Matt Dillon and Shelley Long shine on 'Modern Family'

The best episode of "Modern Family" thus far was probably "Fizbo," so you knew that Cam's "needy clown" alter-ego would make another appearance.

On Wednesday night's "Modern Family," Mitchell banned him from appearing at Lily's birthday party, since he would take away the attention from Lily.

Mitchell even implied that Cam was a bad parent: "Well, if the shoe fits..."

"They don't," Cam snapped back. "They're comically large!"

And so, Cam had an idea: Turn Fizbo into a court jester, complete with awful British accent, which was also rejected. "I thought British accents were supposed to make you sound smart," said Mitchell.

Cam ended up berating the princess who showed up at Lily's party for breaking character by telling a story about how he ended up in the hospital once after performing as Fizbo: "Even as they loaded me into the ambulance, I continued to make balloon animals!"

And of course, one of my favorite Cam-Mitchell exchanges: "She's going to be in Chicago." "Oh, that's fantastic! What part will she be playing?"

As strong as these two were this episode, the MVP for the week is a close race between Claire and Gloria, which tells you how great the episode was. I have to go with Claire (cue gasp), as she tried hard to keep her composure - and lost that battle - with her mother, DeDe, played once again by Shelley Long, who is TV royalty at this point. Extra points for Alex playing the "Jaws" theme on her cello as DeDe approached.

It seemed that DeDe brought along Claire's ex, Robbie, who was played by Matt Dillon in a bit of perfect casting. She also forgot to tell Robbie that Claire is married with kids.

Phil was very supportive of his wife's anger at DeDe: "All those joke emails she forwarded to me months after I'd seen them? Well, no more polite LOLs for you, DeDe."

However, DeDe didn't bring Robbie over to set Claire up with him... DeDe was carrying on an affair with him herself, ending up in a screaming match. "I'm screaming at a princess party!" Claire kept saying.

There was much less drama - at first - between Jay, Gloria and Manny. The three had the cute idea of recording a storybook reading for Lily's birthday, but then Gloria let loose with a portrayal of a bear straight out of "The Exorcist." "I was gonna get a crucifix," said Jay.

Gloria showed up to the party drunk, and after all of the commotion over Robbie and Claire, DeDe ended up attacking Gloria.

Once again, it was Phil to the rescue, tackling her himself: "I've got Gloria!"

Did you love this episode as well? Share your view on iReport (like this one) or comment below. (Cue gasp.)