asking. Haley replies it was the first time the top half got any exercise. (Which is really quite humorous in this episode since the sweater is a form hugging one which made it very clear that Ariel Winter was growing "outward").
* [[Aerith and Bob]]: A non-fantasy example with Cam's list of friends he wanted to invite to his fundraiser in ''Regrets Only'': Longinus, Pepper, Lamichael, Steven and Stephan, aaand... Bob.
* [[Affectionate Parody]]: In "Baby on Board", a ''telenovela''-style drama, echoing the fictional "Fire and Ice" that Gloria, Cam and (shh) Jay have been following, takes place at the Mexican hospital's waiting room, which {{spoiler|results in Cam and Mitchell being deprived of a chance to adopt another child that they had been expecting}}.
* [[Agony of the Feet]]: Gloria, wearing high heels in Disneyland, although she refuses to admit it.
* [[All Gays Love Theater]]: Cameron, increasingly.
* [[All the Good Men Are Gay]]: Subverted in "Treehouse". After Cameron has won his bet with Mitchell and gotten the phone number of an attractive woman at the bar, things progress to the point where he has to tell her. He invites her over to the apartment, from which he's carefully removed all open traces of Mitchell and Lily's existence. {{spoiler|It turns out she wasn't fooled in the slightest, and only played along because she wanted to have a gay male friend. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when Mitchell comes back, and she gives Cameron the sort of angry, hurt speech you'd expect if the trope had been played (ahem) straight}}.▼
* [[Alpha Bitch]]: When Claire realizes in "Benched" that Alex has manipulated her fears that she's entering that phase of life where girls start not wanting to be seen with their mother into getting a twenty-dollar loan so she can blow off Claire and spend the afternoon with her friends instead, Claire pulls up next to them a short while later and loudly reminds her daughter that [[A-Cup Angst|she needs to buy a new training bra]], among other things calculated to seriously embarrass her. Lampshaded immediately thereafter when Claire admits to herself in the car that her goal was to get some emotional retaliation.▼
* [[An Aesop]]: Most episodes have one.▼
** [[Aesop Amnesia]] / [[Snap Back]]: In the Season 3 premiere, "Dude Ranch", Phil finally gets tired of Jay mistreating him and [[Calling the Old Man Out|stands up to him]]. Despite Jay finally seeming to get it and this being a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Phil, he's immediately back to [["Well Done, Son" Guy|needing Jay's constant approval]] by the next episode.▼
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Haley to Dylan. Of course, Dylan really isn't shown being all that bad, but he does have some of the traits associated with bad boys such as his hair, the way he dresses, and being in a rock band.
** If anything, he subverts the trope altogether. Haley's considerably more rebellious than he is.
* [[All Psychology Is Freudian]]
▲* [[All the Good Men Are Gay]]: Subverted in "Treehouse". After Cameron has won his bet with Mitchell and gotten the phone number of an attractive woman at the bar, things progress to the point where he has to tell her. He invites her over to the apartment, from which he's carefully removed all open traces of Mitchell and Lily's existence. {{spoiler|It turns out she wasn't fooled in the slightest, and only played along because she wanted to have a gay male friend. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when Mitchell comes back, and she gives Cameron the sort of angry, hurt speech you'd expect if the trope had been played (ahem) straight}}.
* [[All Women Love Shoes]]: Deconstructed somewhat in "Disneyland." Gloria insists on wearing her usual very high heels despite all the walking the trip will require, and rebuffs Jay's suggestion that she at least bring another pair. Later when it's obvious that Jay was right, he asks her ("[[Spicy Latina|don't go all Latin on me]]") if part of the reason she gets angry so easily is that she's wearing such uncomfortable shoes. She admits it, and he gets her a pair of ridiculously oversized yet soft yellow slippers, which she wears for the rest of the trip. Later, Jay gets a pair of baby high heels for Lilly, which her fathers had sworn never to do, but have the effect of stopping her from her sudden runs much better than the leash ... ''cough cough'' child protective tether they had been trying.
