'Modern Family' Kiss Cam Scene Goes Viral Amid Astronomer Fallout
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A scene from the popular sitcom Modern Family has gone viral online following the fallout from the viral Coldplay kiss cam video, with social media users saying the show unwittingly predicted the moment.
Why It Matters
A trip to a Coldplay concert went awry for two people last week, after the Jumbotron kiss cam captured a moment that quickly snowballed into a viral sensation and scandal. The cam landed on a couple who were embracing but quickly broke apart in a panic.
The clip was later uploaded to TikTok, and the pair was identified as Andy Byron, CEO of the tech firm Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company's head of Human Resources. The pair is accused of having been caught being unfaithful. Byron has now resigned as CEO.
What To Know
A scene from Season 1, Episode 24 of Modern Family, titled "Family Portrait," is circulating widely online. In the episode, Phil Dunphy, played by Ty Burrell, and Gloria Pritchett, played by Sofia Vergara, attend a Lakers game with their respective children, Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) and Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez).
Gloria is married to Phil's father-in-law.
While attending the game, Phil and Gloria end up on the kiss cam, and although Phil tries to wave it off, the camera keeps returning to them until eventually, Gloria kisses Phil.
L: Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot at the Coldplay concert. R: A scene from "Modern Family" in which Gloria and Phil are caught on the kiss cam at an LA Lakers game.
L: Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot at the Coldplay concert. R: A scene from "Modern Family" in which Gloria and Phil are caught on the kiss cam at an LA Lakers game.
TikTok Screenshot/In the episode, Phil's wife, Claire Dunphy, played by Julie Bowman, is watching the TV as it all unfolds. Phil is informed of this by Alex, who tells him, "Mom saw you on TV. You're dead."
Phil says in the episode, "What people do in the privacy of their own sports arena should be their own business."
Modern Family aired its final episode in April 2020, but the scene has resonated online following the Coldplay kiss cam fallout, thanks to its similarities to the scandal.
The clip was shared on Instagram by the account @tadao.suyama and has been viewed over 860,000 times so far. Social media user @karmaismyister also shared the clip on TikTok following the viral moment. That post has been viewed over 500,000 times and liked over 33,000 times.
Social media users often draw parallels between fictional TV shows and real-life events online, with the most notable example being the long-running animated series The Simpsons, which many have claimed forecasts real-life events.
What People Are Saying
Social media user @tadao.suyama wrote on Instagram: "Modern Family saw it coming — Season 1, Episode 24 'Family Portrait.' Phil (the one in trouble) and Gloria (stepdad's wife) on the kiss cam, Claire (his wife) watching from home...harmless fun turns into family chaos."
Social media user @karmaismyister wrote on Instagram: "So that's where the CEO got the idea for his apology letter."
Social media user @billydevine shared the clip on TikTok: "not modern family predicting the coldplay kiss cam incident."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
11 minutes ago
- New York Post
Here's the real reason the Coldplay concert cheating scandal went absolutely mega-viral
It was the cuddle – then scuttle – seen 'round the world. The viral infamy that's engulfed Astronomer CEO Andy Byron's cringe moment with his HR chief at a Coldplay concert has been fueled by a thirst to see powerful execs get their comeuppance, media experts said. 'It was a viral antidote to the corporate cringe most people live and breathe,' digital consultant Dan Roy Carter told The Post. 'It was humanizing, humorous and ultimately a moment for the world to laugh at people in perceived positions of authority or power in an unsuspecting setting.' The unifying reaction was a classic case of shared 'schadenfreude,' where glee is derived from an enemy's misfortune, pointed out University of Southern California prof Jonathan Gratch. 3 Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot at the Coldplay concert. Grace Springer via Storyful The enemy in this case: The millionaire execs Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. 'People hate executives these days and take pleasure in their pain (think Elon),' he added. People couldn't get enough. For instance, the Coldplay scandal has had twice as many social media mentions as one of the last big viral stories: Jeff Bezo's lavish Venice wedding to Lauren Sanchez, according to data compiled by analytics company Sprout Social. Google search volume for Andy Byron was so monumental in the days following the concert that other viral trends like the Hawk Tuah girl, Raygun and the Titan submersible paled in comparison. Footage of Byron, who has since resigned from the company, and Cabot rapidly spread across the internet when the pair was caught getting cozy at the band's Wednesday show at Gillette Stadium. The two were embracing, with Byron's arms wrapped around Cabot's chest, when the camera panned to them – leading the two execs to panic. Cabot's hands flew in front of her face while Byron hit the deck, prompting lead singer Chris Martin to speculate they may be 'having an affair.' 'He ducked down like shots were fired. It was funny to see. It was so childish,' said Carlos Ramos, a New York City music video producer. He added that the internet reveled in the ignorance of the two execs, contributing to the wildfire-like spread of the viral moment. 'They both didn't expect to be on a camera — which is ridiculous in this era — with so many people with phones and cameras. They just froze, caught up in the moment,' Ramos, 50, said. 3 The viral moment has dominated the internet for days. csuarez 'CEOs, HR chiefs are not necessarily popular as individuals or roles, this is where you get a certain amount of 'ooh busted,'' Syracuse professor of communication T. Makana Chock told The Post, agreeing with other experts in her field. She added that people, even before social media, are quick to judge others, adding to the buzz. 3 Even the Phillies took part in the fun. R A W S A L E R T S Chock also stressed the clip 'told a story in a very few seconds' that then allowed social media users to add their own commentary and creativity to the situation. In one popular iteration, the Philadelphia Phillies did a riff off the kiss-cam awkwardness. 'Every so often you get something that carries and develops a life of its own outside of the original context,' she said. 'It's a perfect storm.'
