Sensing a theme

Is anyone else watching the new show Modern Family on ABC? Because last night when the ear doctor and I got around to watching the most recent episode we ended up doubled over on the floor laughing so hard.

What made us laugh until tears came streaming across our cheeks?

The dad had a kidney stone.

Yup, seeing someone else writhe in pain sent us over the edge.

Now, I've never had a kidney stone myself, but my little sister has and she said it was awful. The ear doctor had one when he was living in a dirt-floored, non-airconditioned, pantry-converted-into-bedroom on a rural Mexican ranch. And I think for him, for some reason, having gone through the tortuous event himself made the episode so remarkably funny that we had to rewind and watch it over and over again...

...Just like the time we laughed with abandon when we saw the Amazing Race episode where the girl who had a prosthetic leg had to scoot across the rice paddy in Gollum-esque fashion because she didn't have the right attachment on....

...Or pretty much every episode of that dumb yet addictive show Wipe Out where contestants endlessly attempted to walk in front of a wall of mechanical punching fists and without exception ended up in a trough of mud...