# Is MODERN FAMILY typically this dirty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908 "2014-05-07T20:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/1 "2014-05-07T20:31:38Z")
I’m quite late to the _Modern Family_ bandwagon: I’d never watched more than 30 seconds of an episode before it began airing on USA, and before last week I’d never seen a first-run episode. I doubt I’ve seen more than a dozen complete episodes, and those in no particular order. So other than thinking the show is frequently hilarious and often sweet, I don’t know much about it. Recently I saw an episode which I found somewhat surprising in the direction two of the jokes took. In one bit, Haley and Luke were in a laundromat where they encountered a somewhat dweebish lad Haley had previously manipulated into buying her tickets to a concert. In the scene Haley was manipulating the kid again, and once she finished, Luke told her to remind him never to date her, leading to about 30 seconds of them bantering on the subject while being oblivious to the incestuous subtext. In the other bit, Cameron and Mitchell were discussing an ill-considered plan to fool Claire into thinking their little girl was wearing her cousin Alex’s hand-me-downs. When Cameron said that Claire would see right through it, Mitchell replied, “No, you’re thinking about HALEY’S clothes.” Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t offended by either joke; I’m sure I laughed both times. I was just surprised. Should I have, or has my limited exposure to the show simply resulted in my missing a plethora of sex jokes? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/2 "2014-05-07T20:39:56Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > In the scene Haley was manipulating the kid again, and once she finished, Luke told her to remind him never to date her, leading to about 30 seconds of them bantering on the subject while being oblivious to the incestuous subtext. In the other bit, Cameron and Mitchell were discussing an ill-considered plan to fool Claire into thinking their little girl was wearing her cousin Alex’s hand-me-downs. When Cameron said that Claire would see right through it, Mitchell replied, “No, you’re thinking about HALEY’S clothes.” The Haley-Luke joke flew right over your head. It was less about incest and more about the fact that Luke turned into a ladies man practically overnight and the dumb/sweet guy that he is is exactly who Haley dates. As for the other joke, yeah, that’s pretty typical. Haley is portrayed as someone who wouldn’t think twice about wearing a see-through shirt and jokes about her using her looks to get things is par for the course. I remember, in one of the earliest episodes, Alex made a joke about Haley’s future involving a stripper pole and both parents just shrugged. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/3 "2014-05-07T20:44:02Z")
Neither of those jokes is about sex. The first one is about clashing of personalities and not wanting to be with someone who is so manipulative and mean. The second one is about a young woman wearing revealing clothing. If your mind immediately jumps to bangin, bangin and more bangin then that’s on you. I don’t think that’s remotely as “dirty” as a show like _Everybody Loves Raymond_ which seems to always be about whether or not the couple is going to have sex that night based on moods or breath or feeling old or what. They actually talk about actual sex all the time. (I only notice this because it’s always on when I’m at my parents’ house and it makes me feel creepy!) ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/4 "2014-05-07T21:09:46Z")
Honestly, I opened this thread ready to say “Duh, most of the jokes on that show are double-entendres of some kind or another” but neither of those examples are even remotely dirty - especially, at least compared to a lot of the other jokes they make on the show. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/5 "2014-05-07T21:22:41Z")
The pilot episode started with Haley, Luke, and Alex bringing their parents breakfast in bed, only to walk in on them doing it doggie-style. :eek: Quote from Luke: _“I don’t know what they were doing, but it looked like Dad was winning.”_ 😃 Since then, the show has repeatedly amused me, but it’s lost it ability to shock me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/6 "2014-05-07T21:30:06Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > The pilot episode started with Haley, Luke, and Alex bringing their parents breakfast in bed, only to walk in on them doing it doggie-style. :eek: I’ve never seen that one. The first episode I saw in its entirety, and perhaps the only one I’ve ever watced while giving my complete attention (usually I’m doing paperwork, cooking, watching the babies, or so forth) was the one in which the whole clan went to Florida for Phil’s mother’s funeral; I don’t recall a lot of sex jokes in that one. ) And again I’m not objecting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen (part) of an episode without laughing at loud at the funny parts and being touched at the sweet parts.(The expression on Alex’s face when she realized she had no friends was heartbreaking. But my limited and irregular viewing may have given me an incorrect impression of the show’s tone. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/7 "2014-05-07T21:52:17Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > The pilot episode started with Haley, Luke, and Alex bringing their parents breakfast in bed, only to walk in on them doing it doggie-style. :eek: > > Quote from Luke: _“I don’t know what they were doing, but it looked like Dad was winning.”_ 😃 > > Since then, the show has repeatedly amused me, but it’s lost it ability to shock me. 😛 That wasn’t the pilot. The pilot was Cam and Mitch bringing Lily home. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/8 "2014-05-07T21:53:30Z")
A joke that shocked me was on _Trophy Wife_. Kate’s friend Meg was visiting and she called Kate’s 15-year-old stepson Warren “cutie”. When Kate gave her a look, Meg said “What? You know I’m into virgins.” It’s not the only time either. In an earlier episode, Meg went swimming topless in Kate’s pool despite knowing that the neighbor’s adolescent son was watching. I’m surprised the network let these jokes slip by. Imagine if it was a 29 year old actor talking about how he likes flirting with adolescent girls. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/9 "2014-05-07T22:00:34Z")
