Modern Family’s Gloria Pritchett is known for being feisty, overprotective, and passionate. Hailing from Columbia, she keeps her roots and home country’s traditions alive while she raises her two sons in America. However, her dedication to being an overbearing mother and wife can sometimes land her in hot water.
On the show, Gloria gets herself into hilarious situations because of her fiery personality. You can compare her to a modern-day Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy. She’s independent but sometimes lets her pride get the best of her. From spying on her son to her neighbor’s dog mysteriously disappearing, here are 10 of Gloria’s most shameless moments.
WHEN SHE RUINED MANNY’S CAKE
One of the reasons why viewers love Gloria’s son Manny so much is because he’s always been a young adult in a kid’s body. He’s a diehard romantic and a poet with different hobbies than most kids his age. And while he did join the football team when he was in high school, Manny preferred baking, writing, and learning about art over getting sweaty.
In one of Gloria’s more shameless moments, she destroyed the cake Manny entered into a baking competition because she feared he would be picked on for winning. His competitors weren’t kids his age, they were older women, which made it easy to mock Manny. What’s worse is when Manny saw his cake ruined, he blamed it on an older competitor, not realizing it was his own mother.
SHE SHOT JAY IN THE FOOT TO COVER UP HIS LIES
In this hilarious episode, Gloria doesn’t understand some of America’s expressions like “putting your foot in your mouth” or “shooting yourself in the foot.” She doesn’t understand why Americans are obsessed with feet. This leads to what happens next…
With Lily’s soccer game going on that day, no one in the family wanted to go and watch a bunch of little girls kick a ball around. To make their reason for not going more understandable, Gloria literally shoots Jay in the foot. She claims it was an accident but let’s be serious…
POPPING MANNY’S BIRTHDAY POOL FLOAT BECAUSE THEY WERE RUNNING LATE
In the episode “Manny Get Your Gun,” it’s Manny’s birthday and the entire family is celebrating with a fancy dinner. The only problem is, Manny feels like he’s getting too old and never had the chance to act like a normal kid.
Late for dinner and annoyed at both Manny and Jay, Gloria grabs Manny’s BB gun and shoots the pool float Manny is floating on. The float begins the sink and a panicked, well-dressed Manny scurries out of the pool.
DRESSED AS A SLOB TO PROVE A POINT
Despite Gloria and Jay’s large age gap, these two get along famously. They have a unique way of speaking to each other (yelling) but it works for them.
After getting into a disagreement about Jay’s laid-back wardrobe style, Gloria decides to dress similarly to show him how it feels. Jay loves Gloria no matter what but he was stunned when she dressed in sweats for one of his business meetings. He, of course, couldn’t take her into the bar looking that way, which proved Gloria’s point: They loved dressing up for one another and they should continue doing so.
THREATENED HALEY’S BOSS WHEN HE FIRED HER
Even though Gloria is newer to the Pritchett clan, she eventually wins everyone over and is very protective of the entire family. Haley, in particular, loves fashion and admires Gloria’s sense of style. In this episode, Gloria and Haley are getting ready for a day of shopping when Haley got called into work by her demanding boss, Gavin Sinclair.
But when Gloria realized how miserable Haley is, she decides to step in and do something about it. It’s assumed that she threatened Gavin into rehiring Haley (unbeknownst to Haley) and the two went about their day shopping.
TAKING JAY FROM HER SISTER
When we first meet Gloria’s younger sister, she’s in awe of Gloria’s new American life. She is married to a wealthy man, lives in a big house, and has a whole room full of clothes. It’s unfathomable for her. But it’s not until Joe’s baptism that we learn that when Jay first met Gloria at the dinner, he was originally interested in her sister.
Jay sent a piece of pie over to her but she was in the bathroom, which is why Gloria approached him. It gets worse when we find out that the only reason Gloria is in America is that she took her sister’s entrance letter and acted as if it was her own…
SHE PUT A HIT OUT ON AUNTIE ALICE
Fans were excited for Gloria when she branched out and created her own business. She’s a terrific mother and wife but she’s also very smart and has oodles of Columbian recipes that would do well in America. She creates her own salsa business and begins giving samples out at a local grocery store.
It’s there that she meets a fellow businesswoman (a much older woman) named Auntie Alice. But when Gloria’s salsa cut-out goes mysteriously missing, she assumes it’s Auntie Alice. She then makes a few verbal threats and makes a secret phone call to put a hit out on Auntie Alice. It’s only then that Jay panics and admits it was him who took her cut-out out of jealously.
WHEN SHE KICKED CAM OUT OF HER HOUSE
In the ninth season, Cam and Mitchell’s kitchen is under construction, so they have no choice but to crash at Jay and Gloria’s for a few weeks. It started off nice enough until they overstayed their welcome. Cameron became a touch overbearing and was making Gloria’s home more of his own. She felt like she had no privacy and that Cameron was everywhere.
The moment that made Gloria snap was when she came out of the bathtub and Cameron was sitting right there, hoping to use the tub next. She insulted (among other things) and kicked him out of her house. However, a few seconds later it was said that Cam and Mitch’s kitchen was ready. If she waited a few minutes before kicking him out, she wouldn’t have had to do that in the first place.
SHE ‘TOOK CARE’ OF HER NEIGHBOR’S DOG
We don’t see or hear much of the Pritchett-Delgado’s neighbors but in “Unplugged,” we meet one very annoying neighbor. The dog next door won’t stop barking and it’s keeping the entire Pritchett household up. To put an end to it all, Gloria marches next door and demands his dog to shut up.
The neighbor tells Gloria that the dog isn’t even his and it wouldn’t be long until it’s gone. However, the next day the neighbor confronts Gloria, demanding to know where his dog is. All of a sudden it was nowhere to be found. She plays dumb and says she has no idea what happened to his dog…
PRANKING MANNY THAT JAVIER ISN’T HIS REAL FATHER
When Gloria is upset with something that’s going on in her household, she gets even to get her point across. Upset over Jay and Manny’s behavior, Gloria invites an old ex-boyfriend, Jorge, over to meet the family. Shockingly, he looks and acts exactly like Manny. Jay and Manny quickly wonder if Jorge is Manny’s biological father.
When Alex comes over, she finds paternity test paperwork that proves Jorge is Manny’s father! As we find out later, it was all a prank to get back at Jay and Manny. Jorge and Gloria never even dated, he was just a friend.
