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[[File:modernfamily_7069.png|frame|One big (straight, gay,
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The Pritchetts, a [[May-December Romance|May-December]] interracial couple: Ed O'Neill as the 60-something Jay married to the 30-something Gloria (played by Sofia Vergara), with an 11-year-old stepson, Manny.
And finally, Mitchell & Cameron (Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet<ref>who won an Emmy for this role in 2010</ref>), a gay couple who recently adopted a baby, Lily (Jayden & Ella in
At the end of the pilot, it's revealed that [[First Episode Spoiler|all three families are related (Claire and Mitchell are Jay's children from a past marriage) and cross over into one another's stories.]] Episodes tend to rely on standard family comedy tropes and plot lines, in a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|modern]] setting. The show uses the Docucomedy format popularized by ''[[The Office]]'', and to great effect. But despite all these gimmicks, ''Modern Family'''s greatest strength is its excellent writing and acting.
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=== This series features examples of: ===
* [[A-Cup Angst]]: In
* [[Abraham Lincoln]]: "Robot Lincoln" is [[Your Favorite|Jay's Favorite]] Disneyland attraction.
* [[Absentee Actor]]: Ariel Winter missed several episodes in
* [[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.
* [[Aerith and Bob]]: A non-fantasy example with Cam's list of friends he wanted to invite to his fundraiser in
* [[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 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.
* [[All Women Love Shoes]]: Deconstructed somewhat in "Disneyland
* [[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]]
* [[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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* [[Badass Santa]]: Technically Badass Temporary Mall Santa, but Scott from the Christmas episode still counts.
* [[The Beard]]:
** Tracy, Mitchell's girlfriend from high school. She even names this trope in
** Alex is one for her prom date, though he doesn't realize he's gay yet.
{{quote|'''Alex''': I guess I'm his beard. His pre-beard. His stubble.}}
* [[Beard of Evil]]: One gets drawn on Manny while he's asleep at a slumber party.
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Phil in
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaiWbVimKD4 "You poked the bear, girls! You poked him!"]
* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] : All the characters are related. This also leads to interesting relationships like Manny technically being Luke's (step-)uncle.
** Any time Manny refers to Claire or Mitchell as his sister or brother, they flinch briefly.
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: Some of Gloria's lines.
* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: Claire, at the end of "Me? Jealous?". After Phil has been proved right that his new business partner, Greg Kinnear, isn't flirting with her because he kisses ''everyone'', even his own son, on the lips as a routine greeting, Claire gets Phil jealous anyway by laughing at Greg's jokes.
* [[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
* [[Book Ends]]:
* [[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.
** Sarah Hyland might be a meta/actor-example, having recently made it in the top 50 of Maxim's Hot 100. This is ''twenty one places ahead'' of co-star Sofia Vergara, who's on her third consecutive year on the list.
* [[Brick Joke]]: In the third season, brick jokes have become part of the norm and unlike many comedies, doesn't always explain the joke with them. It pays to pay attention.
** In "Fizbo
** Also the bike shorts make a re-appearance several episodes later despite being the focus of the initial episode it was in.
*** They were in a montage it could have been chronologically at the same point. This Troper seems to remember him wearing the same shirt
*** And they appeared again in the
** In "Dance Dance Revelation", Phil gets frustrated with the constant pressure with Jay questioning his masculinity, and ends up chasing and repeatedly spraying "Oasis for Men" perfume on a clerk who gave him an unprompted sample. Then, in the ending credits:
{{quote|'''[Cameron ends a sympathetic phone call]'''
'''Cameron''': That was Longinus, he's in a very bad place.
'''Mitchell''': Oh no! What happened?
'''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.
* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]: Gloria puts on a deliberately terrible American accent after Jay points out one too many mispronunciations.
** In the
** He does it again in "Disneyland".
** 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.
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*** Of course, that doesn't explain why we never saw them kissing inside their house before. The episode established he didn't have a problem kissing Cam when they were alone, even if they were on camera.
* [[California Doubling]]: Averted, as the show takes place in the Los Angeles suburbs and the two times it's traveled for [[Vacation Episode|vacation episodes]], in Hawaii and Wyoming, the episodes were actually filmed on location there.
* [[Call Back]]: Many in the
** In "Leap Day", when someone proposes the Amelia's restaurant as an alternate site for Cam's party, Mitchell nixes it because of what happened between them and the owner in "Caught in the Act" the previous season.