* [[Aloha Hawaii]] A three-episode arc near the end of the first season
▲* [[Alpha Bitch]]: When Claire realizes in "Benched" that Alex has manipulated her fears that she's entering that phase of life where girls start not wanting to be seen with their mother into getting a twenty-dollar loan so she can blow off Claire and spend the afternoon with her friends instead, Claire pulls up next to them a short while later and loudly reminds her daughter that [[A-Cup Angst|she needs to buy a new training bra]], among other things calculated to seriously embarrass her. Lampshaded immediately thereafter when Claire admits to herself in the car that her goal was to get some emotional retaliation.
▲* [[An Aesop]]: Most episodes have one.
▲** [[Aesop Amnesia]] / [[Snap Back]]: In the Season 3 premiere, "Dude Ranch", Phil finally gets tired of Jay mistreating him and [[Calling the Old Man Out|stands up to him]]. Despite Jay finally seeming to get it and this being a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Phil, he's immediately back to [["Well Done, Son" Guy|needing Jay's constant approval]] by the next episode.
* [[Artistic License: Law]]: Mitch and Cameron adopted Lily from Vietnam. However, in reality Vietnam currently doesn't allow same sex couples or single parents to adopt children from there.
* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: Phil and Luke. Sometimes Haley. [[It Runs in The Family|It tends to run in the family]].
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* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: "Election Day" ends with Claire losing the election for a city council position and Haley revealing that her college rejection letters have been piling up. However, the last college wait-lists her, which her family's willing to take as a win, and the re-elected city counselor gives in to Claire earlier request to put a stop sign in the neighborhood, which was her reason for running in the first place.
* [[Book Dumb]]: In contrast to her underperformance in school, Haley has proven to be quite the strategist.
* [[Book Ends]]: ''Manny Get Your Gun'' has this.▼
* [[The Brainless Beauty]]: Heavily inverted by Gloria, who initially comes across as this but is actually smart, spirited, and very sweet.▼
** Played straight most of the time with Haley, though she still manages to trick her parents into losing their family's contest in who can the longest without using computer and phone technology so she could win. She also manages to fool her family into thinking she has a job as a waitress. She also was (briefly) able to teach Alex how to get popular. In short, Haley may be book dumb but she is also fairly creative and socially savvy.▼
** Discussed by Claire and Gloria. Gloria feels others treat her like this... but also feels that others treat her only as this and nothing more, rather than seeing her as someone who can actually do things. Also deconstructed in the same episode in that the one person who has a reason to think this (a male character) doesn't.▼
* [[Brainy Brunette]]: Alex.▼
* [[Bratty Teenage Daughter]]: Haley▼
** In "Benched" Claire laments Alex turning into this when Alex wants to hang out with some friends at the mall and doesn't want Claire anywhere near her while doing so.▼
* [[Breakout Character]]: Even critics who hate the show admit that they love Phil.
** The gay Cameron played by a straight actor sometimes has him called this. The same occurs with the heavily accented Gloria.
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'''Cameron''': Well, apparently, some maniac went crazy at the mall and attacked him with "Oasis for Men". }}
** "Phil on Wire" has several including the traditional stinger one where Cam and Mitchell end up eating doggie treat cupcakes.
▲* [[Book Ends]]: ''Manny Get Your Gun'' has this.
▲* [[The Brainless Beauty]]: Heavily inverted by Gloria, who initially comes across as this but is actually smart, spirited, and very sweet.
▲** Played straight most of the time with Haley, though she still manages to trick her parents into losing their family's contest in who can the longest without using computer and phone technology so she could win. She also manages to fool her family into thinking she has a job as a waitress. She also was (briefly) able to teach Alex how to get popular. In short, Haley may be book dumb but she is also fairly creative and socially savvy.
▲** Discussed by Claire and Gloria. Gloria feels others treat her like this... but also feels that others treat her only as this and nothing more, rather than seeing her as someone who can actually do things. Also deconstructed in the same episode in that the one person who has a reason to think this (a male character) doesn't.
▲* [[Brainy Brunette]]: Alex.
▲* [[Bratty Teenage Daughter]]: Haley
▲** In "Benched" Claire laments Alex turning into this when Alex wants to hang out with some friends at the mall and doesn't want Claire anywhere near her while doing so.
* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]: Gloria puts on a deliberately terrible American accent after Jay points out one too many mispronunciations.
** In the 2nd season Valentine's episode, Jay does a spot-on impersonation of Gloria's exaggerated accent (which involves "Yay" and "Meeetch").
