Modern Family: 10 Most Hilarious Scenes In The First Episode

The multi-award-winning Modern Family has been around for quite a while now–it’s graduated to being an old classic even, one might say. The show came out with a bang, winning over audiences with its uniquely goofy humor and endearing characters.

Many years and seasons later, the show remains a hit, holding onto many of its original fans from start to finish. But as much of a fan as you may be, it’s undeniable that while the show remained strong there’s something special about those early stages. Here are 10 of the funniest scenes from the very first episode.

10 Phil Likes Haley’s Skirt

Claire is busy trying to get everybody up and ready for school, and Phil is dawdling around the kitchen hardly aware of what’s going on around him. Haley finally comes downstairs, wearing a short skirt that Claire immediately disapproves of. When she turns to Phil for support, he exclaims what a cute outfit it is.

9 Cameron And Mitchell On The Airplane

Mitchell and Cameron have just adopted baby Lily. While sitting on the airplane, Mitchell is hyper-aware of the surrounding passengers, feeling sensitive about the fact that he and Cameron are a gay couple when people assume that Mitchell must be there with his wife. Mitchell finally loses it when a woman remarks on “the cute baby with the creampuffs,” but later realizes that Lily was literally holding creampuffs.

8 Gloria At The Soccer Game

We meet Gloria as a screaming parent on the sidelines of a children’s soccer game. Manny is in the field, clearly uninterested in the sport, openly gawking at a passing teenage girl. Gloria is fully invested in the game, cheering Manny on and showing her intense support as a mother as well as her ferocity as a character–when one of the other mother’s suggests the referee take Manny off the field, Gloria faces off with the woman.

7 Scheduling The BB Gun Shooting

Luke shoots his sister with a BB gun, claiming it was an accident, although this is little-believed by Claire who narrows her eyes at him and quips for him to stop lying.

Claire turns to Phil and tells him that he knows what he has to do now because they had an agreement when Luke got the gun–if Luke shoots someone with it, Phil has to shoot Luke. The family goes on to suss out schedule conflicts for when is the best time for the shooting to happen.

6 Cameron Eating In A Closet

Cameron and Mitchell allude to Cameron gaining weight. Cameron launches into a story about how it’s sympathy weight brought on by the impending adoption of Lily, and how it has purely to do with something chemical in the body that “can’t be helped.” The camera cuts to a shot of Cameron night snacking in the pantry and glaring at the camera that catches him.

5 Jay In The Mall

After being mistaken for Gloria’s father, Jay is in a bad mood. Gloria suggests that he buy some younger clothing to replace the sweatsuit he’s wearing, but he dismisses the idea–until he’s then mistaken for a member of a senior citizen’s mall-walking group. Jay quickly spots a garish, ridiculous-looking hoodie and bedazzled hat outfit in a nearby store and goes in to buy it.

4 Phil Shoots Luke

Phil and Luke face the moment where Phil is meant to shoot Luke with the BB gun. Luke meets his father wearing layers of hats, goggles, and a massive puffy winter coat.

Luke acts like this is completely normal, to which Phil responds “how many pairs of underwear are you wearing??” “six”, Luke admits. Phil finds it too difficult to shoot his son, but then accidentally hits the trigger anyway.

3 Dylan Carries Phil

Haley has a boy, Dylan, over the house for the first time. Both Claire and Phil think they are being cool and intimidating when in reality they are both making fools of themselves and being utterly goofy. Claire calls Phil over to meet Dylan and scare him, and while endeavoring to do so Phil throws out his back by slipping on the stairs–causing Dylan to scoop him up and carry him to the couch.

2 Manny Picks Flowers

While Gloria and Jay are in the car arguing over how Manny needs to toughen up, Manny suddenly demands they pull the car over. Jay assumes it’s to go and chase the girl he has a crush on, which Jay considers a lost cause but at least something that will make him stronger, but Jay soon realizes that Manny actually ran out to pick some flowers he spotted.

1 Cameron’s Lion King Entrance

Mitchell and Cameron host a dinner to tell Mitchell’s family about adopting Lily. Mitchell is trying to explain to the family just that, but they keep interrupting him and interjecting their opinions about his life, amongst them being the fact that Cameron is too dramatic. Just at this moment, the lights darken and Cameron enters the room holding Lily up in the air to the soundtrack of The Lion King’s “The Circle Of Life.”