I find OP’s suggestion that the joke about Haley’s clothing is dirty/risque to be kind of amusing in itself. It’s a joke about kids these days dressing like trollops. That’s not exactly pushing the edge of the priopriety envelope. It seems like something my 90-year-old grandmother would giggle at. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/10 "2014-05-07T22:57:20Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The first episode I saw in its entirety … was the one in which the whole clan went to Florida for Phil’s mother’s funeral; I don’t recall a lot of sex jokes in that one. ) Wasn’t the the one in which Jay realized that one of Phil’s dad’s neighbors in the retirement community was the older woman he’d had an affair with as a young man? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/11 "2014-05-07T23:03:13Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > Wasn’t the the one in which Jay realized that one of Phil’s dad’s neighbors in the retirement community was the older woman he’d had an affair with as a young man? I believe so. That didn’t strike me as being as dirty as a brother telling his older sister he could totally date her if he wanted to. And of course both of those pale in comparison to the filthiness of, say, _Family Guy_. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/12 "2014-05-07T23:05:06Z")
You know the deal, **Skald**. No answers without dessert. And when did you become an old, Missionary Baptist lady? Have you gotten any of the big hats yet? FTR, the fine, respectable, church-going ladies (white or black) that I know would cluck their disapproval, but that’s because they would agree that Luke should never date a girl like Haley and that she dresses inappropriately. They would also pretty much entirely disapprove of Claire, but while Gloria does dress exuberantly (a girl’s gotta have her fun), she’s a good mother who takes her son to church, despite that no-good husband of hers. Either one of them. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/13 "2014-05-07T23:08:29Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > Wasn’t the the one in which Jay realized that one of Phil’s dad’s neighbors in the retirement community was the older woman he’d had an affair with as a young man? She sent more men off to war than Lyndon Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/14 "2014-05-07T23:10:15Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > You know the deal, **Skald**. No answers without dessert. And when did you become an old, Missionary Baptist lady? Have you gotten any of the big hats yet? > > FTR, the fine, respectable, church-going ladies (white or black) that I know would cluck their disapproval, but that’s because they would agree that Luke should never date a girl like Haley and that she dresses inappropriately. They would also pretty much entirely disapprove of Claire, but while Gloria does dress exuberantly (a girl’s gotta have her fun), she’s a good mother who takes her son to church, despite that no-good husband of hers. Either one of them. I didn’t say I disapproved. I said I’d surprised. It was of, oh, the only episodes of FUTURAMA I’d ever seen were the ones about the Planet Express team aging backward, and the one about Fry’s older brother–and then suddenly I saw the episode n which Lela and Zach are naked the entire time. Lacking context, I wouldn’t be sure whether there were many episodes toying with sex & nudity, or whether the Eden ep was unique. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/15 "2014-05-07T23:57:36Z")
I’d say the show is frequently as dirty as the two examples you named…which do not strike me as very dirty at all. I think practically any other contemporary prime-time sitcom has jokes at least as racy, and often much racier, than a quip about how Haley has been known to wear revealing outfits. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/16 "2014-05-08T00:18:55Z")
There is adult humor. Most of it is in the form of pithy oral interchange. Although the rerun that was just on had giant stuffed animals falling into a suggestive position on a car. There are a couple of sexual situations, like when Claire is stuck on an escalator in nothing but a trench coat. The episode where the kids catch them in the act is the worst, but that was about one second of a blanket moving and a door slamming then 20 minutes figuring out how to forget about it. It’s there but I think they try to keep it classy. I expect with most of it you are either old enough to get it or it will fly over your head. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/17 "2014-05-08T15:52:52Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I believe so. That didn’t strike me as being as dirty as a brother telling his older sister he could totally date her if he wanted to. I’m still trying to figure out what you think is dirty about this? Isn’t “If we weren’t related” implied? And come to think of it, I think he starts that sentence with “If I wasn’t your brother.” ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/18 "2014-05-08T16:11:54Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > In the other bit, Cameron and Mitchell were discussing an ill-considered plan to fool Claire into thinking their little girl was wearing her cousin Alex’s hand-me-downs. When Cameron said that Claire would see right through it, Mitchell replied, “No, you’re thinking about HALEY’S clothes.” Mitchell and Cam are so gay and bitchy, I’m surprised their lamps aren’t just bare bulbs with all the shade they throw. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/19 "2014-05-08T16:38:54Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > pithy oral interchange. Hee. You said “pithy oral interchange”! ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908/20 "2014-05-08T16:55:57Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > That wasn’t the pilot. The pilot was Cam and Mitch bringing Lily home. Holy cow, not only was it not the pilot, it wasn’t even in the first season. What is wrong with me? :smack: 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-modern-family-typically-this-dirty/687908.md?page=2)