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** Apparently imitating Gloria's accent is somewhat of a [http://youtu.be/Oqo4AiOLk20 behind-the-scenes pasttime].
* [[Bumbling Dad]]: Phil. Justified somewhat by his being allergic to many materials commonly used in home repair. He is, however, shown in "Fifteen Percent" to be competent with technology to a far greater extent than his wife or father-in-law.
* [[But He Sounds Handsome]]: Cameron invokes this trope while dressed as a clown named Fitzbo.▼
* [[Butch Lesbian]]: "We had initially asked one of our lesbian friends to be a surrogate. Then we figured they're already mean enough, can you imagine one of them pregnant?"
▲* [[But He Sounds Handsome]]: Cameron invokes this trope while dressed as a clown named Fitzbo.
* [[But Not Too Gay]]: The show was criticized by the gay community when Mitchell and Cameron hugged each other after a reunion at an airport, in contrast to straight couple Phil and Claire kissing. Of course, some noted that none of the couples seem overly affectionate with each other but this was a big sticking point.
** Another big problem was the season one Valentine's Day episode, where Mitchell and Cameron were relegated to helping Manny in his own romantic subplot rather than having one of their own, like everyone else.
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** The third-season finale, "Baby on Board" reveals that Luke hid Haley's college-acceptance letter because he didn't want her to leave. [[The Stinger|Underneath the closing credits]], he shares with his parents all the other mail that he'd been hiding, most of which relates to events in other episodes that season.
* [[Call Forward]]: Played ironically during the stinger for "Lifetime Supply". It consists of the [[Game Show Appearance]] where Phil won the title amount of razor blades. During it he talks about his in-laws' marriage as something that he admires, one that will last forever. By the show's first season they will already have been divorced for a while.
* [[Call It Karma]]: In S1 Ep04, "The Incident" Dede, Claire and Mitch's mother and Jay's first wife, listens to Claire and Haley arguing about Dylan. She laughs and tells Claire, "Karma is a funny thing" and tells Haley that she went through [[Generation Xerox|the same issues with Claire and Claire's then boyfriend, Ricky.]]▼
* [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: Done notably by Phil to Jay in the Season 3 premiere, "Dude Ranch". Phil reveals to the camera that the reason for the trip is to prove to Jay that he can be a real man. Later, Jay makes a derogatory comment regarding [[Generation Xerox|Haley and Dylan clearly meant to apply to Claire and Phil]]. Later, Phil calls Jay out on it in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
{{quote|'''Phil''': Jay, I wanna talk to you about that son-in-law crack you made at breakfast.
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'''Phil''': I think you did. I get that I wasn’t your first choice to marry Claire, but it’s been 18 years, and there hasn't been a day when I wasn't a loyal husband to your daughter and a great dad to your grandkids. So if we still got a problem now it’s your problem. }}
** Of course, despite this, [[Aesop Amnesia|immediately after this episode Phil reverts back]] to constantly [["Well Done, Son" Guy|requiring Jay's approval]].
▲* [[Call It Karma]]: In S1 Ep04, "The Incident" Dede, Claire and Mitch's mother and Jay's first wife, listens to Claire and Haley arguing about Dylan. She laughs and tells Claire, "Karma is a funny thing" and tells Haley that she went through [[Generation Xerox|the same issues with Claire and Claire's then boyfriend, Ricky.]]
* [[Camp Gay]]: Mitchell and Cameron play with this trope. Cameron has the attitude of [[Camp Gay]], while Mitchell has the interests associated with [[Camp Gay]], so while Cameron is overly emotional, uses wide gestures and talks about art, he loves football. Mitchell has the more subdued [[Invisible to Gaydar]] Attitude but used to figure skate... (Incidentally, Cameron's actor is straight, and Mitchell's is gay. And both have at least some of the same interests as their characters.)
** In "Good Cop Bad Dog," Mitch tells the camera that the only gay cliche he allows himself is loving [[Lady Gaga]]. [[Hypocritical Humor|Then he immediately uncrosses his legs]].
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* [[Christmas Episode]]: The fall finale of Season 1, Ep 10, "Undeck The Halls".
