# Modern Family 10/19

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 20, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216 "2011-10-20T02:32:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/21 "2011-10-20T16:40:41Z")

</div>

> [@Monkey\_Chews](#):
>
> Thought all the stories were hilarious in this episode, but nothing matched Gloria. Every moment she was on screen I was in stitches. Her complete lack of restraint in expressing her horror at the thought of Manny doing that thing Jay thought he might be doing was fantastic.
> 
> HE NO READ THE PLAYBOY EVER! ::whack:: HE JUST A LITTLE BOY! ::whack::

Yeah, I loved that scene, too. Gloria is hilarious!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/22 "2011-10-20T18:38:28Z")

</div>

I loved the voice over wrap-up - and how it turned out to be Jay reading the text from Manny’s growth device.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/23 "2011-10-20T18:53:15Z")

</div>

“Wearing that sweatshirt embarrasses me a _little_ bit.”  
“Yep, that’s your daughter.”

Best gag was Luke perfectly imitating the “dog” noise that Phil makes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/24 "2011-10-20T19:17:52Z")

</div>

I liked how Phil’s daughter accepted/understood his over-protectiveness. In a lesser sitcom, the daughter would stay mad. I haven’t watched every episode, but Phil seems to recognize he does this, and he seems to be trying to dial it back.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/25 "2011-10-20T20:33:39Z")

</div>

I couldn’t buy Haley having hot wing sauce all over her face. Just so un-Haley like. I thought it was a weak episode too.

Claire all dolled up was great but I saw the French guy not being gay right from the start.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/26 "2011-10-20T21:58:54Z")

</div>

> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> I liked how Phil’s daughter accepted/understood his over-protectiveness. In a lesser sitcom, the daughter would stay mad. I haven’t watched every episode, but Phil seems to recognize he does this, and he seems to be trying to dial it back.

It was a pretty cute “father / daughter” moment, I think.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/27 "2011-10-20T23:30:34Z")

</div>

> [@River\_Hippie](#):
>
> I couldn’t buy Haley having hot wing sauce all over her face. Just so un-Haley like…

I agree that it was TOTALLY out of character for her as well; Any girl that conscious of her image and style wouldn’t be caught dead with BBQ sauce all over her face in private, nevermind a public restaurant…

I still thought it was much, MUCH better than the other 3 episodes so far this season.

“Of course you know who I am, you were my Little League coach; My father is your Doctor…”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/28 "2011-10-20T23:33:41Z")

</div>

Yeah, it wasn’t a great eoisode. ☹

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/29 "2011-10-21T11:10:43Z")

</div>

> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#):
>
> I agree that it was TOTALLY out of character for her as well; Any girl that conscious of her image and style wouldn’t be caught dead with BBQ sauce all over her face in private, nevermind a public restaurant…
> 
> I still thought it was much, MUCH better than the other 3 episodes so far this season.
> 
> “Of course you know who I am, you were my Little League coach; My father is your Doctor…”

Agree - and when she walked off with it STILL on her face I had a horrible feeling they were going to try and pull off a “girl spends night at party not realising she has food all over her face” joke.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/30 "2011-10-21T11:33:15Z")

</div>

> [@PunditLisa](#):
>
> Yeah, it wasn’t a great eoisode. ☹

Still better than half the crap out there though. MF at its worst is still very watchable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/31 "2011-10-21T13:48:15Z")

</div>

A mixed bag this week, I thought. The whole feel of the episode was very disjointed; there were three, and then four, stories going on at once with no common tie or overlap. I got whiplash jumping from scene to scene.

The Phil/Hayley storyline was fairly funny and turned out extremely sweet. I liked it.  
Jay/Gloria/Manny: Totally hilarious. Absolutely the highlight of the week.  
Then there were the Claire and Mitchell/Cam plots, both of which went nowhere and had weak resolutions. “Claire’s night off” definitely had potential, but “OMG, she gets embarrassed in front of the neighborhood mean girls!” just didn’t cut it as a payoff. I’d have been happy if Mitchell and Cam had just gone home, the whole car mix-up plot was dumped, and they used that time to craft a better story for Claire.

