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Modern Family (view source)

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** The entirety of "Fizzbo" for Eric Stonestreet, who created the clown character for himself at age 11.
** Pepper says of "Walk Like a Man," "I can sing it but I can't do it," referencing Nathan Lane's character in ''[[The Birdcage]]''.
* [[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}}.
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* [[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.
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* [[Call Back]]: Many in the season two finale "The One That Got Away".
** 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, "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.
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* [[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 Onon 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.
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** 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 Onon 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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** 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 season two.
*** In an early season 3 episode, Stella the dog gets one of these, too.
** Jay, literally the granddaddy of all deadpan snarking, but what do you expect from the man who used to be [[Married... Withwith Children|Al Bundy]]?
* [[Depending Onon 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.
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* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: S1 Ep17, "Truth Be Told" Luke calls Alex a "dork-to-dork saleswoman," for which she actually fails to come up with a comeback to. That is, at least, until she proceeds to convince him that he's actually adopted.
** 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 Byby 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 Withwith 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.
* [[Dueling Shows]]: With ''Parenthood''.
* [[Dyeing for Your Art]]: Sofia Vergara is naturally blonde. Her hair has gotten lighter as the series has gone on but it's still darker than her natural hair color
* [[Ear Worm]]: In-universe, in S1 Ep04, "The Incident". Dylan sings a [[Intercourse Withwith You|rather explicit song]] that he wrote for Haley called "In The Moonlight" to the entire family. While they're initially horrified, the next morning, every one of them is singing the song to themselves.
* [[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]]
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* [[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 Onon 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.
* [[Executive Meddling]]: Parodied in the show's sketch at the 2010 Emmy Awards, which shows various proposed "changes" to the show, such as: having Cameron and Mitchell adopt [[Family Guy|Stewie]], making Cameron and Mitchell not gay, shooting the show in 3D (with an emphasis on shots of Sofia Vergara's chest), and replacing Ed O'Neill or Ty Burrell with [[George Clooney]].
** Though some viewers may not mind the last two ideas.
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** As of the middle of season 1, Alex is clearly winning.
* [[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 Withwith 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}}.
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* [[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 Byby His Own Petard]]: In the second-season finale, "The One That Got Away". Phil is shopping with Gloria, who has Lily in a stroller. He realizes everyone passing, particularly the men, think Gloria's ''his'' wife. Since he has seen an old college friend and romantic rival around, one he has always unsuccessfully tried to one-up, he does little to discourage the perception. But when the friend finally sees him with Gloria, {{spoiler|he says he'd always thought Phil would end up with Claire, whom he thought was the most beautiful girl Phil ever dated}}.
* [[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].
** S3 Ep08, "After The Fire" plays with both types. Luke and Manny are being harassed by a group of Type 1's. They stop when Alex approaches them, [[Shaking Her Hair Loose|lets her hair down]], and tells them to cut it out which they gladly do because they're infatuated with her. As she tells a disbelieving Haley, "You have your fans. I have mine. [[Future Loser|Someday, your fans are going to work for my fans]]."
* [[Homage]]: To ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]]'' with Cam singing "Ava Maria" at a formal wedding, intercut with Mitchell destroying the house in slow motion as he tries to kill a pigeon.
* [[Hot Mom]]: Both Claire and Gloria.
* [[How We Got Here]]: "Fizbo" uses this to its fullest possible extent.
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'''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 Withwith 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}}.
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** 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 Withwith 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<br />
And you're the reason why<br />
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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]].
* [[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.
* [[It Runs in The Family]]: Jay, Claire, and Mitchell have a habit of rushing everyone by shouting "Let's go!" repeatedly.
* [[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.
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* [[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."
* [[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 S3 Ep08, "After The Fire", Haley is flabbergasted that a group of nerdy teenage boys worship Alex:
{{quote| '''Alex:'''''You have your fans...I have my mine. [[Future Loser|Someday, your fans are going to work for my fans]].''}}
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'''Manny''': Not by blood. <br />
'''Alex''': Touch me, and there will be blood }}
* [[Not What It Looks Like]]: In "Our Children, Ourselves", Mitchell sees an old girlfriend ([[Twenty Four24|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, {{spoiler|it turns out that he's a [[Little People|little person]] who's married to the former girlfriend}}. This sets up more [[Cringe Comedy]] when the gift Cameron and Mitchell bought turns out to be {{spoiler|a baseball glove}}.
* [[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.
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* [[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 season 3, when Cameron & Mitchell went to see {{spoiler|a violent movie, only to accidentally end up in a theater showing}} [[The Muppets (Filmfilm)|The Muppets]] (despite that movie not actually being out yet). Despite Disney producing the film, and Eric Stonestreet & Rico Rodriguez having cameos in it, the creators swear Disney did not pay them to promote the film <ref> however, an ad for the movie did air during the episode, so you be the judge</ref>.
** A definite product placement in the episode "Express Christmas", Target is mentioned by name and its logo is prominently shown in the shopping scene. And unlike the iPad episode, money definitely changed hands as Target received a promotional credit.
** 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 Onon a Bus]]: Dylan takes a job in Jackson Hole in the season 3 premiere
** [[The Bus Came Back]]: Dylan returned in "Disneyland" at the end of season 3.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Alex plans on giving this to her classmates as her valedictorian speech at her grade school graduation {{spoiler|but decides not to at the last second}}.
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** 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 Book)]]'' 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 season 2 finale.
** Phil's crush on Gloria.
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** 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 (TV)|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 (TV)|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 (Film)|The Godfather]]''.
** There are a couple to [[Angela Lansbury]] early in season two, as well as Phil's "[[Murder, She Wrote|Good times she wrote]]" in "The Old Wagon".
* [[Significant Reference Date]]: The episode ''Leap Day'' aired Feb 29, 2012.
* [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]]: Luke begins to see Lily as this.
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* [[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 Onon 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 {{spoiler|one party doesn't go through with it.}}
* [[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". Guess who wins? To add insult to injury, Jay chooses a horse this way and ''it'' wins ... only to be disqualified.
* [[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 Byby 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 {{spoiler|(Alex's mean-spirited valedictorian speech) gets thrown out in favor of a bunch of lies}}.
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* [[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 (Musicband)|don't stop believin']]" and "[[Pink (Music)|get this party started]]".
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Phil to Jay.
** 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.]]
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