If by "none of you are picking up on it" you mean "everyone, and I mean every fucking person in this thread has picked up on it" then you are spot-on.

And "Mike" has a grandchild who is actually Jay's grandchild and Mitchell's secret daughter who he had back in his… experimental days.

Ahh, Vogler. *dreams about the good old days…*

Hear hear!

Who's up for an AV Club fantasy writing league? I'll take Todd and Nathan as my authors and Louie CK as my commentor.

tl;dr

Archer's Bartleby reference is still the joke I laughed at the most of the entire series. It was fucking insane, first I couldn't even comprehend any show would dare reference fucking Bartleby and then I just laughed my ass off for at least a solid minute. Holy shit that was funny as all shit.

I can't believe I just spent 30 seconds matching up each of your responses with each part of Pervy's comment.

I'm with you. Especially compared to the early episodes of current hits like Parks & Rec and Community, Up All Night really compares quite favorably here in the early going. This should be well worth sticking with.

Brilliant.

Finally a sensible response in this comments section. It's unfortunate that he AVClub is too pop culture-y to really accept the mainstream appeal of a show like Modern Family. It's true the show has stereotypical characters and the jokes don't always land, but you have to treat it like it wants to be treated, which is…

I clearly remember all the hate Parks & Rec got for its pilot episode (and most of the first season actually). I give myself great credit for seeing the potential and had no doubts about sticking with it as it went into its second season, which is when it just got crazy good crazy fast.

Seconded.

Brilliant ending as far as I'm concerned. When Ryan is in the hospital by Wilfred's bed, you're just waiting for Wilfred to end his joke and crack a smile… and then he just flat-out doesn't… and of course it just gets upped to the next level when he goes home and sees the basement is really only a closet. We finally…

Yeah, loved the misdirection from the promos. What looked like a fairly pivotal scene turned out to be pretty much irrelevant, and all the big hitters were total surprises because of it.

3 was the best imo as well, and in terms of pure laugh-out-loud hilarity is a bit behind Parks and Rec and Archer but ahead of Community and 30 Rock.

Yeah @avclub-fe085328875680ff4f8791c4b2e8b45b:disqus has it right. Jonas used his powers on his dad's congregation, so while his dad as the leader of the congregation actually set up the whole burning thing the congregation was in their elevated state from Jonas' ability.

It's also awesome how much of Louie's actual trip he incorporated into the episode. The cheerleaders, Keni, the soccer playing, the nearby explosion that all the soldiers laughed at, even the Buffalo thing (although in real life Louie backed off whereas in the show he attacked the city), all incredible stuff.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Gary is one of the most well written and acted autistic characters I've ever seen on TV. That last scene was indeed excellent all around.

The imaginary character has become a more common plot device, but Fight Club was the movie that brought it to prominence and showed how brilliantly it could be pulled off. I was definitely getting some Fight Club vibes from this episode.