Still, though:

> [@amanset](#):
>
> MF at its worst is still very watchable.

100% agree.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/32 "2011-10-21T14:05:42Z")

</div>

I know it’s a sitcom, but I really had to suspend my disbelief to buy that a person wouldn’t immediately recognize that they weren’t in their own car.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/33 "2011-10-21T14:24:15Z")

</div>

> [@River\_Hippie](#):
>
> Claire all dolled up was great but I saw the French guy not being gay right from the start.

Similar thoughts to mine. Although not normally my type Julie Bowen was ridiculously cute in the short red dress; the punchline, however, was immediately obvious. In fact I find that a recurring theme for this show — jokes are often set up in such a way to telegraph their resolution. That’s not so bad when the execution is artful, but there wasn’t much payoff here.

Hm. The Prius mixup; Claire’s night out; Manny and the stretching apparatus; Phil and Haley visiting a college; Jay’s fascination with the soap opera. I suppose thirty minutes isn’t enough when the storylines are insufficiently interconnected to share much screen time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/34 "2011-10-21T14:26:41Z")

</div>

I’m more of a “wry smile” guy and so rarely laugh out loud at a film or TV show, but Jay accidentally ripping the apparatus off the wall and then pretending he was demonstrating how strong Manny was going to get, that made me laugh.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/35 "2011-10-21T15:06:40Z")

</div>

> [@randwill](#):
>
> I know it’s a sitcom, but I really had to suspend my disbelief to buy that a person wouldn’t immediately recognize that they weren’t in their own car.

If I keep my car really clean I might be able to not recognize immediately I’m not in my car (since valets all immediately mess with every setting on anything in the car that being different wouldn’t be a clue).

What I can’t buy is not immediately recognizing that I wasn’t given my own keys. Keychains are like fingerprints. A few weeks back a very small, almost never used, padlock key was removed from my chain without my knowledge and not put back and I spent all day trying to figure out what was missing. The odds of me getting keys back from a valet and not immediately recognizing them as not mine seem remote.

But maybe most other people just keep their car keys by themselves on a plain little ring.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 21, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/36 "2011-10-21T15:09:15Z")

</div>

> [@randwill](#):
>
> I know it’s a sitcom, but I really had to suspend my disbelief to buy that a person wouldn’t immediately recognize that they weren’t in their own car.

In my parking lot at work, someone has the exact car I do. She left it unlocked one day, and no joke I walked up to it, opened the door got in before I realized that it wasn’t mine. Mine has cloth seats (hers leather) and mine’s a mess (hers is neat) and I still didn’t get it immediately!

Sadly, that rang all too true for me… 😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/37 "2011-10-21T15:10:18Z")

</div>

Some people separate the car key when handing it over to a valet so the parking company doesn’t have temporary possession of your house key while they know you’re not home.

I used to do this until I got a nifty little quick disconnect device. Before, I might have gotten a different key by itself and not noticed it. No longer.

(And there is always that “move the story along” thing, too.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/38 "2011-10-21T15:14:56Z")

</div>

> [@Lare](#):
>
> Some people separate the car key when handing it over to a valet so the parking company doesn’t have temporary possession of your house key while they know you’re not home.
> 
> I used to do this until I got a nifty little quick disconnect device. Before, I might have gotten a different key by itself and not noticed it. No longer.
> 
> (And there is always that “move the story along” thing, too.)

A lot of people also keep the car keys separate.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 21, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/39 "2011-10-21T15:26:16Z")

</div>

Usually a valet drives the car up to you and just leaves it running, so the keys are already in the ignition. No need to look at them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216/40 "2011-10-21T15:32:44Z")

</div>

> [@muldoonthief](#):
>
> Usually a valet drives the car up to you and just leaves it running, so the keys are already in the ignition. No need to look at them.

An excellent point. And it resolves the issue in the story.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216.md?page=1)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-family-10-19/600216.md?page=3)
