The Lily Easter Egg Eagle-Eyed Fans Caught In Modern Family's Season 2 Finale
For 11 seasons, "Modern Family" followed the lives of the extended Pritchett clan, and there were plenty of running gags along the way, from Cam's (Eric Stonestreet) too-tight bike shorts to the broken step in the Dunphy house that Phil (Ty Burrell) constantly tripped up ("Gotta fix that step!"). And Easter eggs were not just a seasonal thing. Throughout the ABC sitcom's long, Emmy-winning run, eagle-eyed fans were privy to tons of hidden references and inside jokes that weren't as obvious as that broken step.
In 2015, AOL compiled a list of blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter eggs from the jam-packed Season 6 episode "Connection Lost," including an ad for "Croctopus 4," the sequel to a fictional movie that Claire (Julie Bowen) and Phil see in the Season 2 episode "Our Children Ourselves," as well as all of Claire's Facebook friends being tied to the show in some way. "It's loaded with little bits, visual jokes, and [show] history for people who want to stop, freeze it, look at it, and read everything," executive producer Steven Levitan told reporters of the episode (via Yahoo News). "There is probably more going on than people can take in on one viewing. ... You're not catching every single thing."
But while viewers were instructed to look for Easter eggs in "Connection Lost," only die-hard fans noticed the more subtle one in the Season 2 finale.
Fans saw Lily Tucker-Pritchett's TV commercial in the background of the Season 2 finale
In Season 2, Episode 7, "Chirp," baby Lily (Ella and Jaden Hiller) films a TV commercial, much to the dismay of one of her dads, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). The cheesy, Godzilla-themed commercial features the Vietnamese-born Lily and another Asian baby sitting in front of a display of cardboard skyscrapers as white actors voice their lines in faux Japanese accents, prompting Mitchell to declare, "This commercial, it's a big stereotype!" While Mitchell contends that their Asian daughter is being used as a prop, husband Cam initially defends the role, calling it "niche casting." By the second take, however, even Cam agrees he doesn't want his daughter to appear in the racist ad.
"Modern Family" fans would have gladly forgotten all about the commercial, but it actually makes a cameo at the end of the season in the background on the Dunphy family's TV. "In the season 2 finale you can see [L]ily's [G]odzilla commercial playing in the background," u/yordan1247 pointed out.
While some fans simply commented on the nice Easter egg find, u/ohwellwereherenow noted, "Their final episode of each [season] often contains Easter eggs." In fact, a separate thread shared by u/kickitlikeadidas lists a bunch of other Easter eggs in the episode, including the reappearance of Gloria's (Sofia Vergara) Froot Loops necklace from her son Manny (Rico Rodriguez) and the incessant barking of the neighbor's dog in the background of the video they filmed for Jay (Ed O'Neill).