** And the fall finale of Season 3, "Express Christmas".
* [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]]: Claire to the point that her husband and children won't acknowledge she was right even when she has video taped evidence to prove herself.▼
** Although partially they won't admit she's right because she usually is.▼
* [[Closer to Earth]]: Claire to Phil. Sometimes Gloria to Jay but he's generally well off. To some extent, Mitchell to Cameron.
** While Gloria is sometimes this to Jay, it should be noted that, depending on the issue at hand, it's fairly frequent that Jay is the one who's [[Closer to Earth]].
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* [[Cold Open]]: Almost every episode begins with an [[Establishing Shot]] of one of the three residences: Claire and Phil's bungalow, Jay and Gloria's larger modernist house or Cameron and Mitchell's Mission-style apartment. The action then shifts to inside where the plot gets underway. A similar establishing shot serves as a transition to another household. The end of the opening becomes a freeze frame which another one of the families then holds as a framed picture, starting the credit sequence
* [[The Comically Serious]]: Mitchell on occasion, as his serious, uptight personality is contrasted by Cam's more free-spirited, dramatic tendencies.
▲* [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]]: Claire to the point that her husband and children won't acknowledge she was right even when she has video taped evidence to prove herself.
▲** Although partially they won't admit she's right because she usually is.
* [[Confession Cam]]▼
* [[Continuity Nod]]: In the episode ''The One That Got Away'', Haley and Alex's video for Jay's birthday consists of candid shots of the rest of the family during various past episodes that weren't shown onscreen.
** Phil keeps reminding Jay of the time he asked him to fix his computer printer in later episodes.
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* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Jay, although he would probably take offense to the term "old".
** 85 year old next door neighbor Walt apparently plays video games
▲* [[Confession Cam]]
* [[Cowboy Episode]]: the thrid season opener was a dude ranch episode.
* [[Crappy Holidays]]: As of the middle of season 3:
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* [[Emo Teen]]: Dylan
* [[Ensemble Cast]] - So much so that the show has had Emmy nominations for every adult actor but all in the supporting category.
* [[Precious Puppies]]: Stella, from Season 2 Episode 22 onwards.▼
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Some of the episodes have titles that are references to or plays on popular culture, while others have titles that simply describe the episode's plot or one of the sub-plots.
* [[Extracurricular Enthusiast]]: Alex. She plays the cello, plays lacrosse, and has participated in a bottle-collection program to help build schools in third-world countries. Note that she doesn't do all this because she loves all the activities, but rather to pad her resume for when she has to apply for colleges.
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** S3 Ep01, "Dude Ranch" reveals that the reason Phil treats Dylan so well, despite Claire hating him, is because Phil went through the same issues with Jay and Claire.
** S3 Ep02, "When Good Kids Go Bad" does this twice. The first is with Lily having the same possessive tendencies as Mitch, and the second is Jay having the same obsession with proving himself right as Claire which is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at the end after Jay has the same reaction Claire had earlier upon proving herself right, to which the rest of the family responds with a big "Oooohhhhhh".
* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: Lilly's Bunny. She keeps her dads up all night crying when he gets lost on the LA Subway in "Planes, Trains and Cars".▼
* [[Girls' Night Out Episode]]: Subverted in "Go Bullfrogs!". After Claire drops Luke off at a sleepover, the mother hosting it invites her to watch ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'' with all the other moms. Claire lies about not feeling well and having already seen it in order to take advantage of all her children and her husband being absent to go out with Cameron and Mitchell.▼
* [[The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry]]: Haley and Alex, different from the standard example in that neither sister is portrayed sympathetically.
** Sometimes subverted when the girls make a show of squabbling to try and get out of doing something.
** As of the middle of season 1, Alex is clearly winning.
* [[Go-To Alias]]: Clive Bixby for Phil, Juliana for Claire.▼
▲* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: Lilly's Bunny. She keeps her dads up all night crying when he gets lost on the LA Subway in "Planes, Trains and Cars".
▲* [[Girls' Night Out Episode]]: Subverted in "Go Bullfrogs!". After Claire drops Luke off at a sleepover, the mother hosting it invites her to watch ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'' with all the other moms. Claire lies about not feeling well and having already seen it in order to take advantage of all her children and her husband being absent to go out with Cameron and Mitchell.
