Characterization of Mitchell from "Modern Family"

      In the TV show “Modern Family”, Jesse Ferugeson plays the role of Mitchell who is sarcastic, can be sometimes very childish, and yet generous, in order to depict his sense of humor in a dry, nonchalant way as an indirect character. He is not straight-up defined. The viewer has to almost get to know him in a way. Seeing him in different situations throughout the TV show, start to open horizons of his personality. He’s somewhat hard to figure out. It takes some thought to figure him out.
      Mitchell’s use of sarcasm may take some viewers a second to pick up. Since he has very dry humor, it’s hard to tell when he’s being serious and when he is using sarcasm. He speaks nonchalantly. It’s evident when he’s trying to casually tell Cameron that,”people find stories funnier when they’re true”. At first, they were talking about the story as if it were true, though Mitchell doesn’t like hearing it over and over again. Then, with his use of sarcasm, he tells Cameron how he really feels and he doesn’t even pick up on it at first. Thus leading into how childish he can act.
      Mitchell’s sarcasm is apart of how childish he can truly be without even realizing it. Along with being childish, he’s competitive with Cameron. They are foils for each other, definitely. They always seem to find ways of one upping each other. Cameron is a dreamer, while Mitchell is more of a realist. this makes them both act childish towards each other. After Mitchell has won a trophy, and Cameron wanted to display not only Mitchell’s, but is trophy, Mitchell gets offended and defensive. He eventually realizes he’s being ridiculous when he says, “I'm so glad I spoke to Alex because she agreed with every single thing that I was saying...which made me realize that I was acting like a 14-year-old girl”. This then shows that with accepting his childish ways, how he can be very generous.
      Though Mitchell’s childish ways blindside his generosity and sometimes goes unnoticed, he tries his hardest to make up for his wrongdoings. Depending on certain situations, he usually ends up feeling bad for the way once acted. He wants his efforts to go noticed, but sometimes they are failed attempts. After his fight with Cameron about the trophies and after he realizes how childish he was being, he was ”was going to make a big display” of all of Cameron’s trophies to make him feel better. His generosity throws off his other traits.
      The characterization of Mitchell includes his sense of sarcasm, childishness, and generosity. All of these traits help let the viewer understand who he is, even though it may be tough to do so. It’s tough because he’s such an indirect character. He’s not obviously defined, but more like a realistic person. These traits highlight his comedic attributes.