Modern Family, "Punkin Chunkin": dreamers vs. Pritchetts

Quick Take: Modern Family, “Punkin Chunkin”
“I love your ‘I love you,’ but I’m getting tired of your ‘but.’ Yeah I heard it.” – Phil

Review: Modern Family, “Punkin Chunkin”
(S0310) In the face of an onslaught of seasonal episodes to mark the Thanksgiving holiday, Modern Family gives us a reprieve from the cookie-cutter themes that every other show has been pumping out this week. Now that I think about it, they took pre-emptive action last week with “After the Fire,” leaving this week open for another family feud.

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Jay, Claire, and Mitchell have introduced a new side-dish to their Thanksgiving tradition: a serving of reality. Trying to offset Gloria’s coddling with some constructive criticism, Jay wants to help Manny recognize where his strengths lie instead of letting him continue to create centrepiece abominations. Claire, too, is doing her part for Pritchett-practicality by bridling Phil’s overactive imagination when Kenneth, an old neighbour – whose motto is “What would Phil Dunphy do?” – visits with the news that he is an illustrious millionaire.

When Hayley learns that Phil’s protégé became successful by skipping college, she once again dangles that post-secondary carrot in-front of Claire in order to distract her from the fact that she dented the car while driving Alex. Alex is invested in keeping Claire ignorant, too, but she’s far less experienced in the art of deception. Unfortunately, Alex breaks at the last second and spills the beans – right when Cam comes through for the dreamers.

After Mitchell hurtfully/perfectly complements the poor reception of Cam’s clearly-rehearsed “Punkin Chunkin” story with a “Wah wah,” he insists that Cam stick to his true tales in the future. True to their colors, Jay and Claire are also sceptical of Cam’s story, and push him to prove himself just as everyone sits down for dinner. Claire tries to hold everyone back by making it about her arduous day of cooking, but Phil antagonizes her with a well-placed “chicken” comment and gets everyone out the door.

“Punkin Chunkin” is apparently the practice of sling-shooting a pumpkin across a football field – Cam’s story just happens to include the pumpkin going clean through an open sunroof in the parking lot past the field. Even though his first attempt literally falls short, Claire, Mitchell and Jay are secretly hoping that Cam proves them wrong, and convince him to keep trying – until he launches a pumpkin straight into Claire’s van in the exact spot that Hayley dented it.

In lieu of the constant reminders to be thankful that we have the luxury of losing ourselves in a slew of sitcoms to keep us from human contact, Modern Family opts for subtler seasonal relevance. Because most holidays have been hijacked and had their spirits diluted for mass consumption, some people (myself included) tend to respond by reminding everyone about the unromanticized history behind the holiday; but as we learn from today’s most Modern Family, even the realists can hope that the grander stories in life are true.