Modern Family: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

''Modern Family'' is an [[ABC]] sitcom that centers on three families:

** Tracy, Mitchell's girlfriend from high school. She even names this trope in S1 Ep13, when Cameron asks if Mitchell had a beard in high school, and she replies, "You're looking at her."

** Alex is one for her prom date, though he doesn't realize he's gay yet.

* [[Beard of Evil]]: One gets drawn on Manny while he's asleep at a slumber party. {{spoiler|He keeps it, and [[Disproportionate Retribution|sets the drawer's bike on fire]].}}

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Phil in S2 Ep22, "Good Cop, Bad Dog" where he and Claire decide to swap on being the stricter parent and the nicer one. When Alex and Haley don't clean the bathroom as he told them to, it results in him [[Understatement|getting a little upset]].

*** And they appeared again in the 2nd episode of season 3 at the end of the episode where Cam and Mitchell are working out post-juice fast.

** 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:

'''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.

* [[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]].

'''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]].

** 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]].

** When introducing Lily to the family Cam holds her up ala ''[[The Lion King]]'' with "[[Elton John|Circle of Life]]" blasting in the background.

'''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'''.

* [[Cringe Comedy]]: Cameron can be pretty clueless about how offensive he's being, the worst happening when he tries to pass himself off as Native American to get Lily into a high class preschool.

** Particularly in "Starry Night", wherein Cam has incredible foot-in-mouth syndrome towards Gloria. Here he is, stumbling to explain himself.

** There's also the time he talks on the phone to Manny, feeding him lines to give to his love interest. To the other customers in the bakery, he sounds like an internet predator, and it doesn't help when he then clarifies "[[Digging Yourself Deeper|It's not what you think; I'm talking to a little boy]]."

** 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.

* [[Fetish]]: Haley sends a picture of her feet to a prospective boyfriend in "Egg Drop".

* [[Forbidden Fruit]]: In S1 Ep 12, "Not In My House," after Claire mistakenly believes Luke has been looking at porn online, not knowing it was Phil, Phil uses that as his cover story and explains Luke's behavior to Claire using this mentality.

** S3 Ep01, "Dude Ranch" has this overlap with [[Dating What Daddy Hates]] when Jay tells Claire not to try keeping Haley from seeing Dylan because it will only drive her into his arms faster.

* [[Former Teen Rebel]]: Claire

* [[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".

* [[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]]

'''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.]]"

** Mitchell attempting to kill the pigeon, which leaves his house in ruins

** Invoked in the third season episode "[[Leap Day]]"

* [[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''.

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]].

* [[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]]:

* [[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 {{spoiler|Haley is able to fake the job until an incident erupts that she claims got her fired}}. And ironically, she would have inevitably been caught without Alex doing anything; she'd made a deal with her parents to earn half the payment on a car, faking it by holding onto the same sixty dollars each day, and would have been screwed when the time came to produce all the money.

* [[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:

** 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 {{spoiler|later tells him she knew all along that he was gay; she just wanted to have a gay male friend to confide in. He isn't at all flattered by this, and tells her as much}}.

* [[Malaproper]]: Gloria (due sometimes to her accent) and also Haley.

* [[Man Child]]: Phil

* [[Mathematician's Answer]]: In the season 3 premiere, Dylan goes missing in the wilderness near Jackson Hole. When Haley gets within shouting distance of him, he's [[Cloudcuckoolander|characteristically unhelpful]].

'''Dylan:''' Wyoming! }}

* [[May-December Romance]]: Jay and Gloria. One episode has Manny accidentally going on a date with an adult though nothing serious happened.

* [[Momma's Boy]]:

** Mitchell.

** S3 Ep08, "After The Fire", shows that this also applies to Cameron and Gloria.

** Cameron too.

'''Mitchell:''' [[Waxing Lyrical|That sounds like a country song]].<br />

'''Cameron:''' And that song would be called "The Greatest Woman That Ever Lived".<br />

* [[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"

* [[Nerds Are Sexy]]: In S3 Ep08, "After The Fire", Haley is flabbergasted that a group of nerdy teenage boys worship Alex:

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: In a season two episode where Cam and Mitch think that being a gay couple with an Asian baby will get them into a good pre-school only to get beat out by...

'''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, "Family Portrait" Alex and Manny are at basketball game, while the kiss-cam on the scoreboard is going around.

'''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, {{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}}.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Even though she's much younger, Lily appears to realize how insane everyone else in her adopted extended family is.

** Alex sometimes acts like this.

* [[The Other Darrin]]: Lily was recast for season three when it became clear the little girls playing her really didn't like acting.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Cameron, where Lily is concerned.

* [[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.

** 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 (film)|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.

* [[Running Gag]]: We have got to fix that step.

** Fixed for about two seconds in Season Two;

*** 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 season 2 finale.

** Phil's crush on Gloria.

*** It seemingly ends in "The One That Got Away", where he realizes how lucky he is to have Claire and catches her instead.

** Gloria doesn't know the English word for "helicopter".

** Phil's unseen co-worker, Gil Thorpe.

** Luke's accidental double entendres.

'''Claire:''' ...she did. }}

** Mitchell really hates birds.

* [[Totally Radical]]: Part of Phil's "cool dad" schtick.

* [[Transparent Closet]]: Alex's prom date in "Baby on Board."

* [[Trophy Wife]]: Gloria is a surprisingly sympathetic example.

* [[Twerp Sweating]]: Done unintentionally by Phil to Dylan in S1 Ep03, "Come Fly With Me". Dylan is sitting (uncomfortably) on the couch with Phil, waiting for Haley, watching baseball. Phil makes a comment about one of the players being "stuck at second base forever, and thinking about trying to steal third, which is just a terrible idea" then turns to him and asks how things are going with Haley. Claire, in the background, seems pleased to see Dylan squirm awkwardly.

* [[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, {{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]]?

* [[Vacation Episode]]: To Hawaii.

* [[Vignette Episode]]: The pilot seems to be one of these, until the reveal at the end.