I just want to take a moment to apologize to all my gay friends who I’ve high fived in the past. I’m sorry. I had no idea, until Cameron gave the two golden rules on last night’s episode of Modern Family:
1. Gays don’t high five.
2. Gays don’t high five.
I don’t even like to high five! It’s too much pressure, the chance that you’ll miss and only end up skimming each other’s hand is too high. I have to say though, the idea of Mitchell trying to high-five Cam at midnight on New Years Eve is pretty hilarious.
I really enjoyed last night’s episode of Modern Family, but here’s a problem – apparently Mitch and Cam kissed for the first time on screen, and I absolutely cannot remember it. In fact, I was a little peeved that they had avoided it. When was it? This is just like a recent episode of HIMYM where Cindy kissed her girlfriend in the bar, and everyone was all like “How about that kiss at the end?” and I was all like “What? Who kissed?” because I’d completely forgotten. How does this happen?Seriously, when did Mitch and Cam kiss? Was it in the background of a shot or something?
Playing Chicken
What was great about this episode was the combination of comedy and heart – something that Modern Family does perfectly. It was a great episode for Jay’s character because we got to see so many different sides to him.
One of the best things about Jay and Gloria’s marriage is all the comedy that comes out of their cultural differences. Ed O’Neill is so fantastic in this role because he manages to make fun of Gloria’s wacky customs and beliefs and have it come across as hilarious, but not mean. If it came across as mean we’d just end up hating him because Gloria is so likable. It’s a very fine line and O’Neill always manages to balance it.
Gloria was cooking a traditional Colombian feast for the whole family because her grandmother had come to her in a dream and told her she was losing touch with her culture. She told Jay and Manny that in her culture, people believe the dead are all around them. That resulted in some fantastic jokes from Jay about Gloria having her grandmother’s ghost bring him up an iced tea, and some fantastic scenes of Manny and Luke freaking about because there’s a ghost living in Manny’s house. To get back at Jay for mocking her, Gloria had him follow silly, fake traditions like “slap the chicken”. It was amazing.
Nobody kisses in a bowling alley
Meanwhile, Claire was freaking out because she read some flirtatious text messages on Alex’s cell phone. She had Haley talk to Alex, which was not a good idea – all Haley did was tell poor Alex that if she didn’t kiss the boy she liked everyone would think she was a lesbian. “I thought you were,” she said. “You totally have the sandals for it.” Poor Alex! She showed up at the kids house, quoted Notting Hill, requested a kiss and then found out that his entire soccer team was inside.
Another funny storyline was Phil’s attempt to help Jay set up a new printer. He told Jay the same jingle he uses for Claire “The computer and the printer must talk talk talk, Control P makes the photo walk walk walk”. Jay’s response? “Phil, I’m going to get a beer beer beer before I hit you in the head head head.” The printer ended up being much more complicated that Phil thought, partly because Manny and Luke freaked out and destroyed a photo mysteriously printed of Gloria’s grandmother after they shouted “show yourself” to her ghost. After Phil worked “like an imbecile” for four hours, and threw up because he accidentally knocked over a can of paint (Phil’s aversion to paint is hilarious!) Jay said “Thanks.” Which brings us back to the discussion of Mitch and Cam kissing.
Cam blamed Mitch’s aversion to PDA on Micth being ashamed of who he is, but that’s not fair. I hate PDA too, and I’m not gay. Or ashamed of being straight. I just don’t like it. I don’t even like seeing other people being PDA-happy. Gloria blamed it on Jay passing down his reluctance to show his feelings. The best part of this was Jay’s reaction to Claire saying she, like Mitch, has a problem being publicly affectionate – “Was that before or after you were delivered to my door in a squad car wearing nothing but your underwear and a police hat?” In the end, Gloria and the family convinced Jay to give Mitch a kiss on the cheek to express his love. Jay begrudgingly agreed, but he gave Manny a goodnight kiss that night. This is what’s great about Modern Family – characters who are both funny and likable.
More funny lines from Modern Family:
- “There’s already one dead person in this room, wanna make it two?” – Gloria, jokingly threatening Jat for making fun of her beliefs.
- “Your kids don’t need to know who you were before you had them. They need to know who you wish you were, and 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.” – Claire, on how to raise kids.
- “Look who needs me now? Mr. Hot Dog fingers can’t press ‘print’ without hitting three extra keys. Yeah, in my house now Jay! Technically we’ll be in his house, but we’ll be in my area of his house.” – Phil, feeling very excited to finally be needed by Jay.
- “This guy’s been working like an imbecile all day for you.” – Gloria, telling Jay that Phil deserves more than a “thank you”.
- “You spit on me.” – Jay, after Phil tried to beatbox.
What did you think of Modern Family? Did you notice the kiss?