* [[Gold Digger]]: Subverted with Gloria but who is actually a very nice person who genuinely loves Jay.
** S1 Ep05, "Coal Digger" has this as a plot point. It's revealed Claire originally thought Gloria was a gold-digger when she started dating Jay but had come to realize Gloria's sincerity by the point the show started. Gloria wasn't aware of this until this episode, however, and Claire {{spoiler|still has to jump in the pool in her good dress to apologize}}.
* [[Good Is Dumb]]: Despite insistence from Claire that he's a rebel, Dylan is actually quite the good guy who is willing to do what it takes to ensure that Haley betters herself even if it's not best before him. And he's dumb as bricks.
▲* [[Go-To Alias]]: Clive Bixby for Phil, Juliana for Claire.
* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: Mr. Kleezak, the Dunphy's next door neighbor, played by Phillip Baker Hall.
* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]: Normally, Gloria is a very fun and amiable person. She can also go ''berserk'' at the drop of a hat.
* [[Hates Being Touched]]: Mitchell <ref>FORCE FIELD!</ref>▼
** Barry, the handsome {{spoiler|and homeless}} aspiring "Reiki" master in ''Slow Down Your Neighbors".▼
* [[Happily Married]]: Jay and Gloria. Phil and Claire.
** While Mitchell and Cameron are certainly happy, they're not married, not even civilly united. This is confirmed in S2 Ep 11, "Slow Down Your Neighbors", where their disgruntled landlord tells them how happy they should be that they're not allowed to marry.
* [[Has Two Mommies|Has Two Daddies]]: Lily
▲* [[Hates Being Touched]]: Mitchell <ref>FORCE FIELD!</ref>
▲** Barry, the handsome {{spoiler|and homeless}} aspiring "Reiki" master in ''Slow Down Your Neighbors".
* [[Hidden Depths]]: In "See You Next Fall", Haley talks Alex out of her [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|mean-spirited]] middle-school graduation speech by admitting that she is actually very anxious about whether she'll graduate from high school with her own class or not.
* [[Hide Your Pregnancy]]: Julie Bowen was eight months pregnant with twins during the filming of the pilot, so they hid her behind laundry baskets and other assorted things.
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* [[In Love with Love]]: Manny
* [[Intelligence Equals Isolation]]: Alex is constantly ridiculed by Haley for not having any friends.
* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: By season 3 Luke and Mr. Slezak next door have started playing video games together. {{spoiler|Then Mr. Slezak dies}}.▼
* [[Interrupted Intimacy]]: Claire and Phil, by their children, at the beginning of "Caught in the Act'' during the second season.▼
* [[The Internet Is for Porn]]: Claire thinks Luke is looking at internet porn in "Not In My House".▼
* [[Irrevocable Message]]: The email Jay sends in Gloria's name to Claire in "Caught in the Act".▼
* [[It Got Worse]]: Happens almost every episode. The season 1 finale has many examples:▼
** Phil's confession that makes Claire even more upset with him▼
** Claire attempting to fix the slightly broken step, which only worsens it▼
** Mitchell attempting to kill the pigeon, which leaves his house in ruins▼
** Invoked in the third season episode "[[Leap Day]]"▼
{{quote|'''Mitchell''': It turned out that Cam's anxiety really wasn't about the party. It was about turning 40. When we realized it, that made things much worse.}}▼
* [[Intercourse with You]]: "In the Moonlight", a song Haley's boyfriend wrote for her in S1 Ep04, "The Incident", which he then ''sings for the entire family''.
{{quote|The stars are falling from the sky
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The moon is shining on your face
'Cause it finally feels it's found its place
'Cause maybe, baby
I just wanna do you, do you
Do you wanna do me, do me
Underneath the moonlight, the moonlight
Baby, maybe, maybe I will steal you, steal you
Just so I can feel you, feel you
Maybe that would heal you, heal you on the inside }}
** While they're all initially horrified, the next morning, all of them are [[Ear Worm|singing the song to themselves]].
▲* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: By season 3 Luke and Mr. Slezak next door have started playing video games together. {{spoiler|Then Mr. Slezak dies}}.
