While I don’t think last night’s episode of Modern Family was necessarily one of the best episodes I’ve ever seen, it was still pretty darn funny. After all, aren’t all our favorite families at their best and funniest when they’re slightly at odds with one another? This week, we saw all the families engaged in some sort of trivial yet hilarious conflict.
Selling Us
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| Pimp Daddy |
Phil tried to drum up business by including the whole family in an ad campaign, which is just such a Phil Dunphy thing to do. The problem was that when he had his ad shrink-wrapped to the family minivan, it looked as though he was pimping out his wife and daughter.
I can’t help but think that this storyline would have been a tad funnier if there had been more consequences from Phil’s screw-up. Neither Claire or Haley knew why so many cars were honking at them and didn’t end up finding out until the end of the episode. It would have been funnier, I think, if one of them ended up fielding a few phone calls from potential customers.
I did like how the gag tied in with Claire’s fear that her best days were behind her, though. Haley managed to pull off some surprisingly average SAT scores, but then declared to the family that she may not want to go to college. (I’ve always loved the relationship between Haley and Alex, so Alex’s dismay over Haley’s average score and her joy over Haley’s announcement particularly had me laughing.) I was a little surprised by this. I know Haley’s not a brain, but she does seem like the sorority type. I thought she’d have her party school all picked out by now. Claire spent the rest of the day trying to convince Haley what a great experience college is, and started reminiscing about her own time there. I’m not as old as Claire, but I could relate. Everything she said about the college experience was so true, and once you’re gone you do sometimes miss it. I think you have more friends during the college years than you’ll ever have again, and you definitely have more freedom. When I was in university I refused to take any class that was scheduled on a Friday. In fact, arranging my schedule so I only had classes three days a week was ideal. By my final semester I only needed two classes to graduate, so I chose ones that only met on Tuesday mornings. I went to school one morning a week! (Just so you don’t think I was all kinds of lazy, there were other semesters when I took extra courses. And I had a part-time job.)
Anyway, that was a major digression. The point is, reminiscing about college can make you feel like the glory days are behind you, and that’s exactly what was going on with Claire. So finding out that more creepy gross men were interested in hiring you as a prostitute than they were your adorable seventeen year-old daughter? That, my friends, is a self-esteem booster.
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou
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| Brotherly Love |
Meanwhile, Gloria took to pointing out the flaws in Jay’s relationship with his brother while he paid them a visit from up North…I want to say Buffalo, but Jay wasn’t sure. Jay didn’t know where his brother lived, or the name of his grandchild. They had no serious conversations, only played pranks, ribbed one another and scrapped like children.
Then Jay found out his brother had cancer, and realized that Gloria had kind of been right. He didn’t know what was going on in his brother’s life at all. Jay and his brother shared a nice moment together, and then went back to normal. I’m not really sure what the lesson was there – that blood is blood, no matter how few details you know of one another’s lives?
Up in the Air
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| An F-ing Disaster |
My favorite storyline was the school play. Cam as a bossy, diva-like director was hilarious, but Mitch trying to contain his criticism was even more hilarious. It’s just not in him to bottle that stuff up! Take it from a fellow eye-roller, the snarky comments and facial expressions just happen.
The play had to be a disaster, but it was really a disaster of pretty epic proportions. None of the kids wanted to perform Cam’s new material. Luke got stuck in his harness in the air. And for the grand finale, all the kids held up letters that spelled “We love the F word” rather than “We love the world”. My favorite part was when Mitch burst out of the auditorium midway through the play and exploded with all his complaints, right in the middle of Jay’s heart-to-heart with his brother.
Like I said, this wasn’t my favorite Modern Family episode, but it did produce a lot of laughs. Here are some of the things that made me chuckle:
- “Now all that driving around your mom does will finally serve a purpose.” – Phil
- “Sweetie, we did it. Our baby is average.” – Claire
- “Well we took the scenic route, but we ended up in the same place!” – Alex
- “Why do you have to throw a wet blanket all over my dreams? You do it all the time and do you know what I end up with? Wet dreams. I heard it as soon as I said it, just leave it alone.” – Cam
- “If your interested I also have an older model with a lot of character…. I think the carpet matches the drapes, I haven’t checked in a while.” – Phil (Thinking he’s talking about a house, actually talking about his wife.)
- Mitch and Cam’s version of PB&J is pear, brie and jambon.
- “Kevin’s biting his nails again and Ruben hasn’t had a bowl movement in a week. Don’t laugh, that’s how Elvis died.” – Manny, on how Cam has stressed everyone out with the play
- “Years from now some of these kids will be talking about how I Sondheim-ized them.” – Cam
- Haley: “It doesn’t matter, I’ll go home with anyone!”
Alex: “Probably should have put that on the van.”
