Fifteen Percent

"Fifteen Percent"
Season	1
Episode	13
Total Episode Count	13
Written By	Steven Levitan
Directed By	Jason Winer
Production Code	1ARG12
Air Date	January 20, 2010
Episode Guide
← Previous	"Not in My House"
Next →	"Moon Landing"

Mitchell tells Jay that one of his friends is gay to teach him a lesson, Claire gets frustrated with Phil's new master remote control, and Gloria gives Manny's "date" a makeover to improve her self-esteem.

Synopsis

PHIL: "People can change. That's what I believe, and I will until the day I die."

Yes, he said that. But at least he's good with technology, which Claire isn't. She walked into Haley's room in just her under garments while Dylan was on the webcam.

Jay is talking with some of his old friends from the neighborhood and Cam stops by. Jay, carefully avoiding discussing Cam's relationship with Mitchell, introduces him, and Cameron mixes up his North Jersey motifs, calling them the Jersey Boys instead of the Sopranos.

Manny is prepared for his date with a girl he met named Whitney, who along with Manny is into Young adult vampire novels. Unfortunately, Whitney's in her late twenties/early thirties, but to be fair, Whitney met Manny online, and Manny is very mature for his age. Whitney is embarrassed to the point of tears, but Gloria tries to comfort her, as does Manny.

Cameron tells Mitchell that Jay introduced him as "a friend of my son's" and Mitchell won't let it go. He goes to his dad, and Jay's friend, Shorty, admires Mitch's coat instead. Mitch isn't happy with Jay, but Jay was trying to avoid an awkward situation with a bunch of people with old attitudes. Even though Cameron was never offended, Mitchell won't back down, even saying he thinks Shorty is gay. Jay vehemently denies it, and the fact that Shorty was married once wasn't stopping Mitchell.

Cameron was freaking out over the limp flowers he just bought, but what Jay said didn't bother him. Going "medieval" on the florist does freak out Cameron. The florist comes by to replace the flowers, as Cameron nuked the old ones to make them look bad again. It works: the flowers are on fire...and Cam freaks.

Gloria is working on Whitney, who still has doubts, as does Jay about Whitney being Manny's date. Gloria talks to Jay about Shorty, and Gloria also thinks Shorty might be gay, since Shorty never hit on her, but Jay's other friends have. Gloria insists Jay talk to Shorty about it.

Heading out to the links, Jay isn't hitting very well, so Shorty offers some advice...to bend over more, open his hips and even helping him find his form. Jay finally settles for coffee and finally tries to get Shorty to open up. Jay admits he didn't handle the situation well with his son, and he wants to make up for it and helps him. Shorty appreciates it and comes out...by admitting he was in debt for $20,000 to a bookie. And he thanked Jay for paying it off. Jay goes right to Mitchell, ready to tear his head off. Worse, Mitchell lied about Shorty being gay to teach Jay a lesson. But Mitchell does appreciate all of the changes Jay has tried to make from how he used to be.

Claire's efforts with the mega-remote Phil bought resulted in a busted remote, and she refused to apologize for breaking it. She made a deal that if Phil can teach their dumbest kid how to operate it in 20 minutes, she would apologize. But not Luke...Haley had to learn it. Haley struggles, but Phil convinces her "this is for all of those times when your mother said she was right, but you knew she was wrong." Haley gives it the ol' college try. Phil encourages her, while Claire tries to trip her up. Haley wins, and Claire is dumbfounded.

Gloria's makeover of Whitney was a complete success, and Cameron gets the first look at the new Whitney. He is impressed by her new dress, hair, and choice of literature. And Whitney is impressed by Cameron...and turned on, too.

MITCHELL: Can people change? I don't know. People are who they are. Give or take...about fifteen percent. That's how much people can change if they really want to. Whether it's for themselves or the people they love, yeah, it's fifteen percent. But sometimes, that's enough.

Guest Starring

• Chazz Palminteri as Shorty
• Kristen Schaal as Whitney
• Darius Dudly as Dale
• William Jones as Scotty
• Reid Ewing as Dylan
• Bernardo Badillo as Delivery Guy

Trivia

• The episode title refers to Mitchell's concluding voice-over, explaining that people may change a little, perhaps fifteen percent, if they really want to do so.
• Alex and Luke are absent in this episode, although Luke is mentioned by Phil and Claire.
• Mitchell came out of the closet in his mid-twenties, and he had to came out to Jay three times before he finally acknowledged it.

Cultural References

• Cameron mentions Antonio Banderas.
• Cameron says that Jay's friends look like a scene out of Jersey Boys.
• Jay tells Mitchell that Shorty can't be gay because he was previously married, but Mitchell says that Elton John, Merv Griffin and Cole Porter were also married before coming out of the closet. Although Merv Griffin never married a man, he is suspected of dieing a closeted homosexual, because he was known to joke about his sexuality instead of answering the question outright. His postmortem law suits didn't help.
• When Cameron sees Whitney's hair, he says she looks like Barbara Streisand in The Way We Were.
• Shorty gives Jay tickets to see Michael Bublé.
• When Haley is trying to demonstrate she can use the mega-remote to Claire, is seen in the TV several films and television series:
  • The comedy-drama sport film Breaking Away.
  • The TV series Judge Alex.
  • The TV reality series The View.