* [[It's a Costume Party, I Swear]]: Mitchell is told by his new co-workers that dressing up for Halloween is an office tradition. He arrives at in work in a [[Spider-Man]] costume only to discover no one else is in costume. (He later learns that the two he spoke to are the only two who ever dress up.) [[Hilarity Ensues]] as he puts a suit on over the costume and then spends the rest of the day trying to get an opportunity to change out of the costume.▼
▲* [[The Internet Is for Porn]]: Claire thinks Luke is looking at internet porn in "Not In My House".
▲* [[Interrupted Intimacy]]: Claire and Phil, by their children, at the beginning of "Caught in the Act'' during the second season.
▲* [[Irrevocable Message]]: The email Jay sends in Gloria's name to Claire in "Caught in the Act".
▲* [[It Got Worse]]: Happens almost every episode. The season 1 finale has many examples:
▲** Phil's confession that makes Claire even more upset with him
▲** Claire attempting to fix the slightly broken step, which only worsens it
▲** Mitchell attempting to kill the pigeon, which leaves his house in ruins
▲** Invoked in the third season episode "[[Leap Day]]"
▲{{quote|'''Mitchell''': It turned out that Cam's anxiety really wasn't about the party. It was about turning 40. When we realized it, that made things much worse.}}
* [[It Runs in The Family]]: Jay, Claire, and Mitchell have a habit of rushing everyone by shouting "Let's go!" repeatedly.
▲* [[It's a Costume Party, I Swear]]: Mitchell is told by his new co-workers that dressing up for Halloween is an office tradition. He arrives at in work in a [[Spider-Man]] costume only to discover no one else is in costume. (He later learns that the two he spoke to are the only two who ever dress up.) [[Hilarity Ensues]] as he puts a suit on over the costume and then spends the rest of the day trying to get an opportunity to change out of the costume.
* [[Jail Bait Wait]]: Sort of. Manny meets an adult woman in an online book club who mistakenly believes he's much older than he is. After they've met, and she's lamenting about how she'll never meet the right man, he suggests they try again in ten years if they're still single.
* [[Just Add Bitch]]:
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** In "Earthquake", "You know what they say, sometimes, when God closes a door...he closes it so hard your wife can't get out."
* [[Mind Your Step]]: The broken step in the Dunphy house is a running gag.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Gloria is ''the'' [[Ms. Fanservice]]. Claire seems fits this role a little less often.▼
** Desiree in "The Bicycle Thief", at least to Phil.▼
** Haley manages to fill this role occasionally, especially in S2 Ep06, "Halloween."▼
** In-universe. S3 Ep 08, "After The Fire" has Alex as this to a group of teenage nerds just by undoing her ponytail. As she tells a stunned Haley, "You have your fans. I have mine. [[Future Loser|Someday, your fans are going to work for my fans."]]▼
* [[Mistaken for Cheating]]: S1 Ep17, "Truth Be Told" has an interesting inversion. Phil has been keeping in touch with his old girlfriend for a while, and she come to visit him. {{spoiler|It's revealed she wants to have an affair with him and thought the whole reason had had been talking with her was to do so.}}
** Played with in the Season 1 finale, "Family Portrait". Phil believes that Gloria and Claire think he's cheating after Gloria kisses him at a basketball game when the kiss cam lands on them, and Phil and Manny receive some coincidental and unfortunately worded texts from Claire and Luke. It's more a case of "mistake for mistaken for cheating".
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* [[Mistaken for Racist]]: Phil wears a shirt that says 'If you ain't white you ain't right'. This is because he was on Team White at family camp. He is later confused as to why an African-American taxi driver seems rather disgruntled while unloading their bags.
** In "Starry Night" Cameron is talking about [[Ivy League for Everyone|Columbia and Brown University]] and a lawyer friend of Mitchell's, and says "I wish that tart would go back to Columbia and take her weird, little Brown friends with her" right as Gloria walks by.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: A recent episode goes from a serious discussion and realization of girls growing up quickly to Manny trying to impress a girl by slowly driving Mitch's car.▼
* [[Mockumentary]]
** As the series progresses, only the interview segments count, as much of the other action seem to take place without any cameras present (for instance, different angles of the same scene reveal there are no cameras around).
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''(pause)''<br />
'''Mitchell:''' [[Captain Obvious|Cam loves his mom.]] }}
▲* [[Mood Whiplash]]: A recent episode goes from a serious discussion and realization of girls growing up quickly to Manny trying to impress a girl by slowly driving Mitch's car.