** The events of "Bixby's Back" are brought up by Claire's political opponent ([[Arrested Development (TV series)|David Cross]]) in a political debate a season later in "Little Bo Bleep".
** The third-season finale
* [[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.
* [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: Done notably by Phil to Jay in the Season 3 premiere
{{quote|'''Phil''': Jay, I wanna talk to you about that son-in-law crack you made at breakfast.
'''Jay''': Aw, I didn’t mean anything by that.
'''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
* [[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
** When introducing Lily to the family Cam holds her up
{{quote|'''Mitchell:''' Cam, will you please tone it down?
'''Cameron:''' I can't, it's who I am.
'''Mitchell:''' The MUSIC, Cam.
'''Cameron:''' Oh.
** Speaking of ''The Lion King'', Mitchell and Cam's friend "Pepper" Saltzman, played by Nathan(Timon)Lane. Pepper is this trope '''to the max'''.
* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: Phil can't bring himself to tell Mitchell he's fired as the agency lawyer in the third-season episode "Tableau Vivant
* [[Captain Obvious]]: Gloria states that, in Colombia, it is considered very bad luck for your house to burn down.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: One would think it would be Cameron's drumming, but an even better qualification would be Fizbo the Clown, who was created by Eric Stonestreet when he was nine.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Jay's "Of course you did".
* [[Caught on the Jumbotron]]: In one episode, Phil and Gloria kiss at a Lakers game after being caught on the Kiss Cam.
* [[Chastity Couple]]: Cam and Mitchell, and arguably Gloria and Jay too. This becomes more pronounced when compared to Phil and Claire who share kisses in almost every episode.
** Recently both couples have begun working on averting this.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|The bar of soap and the sharpie in "Unplugged
** At the beginning of "Door to Door", Mitchell reminds Cameron that the social worker is coming for their adoption
* [[Christmas Episode]]: The fall finale of Season 1
** And the fall finale of Season 3
* [[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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** Although partially they won't admit she's right because she usually is.
* [[Confession Cam]]
* [[Continuity Nod]]: In the episode
** Phil keeps reminding Jay of the time he asked him to fix his computer printer in later episodes.
* [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]]: Luke's answer to anyone's failure of accomplishment is his water gun, as both Gloria and Haley learned the hard way.
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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
* [[Cowboy Episode]]: the
* [[Crappy Holidays]]: As of the middle of
** Two [[Christmas Episode|Christmas episodes]] ("Undeck the Halls" and "Express Christmas").
** Two [[Valentines Day Episode|Valentine's Day episodes]] ("My Funky Valentine" and its second-season sequel, "Bixby's Back", the highest-rated episode of the first two seasons).
** One [[Thanksgiving Episode]] ("Punkin Chunkin").
** One Mother's Day episode ("[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Mother's Day]]").
* [[Creepy Uncle]]: Manny, sort of. He has a crush on Haley, who is technically his niece. Of course, they're only related by marriage, close to the same age, and did not grow up together so how creepy Manny is will vary.
** Additionally, it's made very clear that Manny a) also has had interest in other girls and b) is all about the romance. Their scenes can still have some awkward moments, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be.
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** On a similar note, when Mitchell refers to Cam as "the sexy 8 year old I fell in love with" (Cam was born on a leap day) at an amusement park.
* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Gloria occasionally falls into this territory and is revealed to be much tougher than she initially appears. While not all that stupid, she's usually portrayed as considerably more [[Ditz|ditzy]] than the other characters.
* [[Cutaway Gag]]: In the Season 2 finale
* [[Cute but Cacophonic]]: As attractive as Gloria is, her singing and shouting voices are rather grating. A neighbor once even mistook her for a noisy parrot.
* [[Cute Shotaro Boy]]: Manny is a rare Western example.
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** To a lesser extent, Haley to Phil.
* [[Dating What Daddy Hates]]: Gender inverted. Phil is actually very fond of Dylan (to the point where ''Phil'' was more distraught over Haley breaking up with Dylan than Haley was), but Claire dislikes him and has tried breaking him and Haley up.
** Played straight with Claire, Phil, and Jay. The Season 3 premiere
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Alex and Mitchell.
