‘We apologize for the noise, unfortunately the Royals baseball team are practicing in the neighbouring field.’
And just like that we see Cam’s interest piqued and as an audience we all know what’s going to happen next.
Cam is going to ditch Mitchell despite promising to stay by his side to try and secure a picture with a famous baseball player.
Over the course of 9 seasons we have learned to expect this from Cam as he has done it so often.
Contrast that to a moment from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Imagine a group of adults all crowding around a new born baby admiring it’s cuteness and squealing with delight at the chubbiness of the cheeks.
Then one of the adults (for some bizarre unknown reason) reaches down and takes the soother out of the baby’s mouth.
There’s a few seconds pause as you think ‘oh no, this well behaved baby is now going to scream the house down!’.
And then, quite suddenly, there’s a sucking noise much like vacuum cleaner and all of the adults are sucked into the baby’s mouth.
Safe to say I did not see that coming.
In summary, yes Modern Family and Monty Python’s Flying Circus both fall into the genre of comedy but there are distinct nuances in who they’re targeting and how they deliver.
Thomas Duggan 