* [[Mother-Daughter Threesome]]: Dylan has a dream about this involving Claire and Haley in "Chirp". Later on, when Haley gets sick and is lying in bed with Claire when Dylan calls Haley tells him she's in bed with her mother and then says, "Stop freaking out, It's not coming true."
▲* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Gloria is ''the'' [[Ms. Fanservice]]. Claire seems fits this role a little less often.
▲** Desiree in "The Bicycle Thief", at least to Phil.
▲** Haley manages to fill this role occasionally, especially in S2 Ep06, "Halloween."
▲** In-universe. S3 Ep 08, "After The Fire" has Alex as this to a group of teenage nerds just by undoing her ponytail. As she tells a stunned Haley, "You have your fans. I have mine. [[Future Loser|Someday, your fans are going to work for my fans."]]
* [[Murder Arson and Jaywalking]]: From "Slow Down Your Neighbors"
{{quote|'''Phil''': I wish I was one of those people who thrives on living a double life; [[Batman|Bruce Wayne]], [[Spider-Man|Peter Parker]], [[Hannah Montana]].}}
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** Comes up again in "Slow Down Your Neighbors" as Cameron's first reaction to potential trouble is "Let me grab my bat." Suffice to say, disregard Cameron at your own peril.
** Jay, as well; don't endanger Manny, mess with Mitchell or his grandkids....
* [[Parental Hypocrisy]]: Claire has a [[Former Teen Rebel|rebellious past]] (including being driven home by the police in her underwear) despite reprimanding Hayley for [[Generation Xerox|similar behavior]], though Claire justifies this as trying to prevent Hayley from making the same mistakes as her.▼
* [[Parenting the Husband]]: Phil and Claire.▼
* [[The Parent-Produced Project]]: Narrowly averted in "Starry Night" when Haley needs to bake some cupcakes for school and tricks her mother into making them by pretending to be incompetent in the kitchen. At the end of the episode, Claire catches on to the trickery and dumps the freshly baked cupcakes in the bin; telling Haley that now she has seen how it's done, she can do it herself. The ending subverts the trope, when everyone tries Haley's cupcakes and they're so terrible that Claire looks for the number for Poison Control.
** Inverted in another episode where the Dunphy parents decide NOT to help their kids for a change, since the kids have grown to take it for granted that the grownups will do all the work.
** Subverted by the third-season episode "Egg Drop". At the end Luke and Manny {{spoiler|admit they manipulated Claire and Jay into doing their projects for them}}.
▲* [[Parental Hypocrisy]]: Claire has a [[Former Teen Rebel|rebellious past]] (including being driven home by the police in her underwear) despite reprimanding Hayley for [[Generation Xerox|similar behavior]], though Claire justifies this as trying to prevent Hayley from making the same mistakes as her.
▲* [[Parenting the Husband]]: Phil and Claire.
* [[The Pete Best]]: In "Travels With Scout", Cameron fills in for the drummer of Dylan's band when their old drummer is forced to leave the band after moving away. After an awesome show (and an extremely long drum solo), the former drummer returns, stating that he didn't have to move away after all and can stay in the band. Cameron, after several moments of awkward silence, leaves with the statement "Good luck following that, Ringo."
** "Dude, you really need to label those sticks!"
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* [[Playing Sick]]: Cameron feigns a back injury after brunch at the Dunphys in "Virgin Territory" so he can search for a Tupperware bowl that hasn't been returned to him.
* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]: When Cameron and Mitchell think that there's a man in Lily's bedroom, Cameron immediately grabs a [[Batter Up|baseball bat]] and says, "It's go time..."
▲* [[Precious Puppies]]: Stella, from Season 2 Episode 22 onwards.
* [[Primal Scene]]: In "Caught In the Act" the Dunphy kids walk in on their parents having sex.
* [[Product Placement]]: Maybe. The show dedicated an entire episode to Phil's birthday quest for an iPad. Even though the episode aired two days before the launch of the iPad, all parties concerned swear no money or product changed hands over the placement.
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* [[Skeleton Key Card]]: Gloria opening the locker in "When Good Kids Go Bad".