** Gloria occasionally gets in on the act, too
** In the first two seasons, Lily very frequently looks like she would be this if she could talk. Check out her reactions to her daddies (particularly Cam). She gets a nice glance-aside in the Mother's Day episode of
*** In an early
** Jay, literally the granddaddy of all deadpan snarking, but what do you expect from the man who used to be [[Married... with Children|Al Bundy]]?
* [[Depending on the Writer]]: Alex's social life. Some episodes have either her being ostracized by her peers or her having a snobbish attitude toward them or simply being more concerned with studying and school. Other episodes show her having friends and being at least somewhat socially active. While this is possible in [[Real Life]], especially for a teenager, what differs is how each scenario is shown.
** Phil's intelligence/goofiness.
* [[Determinator]]: In "Someone To Watch Over Lily", Alex reveals that she hates playing cello but continues to do so because she's never quit anything in her life.
* [[Didn't Think This Through]]: In "Caught In The Act", after the Dunphy kids walk in on [[Primal Scene|Phil and Claire having sex]], they get their parents a good lock for their door. The problem? Said lock is very loud, enough to be heard throughout the house, and basically informs the kids every time their parents are about to go at it.
* [[Digging Yourself Deeper]]: Alex in "Strangers On a Treadmill" when she's talking on the phone to a popular girl.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]:
** Another example is when, during a slumber party, Manny's friends doodled on his face while he was asleep. Jay suggested that Manny get even by pranking them back, and he did. How? {{spoiler|By setting his friend's bike on fire
* [[Distracted by the Sexy]]: Near the beginning of "Hit and Run", Jay has a hard time pitching his redesign for closets his company makes to his new boss. At the end of the episode, he takes the same redesign but lets Gloria pitch it. The boss changes his tune and doesn't even bat an eye to the redesign.
* [[The Ditz]]: Haley and Luke. And, to a lesser extent, Phil and Cameron. Gloria isn't too much of this, but she's definitely portrayed as such.
** [[Genius Ditz]]: Luke occasionally shows signs of this. Dylan, as well. Consider that he's able to write an [[Intercourse with You]] song about Haley [[Ear Worm|that's so catchy]] that he sings it ''for her entire family with her sitting right next to him'', that even though they're initially horrified, the next morning, they're all singing it to themselves.
* [[Dragged Into Drag]]: Luke, at the end of "Me? Jealous?". Apparently, it's something Haley and Alex had both done to him more frequently when they were all younger.
* [[Ear Worm]]: In-universe, in
* [[Elevator Failure]]: After Phil finally brings himself to fire Mitchell as the agency lawyer in the third-season "Tableau Vivant", Mitchell is stuck in the elevator with the doors not quite shut for some time.
* [[Economy Cast]]
* [[Emo Teen]]: Dylan.
* [[Ensemble Cast]]
* [[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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* [[Fan Disservice]]: Cam in bike shorts.
* [[Fetish]]: Haley sends a picture of her feet to a prospective boyfriend in "Egg Drop".
* [[Forbidden Fruit]]: In
{{quote|'''Phil''': Breasts are like these scary, mystical things that he's drawn to like [[Lord of the Rings|Frodo to Mordor]].}}
**
* [[Former Teen Rebel]]: Claire.
{{quote|'''Claire''': Your kids don’t need to know who you were before you had them. They need to know who you wish you were, and they need to try to live up to that person. They’re gonna fall short but better they fall short of the fake you, than the real you.
* [[Future Loser]]: Haley is the butt of a lot of jokes that involve this.
* [[Game Show Appearance]]: Phil won his lifetime supply of razors on "Smarty Pants" in "Lifetime Supply".
* [[Gangsta Style]]: The way Gloria holds a BB gun in "Manny Get Your Gun".
* [[Generation Xerox]]: Quite a lot. Phil and Luke are this as are Claire and Haley, and Claire has mentioned she is specifically trying to prevent this with Haley. Jay has also shown similar traits to both Claire and Mitch.
**
**
**
** In
**
**
* [[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
* [[Go-To Alias]]: Clive Bixby for Phil, Juliana for Claire.
* [[Gold Digger]]: Subverted with Gloria but who is actually a very nice person who genuinely loves Jay.
**
* [[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.
* [[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.
* [[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
* [[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.
