We’re used to The Simpsons essentially predicting the future in its storylines—there’s a Simpsons reference for everything. This time, it’s a different show that foreshadowed recent viral news.
Modern Family’s Phil Dunphy knows exactly how the Astronomer CEO feels—he too once got burned by a kiss cam.
A scene from the first season of the ABC comedy series is going viral after Coldplay accidentally outed an affair between the tech company’s CEO Andy Byron, and his head of HR, Kristin Cabot.
The couple were caught on the concert Jumbotron desperately trying to hide their faces after realizing they were on camera. Noticing their strange behaviour, Chris Martin, the band’s lead singer, quipped: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
Shortly afterwards, someone uploaded the clip to social media, where the couple were quickly identified as Astronomer employees.
And now, thanks to the viral scandal, Modern Family fans can’t help but recall a similar moment from the Season 1 finale, which aired in 2010, when a misunderstanding involving a kiss cam almost got family man Phil (Ty Burrell) in trouble with his wife, Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen).
In the episode, titled “Family Portrait,” Phil heads to a basketball game with Gloria Pritchett (played by Sofia Vergara), who happens to be his father-in-law’s wife. They also brought along their children, Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) and Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez).
During the game, the Kiss Cam ends up on Phil and Gloria. Despite his best efforts to send them away, the camera keeps cutting back to them, until finally, Gloria gets so annoyed that she kisses Phil.
Unfortunately, Claire (Julie Bowen), Phil’s wife, is watching from home. She sees the whole thing. Furious, she calls Alex, who bluntly warns her dad: “Mom saw you on TV. You’re dead.”
Later, Phil explains to the camera:
“Here’s the thing. The Kiss Cam is only supposed to be for the enjoyment of the people at the game. They never show that on TV. What people do in the privacy of their own sports arena should be their own business.”
Naturally, Modern Family fans couldn’t help but appreciate the parallels between that scene and the real-life Coldplay Kiss Cam scandal.
The clip has been making the rounds on TikTok, too.
Of course, there is one key difference between the show and real-life—Phil never actually cheated.