Vox
12 minutes ago
- Vox
Should we feel weird about the Coldplay cheating drama?
is a culture writer interested in reality TV, movies, pop music, Black media, and celebrity culture. Previously, she wrote for the Daily Beast and contributed to several publications, including Vulture, W Magazine, and Bitch Media. What does it mean to be a private individual in public? Are we all just characters waiting to go viral? These questions have resurfaced following the instantly-infamous Jumbotron incident that occurred during a Coldplay concert last week. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, who's married, and the company's head of human resources, Kristin Cabot, were caught cuddling before trying (and failing) to evade the camera. Chris Martin quipped, apparently accurately, that they acted like they were having an affair. Some, though, have taken a more hands-on approach to the drama. Once the concert footage went viral, users flooded the comments of Byron and Cabot's LinkedIn pages before they were taken down. Another Coldplay concertgoer sent TMZ additional footage of the couple canoodling. Users identified Byron's wife, flooding her social media, as well as a third Astronomer executive, who was spotted on the Jumbotron laughing at the ordeal. Understandably, a married CEO getting caught and subsequently resigning for having inappropriate relations with a subordinate hasn't warranted much sympathy. The ordeal is amusing to the extent that the players are largely unrelatable and seemingly thoughtless. Still, the fallout has been disconcerting to some. While the couple was exposed in a seemingly organic and accidental way, the speed at which the story escalated, with the help of online sleuths and even brands weighing in, demonstrated how easily personal matters can become public spectacles. It raises some obvious concerns about our relationship to privacy in a digital culture where the surveillance of strangers has been normalized and personal information is increasingly accessible. What happens to privacy when everything is available? What happens when exposing others is more and more commonly dressed up as fun? Since the early days of social media, average people have been at risk of becoming public, widely discussed figures overnight. Still, the advent of TikTok has made this a much more common occurrence — frequently without the permission of the people who go viral. The idea that you could be watched at any time but can never know when has gone from a philosophical prison design — Jeremy Bentham's concept of the panopticon— to a state of reality. In a 2023 BuzzFeed News story, reporter Clarissa-Jan Lim described this mostly TikTok-driven phenomenon as 'panopticontent,' where 'everything is content for the creating, and everyone is a nonplayer character in [users'] world[s].' In many cases, filming strangers has been proven to be a correct and necessary course of action. The Black Lives Matter movement was bolstered by citizens recording their negative interactions with police, for awareness-raising and proof in seeking justice. This seemed to inspire a surge in 'Karen' videos, exposing people for racist and other discriminatory behavior. However, post-pandemic, the tendency to pull out your phone and press record has descended into something much less urgent and more opportunistic. We've witnessed this before. At the height of tabloid culture in the '90s and early 2000s, we watched celebrities get hounded by paparazzi and have their personal lives examined with a microscope in magazines. Associate professor Jenna Drenten, who studies digital consumer culture at Loyola University Chicago, coined the term 'TikTok tabloid' to describe how this behavior has translated to the app in much more participatory fashion from observers. However, she says that users have created a power imbalance by subjecting regular people to this sort of spotlight. 'In the past, there was an implicit social contract: celebrities traded privacy for fame, and audiences felt justified in scrutinizing them,' says Drenten. 'But that logic doesn't cleanly apply to regular people caught in viral moments. And yet, the same infrastructure of judgment, spectacle, and moral commentary gets applied to them.' This behavior isn't just user-driven. It's often amplified and commodified by brands, as seen with Neon, Chipotle, and even betting platforms, like Polymarket, following the Coldplay incident. Drenten says that the 'blurring of public spectacle, private consequence, and corporate opportunism' is where things get even more 'ethically murky.' 'The viral attention economy is no longer limited to individuals or content creators,' she says. 