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: In the second-season finale
* [[Hollywood Nerd]]: Alex is a Type 2. It's a little difficult to believe any of Haley's comments about her having issues with boys when she's played by [http://www.google.com/imgres?q=ariel+winter&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&tbm=isch&tbnid=S_Fy9Rk3iQyoPM:&imgrefurl=http://desistarsclub.blogspot.com/2011/03/teen-actress-and-singer-ariel-winter.html&docid=qoBvp0__o9coDM&w=788&h=1000&ei=SFR-TpygFJSBsgKHz7Qi&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=493&vpy=53&dur=4762&hovh=253&hovw=199&tx=100&ty=176&page=3&tbnh=112&tbnw=88&start=31&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:31&biw=1025&bih=420 Ariel Winter].
**
* [[Homage]]: To ''[[The Godfather]]'' with Cam singing "Ava Maria" at a formal wedding,
* [[Hot Mom]]: Both Claire and Gloria.
* [[How We Got Here]]: "Fizbo" uses this to its fullest possible extent.
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** Claire jokes on the phone with Mitchell about Cameron breaking down and crying when she told him he doesn't look good in bike shorts. Mitchell responds sarcastically that of course all gay men do that, only for Cameron to do just that off-camera.
** In "Leap Day", Gloria is trying to restrain Jay when the boat captain tells the extended family and cam and Mitchell's friends that they can't all get on the boat as the limit is 24. She reminds him that, contrary to what she'd suggested to him earlier in the episode, she likes that he is cool and rational. But when the captain refers to Jay as "grandpa" she punches him in the nose.
* [[I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!]]: Subverted and played straight in Season 3's "[[Christmas Episode|Express Christmas]]". While [[Product Placement|shopping at Target]], Haley uses this technique to acquire Lily's gift.
* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Apparently Gloria can do some impressive things with a BB-Gun, and can do them [[Gangsta Style]].
{{quote|'''Gloria:''' [shoots an inflatable island Manny is lounging on]
'''Manny:''' You could have shot me!
'''Gloria:''' Oh please, [[Badass Boast|I could have unbuttoned your shirt]].
* [[Incessant Music Madness]]: Jay gives Gloria a karaoke machine, and she keeps singing off key, to Jay's dismay. He keeps trying to break it to her gently, but in the end it's Manny who snaps and yells at her to stop. In [[The Stinger]], Jay tries out the karaoke machine, but Manny pulls the plug and warns Jay, "[[Implied Death Threat|This won't be the last plug I pull.]]"
* [[In Love with Love]]: Manny.
* [[Intelligence Equals Isolation]]: Alex is constantly ridiculed by Haley for not having any friends.
* [[Intercourse with You]]: "In the Moonlight", a song Haley's boyfriend wrote for her in
{{quote|The stars are falling from the sky
And you're the reason why
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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
* [[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
* [[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
** 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
* [[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]]:
{{quote|'''Mitchell'''(after the apparent reconciliation of his mother w/ Gloria): Okay, you see? We're all gonna move past this because of me, who's not a [[Momma's Boy]] but is a caring person with wisdom and emotional insights, so make a note, bitches!}}
* [[Karma Houdini]]:
** In "Regrets Only", Alex catches Haley faking having a job as a waitress, and convinces the family to have dinner at the restaurant. But she makes the mistake of gloating to Haley first, and
** Phil in "When Good Kids Go Bad". Phil puts Claire into a physically dangerous situation while he flirts with another woman. Phil doesn't even ask if his wife is okay, and tries to blame the situation on her. Later he jokes about it with his kids, and gets them to agree with his version of events (despite them not being there). When Clair gets video taped evidence that's supports her version of events, the rest of the family guilt her into believing she went to far to prove she war right. At no point does Phil apologize for any of his behavior.
* [[Kidanova]]: Manny, at least in his own mind.
* [[Kids Prefer Boxes]]: Luke is like this. One year, they decided to just give him a box for his birthday. Unfortunately, they put it in a nice bag and he spent all day playing with the bag.
** When Phil's dad visits
* [[Kitschy Local Commercial]]: Lily gets a part in one of these. Along with all of the usual cheesiness, this commercial is also extremely racist.
* [[Large Ham]]: Cameron, especially when he's on a juice fast. In the same scenario, even Mitchell became one.
* [[Leap Day]]: Promotion for the new episode revealed that Cameron was born on it and he's "technically" ten years old.
