Greetings, reader!
Well, my fiancée Martta turns 23 years old TODAY! With her exact birthday falling on a Thursday for once, I had to do something with that, and the answer was obvious: Modern Family is her favorite TV comedy, and the series has many legendary birthday episodes. So, I'm sharing my ranking of them so that the mega-fan of the hour can read it, be amused, and then school me on how the real ranking should go. I hope you enjoy!
11. Clash of Swords (Season 9 Episode 22)
Not only is the last episode of season 9 underwhelming as a season finale - it's also underwhelming as a birthday episode! I ranked these more based on how good the episode is as a birthday episode instead overall episode value, but in either case, Clash of Swords would've come last. Gloria is upset when Joe's dinosaur-themed party is upstaged by a cooler party next door, and her attempt of salvaging Joe's party leads to a by-the-numbers miscommunication with strippers and whatnot appearing. It's okay, but nothing too remarkable.
10. Under Pressure (Season 5 Episode 12)
If I ranked the 11 episodes from today's list as overall episodes, this classic would make the top three. I had to rank it low here because the birthday element isn't all that important, and mainly just the initial plot device to kick the episode's Alex-centric plot off. While the birthday-party-gone-wrong is far from being the episode's main focus, the infamous cake incident does still make for some memorable imagery in the show's canon.
9. Playdates (Season 7 Episode 10)
Okay, this one takes place sometime after Mitchell's actual birthday, but I'm still counting it as a birthday episode. In Playdates, Mitch cashes in on a coupon for a fun day that he had gotten as a present from the Dunphy kids - who had very much pulled that idea out of their asses at the last minute on his birthday, and had forgotten all about it by the time he showed up at their door asking for said fun day.
The ensuing improvisation is very amusing, if not quite the stuff of legends. Pairing Mitch up with his nieces and nephew isn't the most typical character combo, and those are always a breath of fresh air!
8. Princess Party (Season 2 Episode 15)
This one is a tad basic when compared to the very best birthday episodes, but still solid and fun enough to make it well ahead of the slightly subpar ones. Lily's princess-themed birthday party gets upstaged by all sorts of drama, with Cam being very Cam about Mitch dis-inviting Fizbo the clown in lieu of having a princess. Nothing about the episode is hysterical or unforgettable, but everything is run-of-the-mill amusing and on par with the very strong early seasons of the series.
7. Game Changer (Season 1 Episode 19)
Ah, 'The One Where Phil Really Really Wants An iPad". A funny and memorable episode, even though the birthday boy is a bit of an ass in this one.
6. Party Crasher (Season 4 Episode 12)
This is definitely the show's least typical birthday episode, as the birthday in question isn't a celebration of an already-existing character getting older but rather the actual birth of Fulgencio Joe Pritchett. The episode is a full-on classic for many reasons, some of which have to do with other storylines (which is why this is only at sixth place and not higher). But, yeah - Joe's entrance into the world is certainly a special occasion, and his zero-year birthday fully deserves a solid placement here.
5. Manny Get Your Gun (Season 2 Episode 8)
A birthday episode can only be as good as the character being celebrated - and say what you will about how badly he's ruined in the later seasons, but Young Manny is gold. His birthday episode in season 2 is full of Vintage Manny moments, and while there are all sorts of subplots, every single thread in the episode does tie into Manny's birthday in an appropriate fashion. One of the better birthday episodes in the show, and honestly, one of the best Manny episodes overall in terms of character depth and development.
4. Leap Day (Season 3 Episode 17)
Cam was born on a Leap Day, because of course he was - and the party celebrating his 10th birthday here is pretty hilarious. It's definitely one of those cases where it's even better as a birthday episode than as an overall episode. There are questionable elements in the other storylines, but all of the material surrounding Cam's fourtieth/tenth birthday - the Wizard of Oz gag, the constant inner-child stuff, the "Follow the birthday flag" / "What did you call me?!" dialogue - is pure gold.
3. The One that Got Away (Season 2 Episode 24)
The season 2 finale sees Jay Pritchett wanting nothing but a quiet day on the lake for his birthday. As an episode, it's classic Modern Family. As a season finale, it's un-dramatic and understated, but in a way that works weirdly well. And as a birthday episode, it hits all the stops - it feels like a character-defining testament to the character being celebrated, it pulls off many misunderstandings and other moments of pure comedy in the context of his birthday being celebrated, and the conclusion after everything has gone wrong is heartwarming. Also, who could forget Luke's botched editing job of the hastily-put-together birthday video?
2. A Year of Birthdays (Season 10 Episode 22)
Of course this mega-spectacle had to be ranked high. The penultimate season of the series concludes with flashbacks to the birthdays of each major character during the past year, while in the present, Haley goes into labor. This ends up tying the birthday-flashbacks into a whole new birth taking place, as Haley and Dylan's twins are welcomed into the world. The end result reads like a tribute to the birthday episode format, and just a blast of fun with each character getting their moment in the spotlight.
1. Fizbo (Season 1 Episode 9)
Can't beat the original. In this season 1 classic, the birthday party isn't a subplot or a mere plot device for stuff to happen around, but rather it's all about the birthday party. Every character's storyline ties into Luke's big hullabaloo, and the plot threads clash together in an amusing fashion, making the party into an ultimately unforgettable fiasco. The big punchline that concludes the mystery of the 'what went wrong' flash-forwards amidst the many, many potential Chekov's guns throughout the party is one of the best jokes in the show's run; there's just something unspeakably funny about Claire's comb sheath station, out of all things, being the source of injury.
Thank you for reading! Well, tomorrow is Halloween, and we're doing our traditional Halloween marathon for the third year in a row. As is tradition, tune in next Thursday for my ranking of every item we watched in this year's marathon!
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