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"Little Bo Bleep" is the thirteenth episode from Season 3 of Modern Family, it aired on January 18, 2012.

Summary[]

The family helps Claire prepare for her upcoming televised debate with Duane Bailey for the town council seat, but will they do more harm than good? Lily is going to be a precious flower girl for the first time, but the problem is she’s just discovered her first expletive and Mitchell and Cam don’t know how best to deal with this new parenting test. And Jay is very concerned with Stella's recent strange behavior and puts the blame on Gloria.

Plot[]

Claire has her debate with Duane Bailey for City Council tonight, and she isn't ready. People say she's mean-spirited, sarcastic, and unlikeable. They decide to have a mock debate so she can practice. Of course, it's hard for Claire to look like a person of the people when Luke and Haley are honking a horn and hitting the buzzer on Operation when she rolls her eyes, purses her lips, points, touches her face, is sarcastic, doesn't know the simplest of questions, stutter, dealing with hecklers, talking too close to the mic, taking too long to answer questions, and showing the bad side of her face. (If the family could agree which side of her face was the bad one).

As Jay has issues with his dog, Stella, jumping into the pool (or drowning, as he fears) and Gloria has problems with Jay going crazy about Stella.

Mitchell and Cameron have to prepare Lily for her turn as a flower girl at a wedding. Based on Lily's dress, the theme is apparently Las Vegas Showgirl. (she has actual blinking lights in her dress). But they get her a basket and rose petals to practice. They make sure she simply drops them and doesn't throw them to the ground. But she's doing fine, and the dads are proud...until Lily gets tired, puts the basket down and drops the 'f-bomb'. Although Cam thought it was funny, Mitchell was shocked at both of them. Mitch and Cam hoped she may have said the wrong word, but when Lily wanted some ice cream and Mitchell suggested fruit instead, well...

The Dunphys get to the council chambers, where Phil conveniently waits until that moment to tell Claire the debate is being televised. Now she's more nervous, given she just lost a mock debate to her family and is unlikeable. Alex tells her to forget everything and just be confident.

Jay, Gloria, and Manny join them at the debate, as does Stella. Jay's theory for why Stella keeps jumping in the pool is that she might be suicidal, which Gloria thinks is crazy, obviously, although Duane Bailey doesn't think it's that crazy. In fact, Duane thinks Stella might sense Gloria thinks she's stupid.

Mitchell and Cameron talk to Lily about that word she said that morning. ("Flower?" "No..." "Fruit?" "No..." "Oh, you mean f***.") And Cameron laughs again, which was why Lily was saying it in the first place. And she wasn't on board with stopping. Cam and Mitch have a problem, and Cam suggests they cancel.

At the debate, Claire is actually doing quite well. Then Bailey plays the Phil card, bringing up the police report from last Valentine's Day regarding Phil breaking into a stranger's room and posing provocatively on the bed. The crowd is shocked...and amused...but Claire wants to get back to the issues. Of course, the audience wanted to know what she was wearing and if Phil and Claire were sex freaks. Well, Claire was freaking out over this, despite pointing out correctly Bailey hadn't passed one single ordinance of significance during his tenure. And then Phil decides to interrupt.

PHIL: I am Phil Dunphy, and I am not a pervert. I, like a lot of men in this town, enjoy making love to my wife. I mean...their wives. Not me! Them.

Oh, and Phil and Claire made the biggest mistake of all: ending up on YouTube. They went viral. (PHIL: Some sick bastard Auto-tuned me.)

Back at Jay and Gloria's, they get ready for the wedding, except Stella tries for the pool again and Gloria feels guilt that she called Stella stupid earlier. She dives in to get Stella in her dress. Jay gets a towel for the shivering lady. Stella, not Gloria. Then he figures it out and gives Stella's towel to Gloria.

At the wedding, Lily was on verbal lock-down and was playing along, but Claire told Alex why she ran: she wanted to make her family proud. Alex was proud of her, given it was kind of nerdy and that was her thing. Cameron started crying, only Mitchell realizes what Lily would do to cheer him up. And she did. And the crowd laughed, so she just kept going. The bride was embarrassed. By Lily dropping f-bombs, not by the game-show-lights in all the wedding gowns.

Main Cast[]

(The characters striked out do not appear in this episode)

  • Jay Pritchett
  • Gloria Pritchett
  • Manny Delgado
  • Claire Dunphy
  • Phil Dunphy
  • Haley Dunphy
  • Alex Dunphy
  • Luke Dunphy
  • Mitchell Pritchett
  • Cameron Tucker
  • Lily Tucker-Pritchett

Guest Starring[]

Continuity[]

Trivia[]

  • Steven Levitan made it clear that Aubrey Anderson-Emmons never really said the "f-word", so instead she said "fudge".
  • This is one of the first episodes with censored words. This included Grab It as well.
  • Cam states that he and Mitchell are not going to any more weddings by until the gays get married foreshadowing Suddenly Last Summer which aired the day gay marriage became legal in California.

Gallery[]


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