** No, he's technically only had ten birthdays. He has still been alive forty years, making him forty years old. Mitchell tries repeatedly to explain this to him in the episode, to no avail
* [[Lethal Chef]]: Haley's attempt at cupcakes.
** She was only failing to get out of doing it, we never find out if she is really that bad.
*** At the end of the episode, she makes a batch of cupcakes the family tries and as soon as she leaves the room they call for Poison Control.
* [[Light Feminine and Dark Feminine]]: As Alex's supposed tomboyish-ness is an [[Informed Ability]], Alex seems to be a light feminine (cares about grades, pleasing others, wants to buy a doll in one episode) to Haley's dark feminine (more interested in guys, popularity
* [[Magic Feather]]: Played straight in "Treehouse", when Mitchell gives Jay a little pill to cure his shyness about salsa dancing. Turns out it's chewable baby aspirin.
* [[Magical Queer]]: Played with in Cameron's urge to solve anyone's personal problem that he might stumble across (to the point of hosting a wedding). Mitchell is not happy about it at all.
** Cameron does, however, making a point of stating that he would not be a [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged|Magical Disabled Person]], however:
{{quote|''(when Mitch is attempting to build a playhouse for Lily, badly)'' "If an accident does happen, I hope he kills me. Because I don't think I would be a very inspiring disabled person."}}
** Subverted in "Treehouse", when a woman to whom he's pretended to be straight in order to win a bet that he could get her phone number
* [[Malaproper]]: Gloria (due sometimes to her accent) and also Haley.
* [[Man Child]]: Phil.
* [[Mathematician's Answer]]: In the
{{quote|'''Haley:''' Dylan! Where are you?
'''Dylan:''' Wyoming!
* [[May-December Romance]]: Jay and Gloria. One episode has Manny accidentally going on a date with an adult though nothing serious happened.
* [[Meganekko]]: Alex (although in the third-season finale,
* [[Menstrual Menace]]: Played absolutely straight in "Leap Day
* [[Metaphorgotten]]: "No, see, this is exactly why we sweep things under the rug. So people don't get hurt." "Well, yeah, until you sweep too much under the rug. Then you got a lumpy rug. Creates a tripping hazard. Open yourself up to lawsuits. [[Death Glare|Boy, you can go a really long time without blinking.]]"
** 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.
* [[Mistaken for Cheating]]:
** Played with in the Season 1 finale
**
* [[Mistaken for Gay]]:
* [[Mistaken for Pedophile]]: Happens on two separate occasions to Cam and Mitchell - Cam when he was trying to help Manny win over a classmate, Mitchell when reassuring Cam (whose birthday falls on Feb 29) that he's still the "same eight year-old [he] fell in love with".
* [[Mistaken for Racist]]: Phil wears a shirt that says 'If you ain't white you ain't right
** 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.
* [[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).
Line 313:
** Mitchell.
{{quote|'''Cameron:''' There's a fish in nature that swims around with its babies in its mouth. That fish would look at Mitchell's relationship with his mother and say, 'That's messed up.'}}
**
** Cameron too.
{{quote|'''Cameron:''' She raised four kids, two barns, and a whole lot o' hell.
Line 319:
'''Cameron:''' And that song would be called "The Greatest Woman That Ever Lived".<br />
''(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
** In-universe.
* [[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]].}}
* [[Nerds Are Sexy]]: In
{{quote|'''Alex:'''''You have your fans...I have my mine. [[Future Loser|Someday, your fans are going to work for my fans]].''}}
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: In a
{{quote|'''Cam''': Disabled interracial lesbians with an African kicker!
'''Mitch''': Did not see that one coming.
* [[No Periods, Period]]: Averted by "Leap Day", where Phil, Luke and Manny step gingerly around Claire, Haley and Alex when they realize [[wikipedia:Menstrual synchrony|it's that time of the month for all three of them]].
* [[Not Blood Siblings]]: Manny has been shown crushing on Haley and Alex, and Luke has been shown crushing on Gloria.
** In the Season 1 finale
{{quote|'''Manny''': Wouldn't it be embarrassing if they put the camera on us and we had to kiss?
'''Alex''': We're related.
'''Manny''': Not by blood.