* [[Slasher Smile]]: Claire is horrified to learn that she gets one whenever she talks about death, and it causes some problems with the friends of her recently dead neighbor. "Please, I only just found out my face does this!"
* [[So Bad It's Good]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]]; Phil and Claire love to watch B-movies.▼
* [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]]: The infant twins who originally played Lily were replaced by four year old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons for season 3, due to their discomfort on the set. Less so than most cases of this since she only aged about six months.
▲* [[So Bad It's Good]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]]; Phil and Claire love to watch B-movies.
* [[Sorry, I'm Gay]]: Completely inverted in "Treehouse". Cameron bets Mitchell and Longinus that he can get an attractive woman at the bar to at least give him her phone number. The inversion is compounded when you know that Eric Stonestreet is straight in real life.
* [[So Unfunny It's Funny]]: Phil's (lack of) sense of humor.
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* [[Teen Pregnancy]]: In "Regrets Only" Haley lies to her parents about being a waitress at a restaurant, so when they have dinner at her restaurant, she has to fake the job, which she does by getting a table out of view of her family's table and orders whatever the family has ordered. When her server gets suspicious of how much she's ordering, she uses being pregnant as an excuse.
* [[Throwing Out the Script]]: Season 2 finale has an inversion: a sincere speech {{spoiler|(Alex's mean-spirited valedictorian speech) gets thrown out in favor of a bunch of lies}}.
* [[Too Much Information]]: Dede, talking to Mitchell and Claire, her children: "Anyway, until I'm past this whole wedding debacle, I can't be intimate with [Chaz, the man she's moving in with]. We do things to each other; we use our hands..."▼
** Essentially the entire plot of "Caught in the Act"▼
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Alex and Haley, however, while Haley's girly girl is definitely the case, Alex's tomboy is mostly only implied, with the aspects of it, such as her being a lacrosse player, only being mentioned and not shown.
** Also, lesser example with Gloria and Claire, as Gloria occasionally shows signs of being a closeted [[Tomboy]].
▲* [[Too Much Information]]: Dede, talking to Mitchell and Claire, her children: "Anyway, until I'm past this whole wedding debacle, I can't be intimate with [Chaz, the man she's moving in with]. We do things to each other; we use our hands..."
▲** Essentially the entire plot of "Caught in the Act"
* [[Totally Radical]]: Part of Phil's "cool dad" schtick.
* [[Transparent Closet]]: Alex's prom date in "Baby on Board."
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** S1 Ep03, [[Frank Sinatra|"Come Fly With Me"]], has Phil trying to be friends with Jay at Claire's request, as well as be accepted by Jay. Jay responds by eventually [[Crowning Moment of Funny|flying a toy airplane into Phil's face.]]
** In the Season 3 premier, "Dude Ranch", Phil finally gets tired of Jay mistreating him and [[Calling the Old Man Out|stands up to him]]. Despite Jay finally seeming to get it and this being a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Phil, he's [[Aesop Amnesia|immediately back]] to needing Jay's constant approval [[Snap Back|after the episode]].
* [[Wham! Episode]]: The third season finale "Baby on Board" ends with {{spoiler|Gloria revealing she's pregnant.}}▼
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: In-universe, very frequently with Phil.
** Everything's in slow motion and overlapped with Cam singing "Ave Maria" when Mitchell tries to kill a pigeon, unwittingly wrecking the living room.
* [[Wicked Stepmother]]: Claire occasionally feels this way about Gloria.▼
* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Manny, to the point a woman online mistook him for an older guy. Alex believes she's this, but she is actually very immature.▼
▲* [[Wham! Episode]]: The third season finale "Baby on Board" ends with {{spoiler|Gloria revealing she's pregnant.}}
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: Phil and clowns.
** Mitchell and mice.
** And Manny and ''butterflies''.
▲* [[Wicked Stepmother]]: Claire occasionally feels this way about Gloria.
▲* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Manny, to the point a woman online mistook him for an older guy. Alex believes she's this, but she is actually very immature.
* [[Women Drivers]]: Gloria and Haley. Plus Cameron and Mitchell's Asian doctor.
** That last one is more [[Asian Drivers]]. The entire rest of Cam and Mitchell's story that episode involved Cameron unintentionally attributing Asian stereotypes to the doctor, only for her to subvert them.
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