I've been so busy checking Modern Family for homophobic subtexts with Adam Devine that I missed a gay subtext in Episode 5.13, "Three Dinners":
Modern Family has a very large cast: closet-making tycoon Jay Pritchett; his new wife Gloria and her son; daughter Claire and her husband and three children; and son Mitchell and his partner, eventually husband. Episodes usually ssend smaller groups out on separate adventures, so I'll cover the three dinners separately.
Dinner 1: Jay and Gloria are dining with their close friends, Shorty (Chazz Palminteri, who has appeared in four previous episodes) and his wife. They've been taking Spanish classes, because they're moving to Costa Rica! They expect Jay and Gloria to be happy for them, but Jay immediately becomes critical: "You hate humidity! They have mosquitos the size of your fist!"
Cut to Shorty and Jay playing pool, Jay still complaining about the move: "It's a terrible idea. You get into things without thinking, and then you need me to come and rescue you!" They argue about a lot of things from their never-mentioned-before shared history, and finally break up.
Gloria and her son Manny advise Jay that he always pushes his friends away, so when they leave him, it doesn't hurt as much. Aww, you don't want to open yourself up to love. Wait, what about Gloria?
"You're the greatest generation," Manny says, "But you can't feel."
Jay lashes out with a facetious accusation that Manny and Gloria are lovers, an incest joke playing into the homophobic slur that all gay men are in love with their mothers. He keeps playing on it until the viewers are cringing: "Why don't you two go cuddle!"
Later, we see Jake sitting in the kitchen, getting drunk and thinking about how much Shorty means to him. Finally he decides to drive over and apologize -- dude, you're drunk -- but Shorty beats him to it. They hug and cry. Gloria, eavesdropping, snits: "This is a little girlier than I thought." Wait, first you criticize him for not displaying emotion, and now you criticize him for displaying emotion. Make up your mind, lady!
More dinners after the break