'''Alex''': Touch me, and there will be blood
* [[Not What It Looks Like]]: In "Our Children, Ourselves", Mitchell sees an old girlfriend ([[24|Mary Lynn Rajskub]]), with whom he once had a tryst before he came out, in the mall accompanied by what appears to be a child with red hair. He frets that without realizing it he fathered a child by her, and Cameron persuades him to buy a gift and meet the boy. However, when they finally do,
* [[Oedipus Complex]]: While they can manage to be civil, in general, Jay and Mitchell do ''not'' get along. This has gotten better in later episodes.
* [[Of Course I'm Not a Virgin]]: Early in "Virgin Territory", Alex laughs out loud when she mistakes her father's words "Haley's aversion" for "Haley's a virgin", which leads Phil to the realization that his oldest daughter isn't.
Line 362:
* [[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
* [[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!"
* [[Playing Both Sides]]: In "The Last Walt", Haley gets Gloria to let her have a pool party at their house while she and Jay are out by telling her her uncle will chaperone. When it's actually time for the party, Haley tells Manny he's the chaperone (
* [[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.
{{quote|'''Phil:''' The iPad is being released on MY birthday! It's like God and Steve Jobs got together to say 'Happy Birthday, Phil!'}}
** The show got this again in
** A definite product placement in the episode "Express Christmas"
** The episode "Send Out the Clowns" was the first new episode to air after Oreo's 100th Birthday. Briefly Phil takes some time out to talk to Luke about how to open and eat an Oreo. As with the ''Muppets'' example above, an Oreo commercial aired at the first commercial break.
** Most of the "Disneyland" episode takes place at that attraction, owned by ABC's parent company. And once again a themed commercial appeared within the program, this time for ''[[Cars]]'' ''World'', a new attraction in Disney World.
* [[Put on a Bus]]: Dylan takes a job in Jackson Hole in the
** [[The Bus Came Back]]: Dylan returned in "Disneyland" at the end of
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Alex plans on giving this to her classmates as her valedictorian speech at her grade school graduation
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Any given pair among the main cast (whether married, siblings, or step-cousins), though sometimes the roles are switched.
* [[Right Behind Me]]: Cameron makes disparaging comments about Ivy League schools Columbia and Brown at a family event. Gloria (from Colombia) overhears and misinterprets. Cameron tries to explain himself. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
Line 388:
* [[Rube Goldberg Device]]: Luke and Manny set one up in the Dunphy kitchen where picking up a cookie causes a carton of milk to spill in order to get Lily in trouble. Instead Cameron picks up the cookie and slips on the puddle of spilled milk on the floor.
* [[Running Gag]]: We have got to fix that step.
** Fixed for about two seconds in Season Two
{{quote|'''Phil:''' ''Seriously'', I just fixed that!}}
*** It's probably just a coincidence, but this also looks a lot like a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[Tintin]]'' comic, ''The Castafiore Emerald'', which had the exact same running gag a few decades earlier.
*** It seems to particularly annoy Phil as he comments on it more than the others. Happens multiple times in the
** Phil's crush on Gloria.
{{quote|'''Phil:''' "I got Gloria."}}
Line 402:
'''Claire:''' Sweet J-
'''Luke:''' She remembered he's my favorite character from ''Toy Story''.
'''Claire:''' ...she did.
** Mitchell really hates birds.
** Manny's fear of butterflies.
Line 409:
* [[Screams Like a Little Girl]]: Cameron, generally when Lily is in trouble. Over the phone, he was mistaken for Mitchell's panicked ''wife''.
* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Phil and Jay; Cam and Mitchell, at least comparatively. Manny and Luke sometimes fall into this.
* [[Sequel Episode]]: In "Bixby's Back", the second-season [[Valentines Day Episode]], Phil and Claire decide to ditch a boring restaurant by resuming the same roles they played in the first-season V-day
* [[Serious Business]]: In "Leap Day
* [[Shaking Her Hair Loose]]: In "After the Fire", Alex undoes her ponytail and shakes her hair loose in front of a group older nerds who have crushes on her before she stops them from bullying Luke and Manny.
* [[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: Alex, occasionally. Easy to do for Type 2 [[Hollywood Nerd|Hollywood Nerds]].
Line 417:
** Let's not forget [[Roots|Alex and Haley]].
*** Alex and Haley could also be a [[Shout-Out]] to another movie dealing with [[The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry]], ''Wish Upon A Star'', where the sisters were named Alexia and Hayley.