'Brands are increasingly acting like culture-jacking spectators, helping to fuel the pile-on.' A larger problem often occurs after this content circulates and rakes in tons of views. The social mystery at the heart of any human drama routinely incites further engagement and sleuthing, with users becoming participants in the saga. As with the Astronomer CEO and his family, spectators usually end up doxxing the people involved, whether that's exposing their job positions or their home addresses. As this behavior gets swept up in more socially-sanctioned reactions (like jokes from regular people and brands), it affirms an increasing loss of etiquette around personal information, one that's been spearheaded by tech corporations, according to one Cornell University professor. Helen Nissenbaum, author of Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life, says tech companies have been influential in shaping our views on privacy based on what's accessible to us, creating an 'all bets are off' approach to spreading information. 'The big tech platforms have gotten away with a really poor conception of privacy,' Nissenbaum says. 'It's allowed them to say things like, 'If it's in public, anything goes.' This is how OpenAI defended itself by saying, 'We're scraping stuff on the open web without asking.'' Apps have normalized collecting and sharing users' personal information to target advertisers. There are now websites, like Did My Friends Vote, where you can easily but not always accurately access someone's voting history. These issues around theft and consent are playing out in the development of generative AI. The New York Times is currently suing OpenAI for using their original content to train its popular AI tool, ChatGPT. This sense of entitlement trickles down to practically anyone who owns a phone. Nissenbaum says, as a result, we need to adopt a 'new theory' and new 'social norms' around privacy. One way is to remind people that these extreme levels of surveillance and information-gathering are, in her words, 'creepy.' The consequence is a world where people feel less free to be their authentic selves in public, whether that's dressing how they want or attending a protest. 'When we get to this point where we accept that people can take videos, take photos, post it online for ICE or NSA or whoever to grab those photos, now we're in a police state,' she says. For now, the Coldplay Jumbotron incident might warrant some genuine laughs. But if we value not only our privacy but our sense of individuality, our impulse to amplify strangers' drama could probably use some reflection.
Fox News
12 minutes ago
- Fox News
Megan Moroney makes waves in blue bikini and cross necklace during summer boat day
Megan Moroney is soaking up the summer sun. The 27-year-old country singer posted a carousel of photos to her Instagram, featuring her onstage performing, as well as photos of her fans in the stands and her with her friends. One of the photos featured the "I'm Not Pretty" singer taking a break from life on the road to enjoy some fun in the sun as she posed for a picture in a strapless blue bikini while on a boat. In the photo, Moroney can be seen looking off in the distance, as she sits on the boat, having accessorized the look with a few bracelets, a cross necklace and a pair of sunglasses. She completed the look by styling her hair in two French braids. Another one of the photos featured a shirt with "Megan Moroney is my daddy" written on it, which caught the eyes of many of her fans in the comments section, who wrote, "daddy shirt for the win," and "need the megan moroney is my daddy shirt stat." Fans also couldn't help but also compliment her in the comments section, writing "So beautiful," "STUNNINGGGG 💙💙💙💙" and "You're soo beautiful 💙💙." Moroney had her big break in 2023 when she released her successful debut album, "Lucky," quickly following that up with her second album, "Am I Okay?" just one year later. Fans had a special interest in Mornoney's love life following rumors she was dating country superstar, Morgan Wallen. The rumors began after she released her hit single, "Tennessee Orange," which references the University of Tennessee football team, who Wallen is known to be a big supporter of. "It was never a relationship," she said on an episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in July 2024. "Here's what I'll tell you though, because I haven't told anyone this ever. [He] and I met in 2020. [Fellow country artist] Jon Langston actually introduced us. I was a senior in college – COVID hadn't happened yet, his 'Dangerous' album wasn't even out yet. So, we were friends for a long time." "We were friends for a long time. We were not just friends. And now we're friends," she added. She elaborated on her relationship status during an interview with Fox News Digital in July 2024, explaining that at the time she was very busy in her career and didn't have time for a relationship. Aside from her busy schedule, Moroney also admitted she wasn't "emotionally available" enough for a serious relationship at the time. "I think because I'm not emotionally available, like, I am not ready to find someone that I want to marry right now, because that's just not in even the top ten things in my brain right now," she explained. "So it's just like, let's not waste anyone's time. Let's just not date right now because there's that point."