** Jay's repeated "it's not fair" after his ebook reader is broken is a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[Cruel Twist Ending|Time Enough At Last]]
** Luke says it would be cool if their plane crashed on the island from ''[[Lost]]'', while Claire then looks into the camera with a shocked look. The actress who plays Claire also played Jack Shepard's wife on ''Lost
** Lampshaded by Phil when Dylan is playing his iPhone outside Haley's window in a scene clearly referencing ''[[Say Anything]]''. Dylan has apparently never heard of this movie.
** Mitchell destroying the house undercut by Cameron singing at a wedding is a parody of ''[[The Godfather]]''.
** There are a couple to [[Angela Lansbury]] early in
* [[Significant Reference Date]]: The episode
* [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]]: Luke begins to see Lily as this.
* [[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!"
* [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]]: The infant twins who originally played Lily were replaced by four year old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons for
* [[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.
Line 432:
* [[Spicy Latina]]: Gloria, natch.
* [[Stacy's Mom]]: "Send Out the Clowns" made it official for Gloria, as Manny's new "friend" was only interested in her.
* [[Standardized Sitcom Housing]]: The Dunphy house.
* [[The Stinger]]: Often during the credits instead of after, but the same concept. Sometimes pertains to the plot but oftentimes is just an isolated joke (such as Lilly being dressed as Carmen Miranda).
* [[Strangers on a Train Plot Murder]]: "Strangers On a Treadmill". Mitchell even references the movie by name and suggests using the movie's plot as a solution for him and Claire to break bad news to their significant others. And much like the movie
* [[Straw Vulcan]]: In "Lifetime Supply", Jay and Manny go the horse track with Manny's father, Javier ([[Law and Order|Benjamin Bratt]]). Jay chooses his horses based on the information in the ''Daily Racing Form''. Javier bets on a horse because "I looked him in the eyes, and he told me this would be his day
* [[Stupid Statement Dance Mix]]: Happens to Phil after a horrifically awkward speech about how much he loves sex with Claire. "Some sick bastard autotuned me."
* [[Surrounded by Idiots]]: Alex, frequently.
* [[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
* [[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
{{quote|'''Alex''': (''[[Confession Cam|to camera]]'') Yeah, my bad-boy prom date is gay. But he doesn't know it yet.}}
* [[Trophy Wife]]: Gloria is a surprisingly sympathetic example.
* [[Twerp Sweating]]: Done unintentionally by Phil to Dylan in
* [[Twofer Token Minority]]: More than two. Mitchell and Cameron want to get Lily into an exclusive preschool and figure that they're shoo-ins because she's an adopted Vietnamese girl with two gay dads. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|They get beaten by an interracial lesbian couple, one of whom is Indian and disabled, with an adopted African baby]].
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Jay and Gloria; also, Mitchell and Cameron, as Dede is only all too eager to point out.
* [[The Unfavorite]]: Played with in regards to Claire, Mitch, and their parents. Claire is the unfavorite to Gloria and Dede, and is [[Daddy's Girl|much closer to Jay]], while Mitch is the unfavorite to Jay and is [[Momma's Boy|much closer with Gloria and Dede]].
* [[Universal Driver's License]]: Averted in "Express Christmas". Cameron insists that having grown up on a farm and knowing how to drive heavy equipment like tractors gives him expertise in driving a rented moving truck, but it grows apparent that it does not.
* [[Uranus Is Showing]] : Averted in the episode "Starry Night", where {{spoiler|Mitchell got sprayed by a skunk while star gazing with Manny and Jay}}. Any other eleven-year-old would made fun of him with a reference to Uranus, [[Wise Beyond Their Years|but what did Manny say]]?
{{quote|'''Manny''': Hey, Jay, is that Venus? Because I can smell the clouds of pure sulfuric acid from here!.}}
* [[Vacation Episode]]: To Hawaii.
* [[Vignette Episode]]: The pilot seems to be one of these, until the reveal at the end.
* [[Waxing Lyrical]]: In "See You Next Fall", Haley tells Alex that the best way to give a speech is to use song lyrics and to use the lines "[[Journey (band)|don't stop believin']]" and "[[Pink|get this party started]]".
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Phil to Jay.
**
** In the Season 3 premier
* [[Wham! Episode]]: The third season finale "Baby on Board" ends with
* [[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.
|