Basic Trope: A character mistakes a case of bad gas/needing to use the bathroom as something much worse.
- Straight: Bob has bad stomach pains and believes he may be dealing with a Ruptured Appendix. When Alice is about to take him to the doctor, he ends up farting for a while and is no longer in pain afterwards.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is in so much pain he can hardly walk. For the rest of the episode, Alice attempts to take him to the hospital. It ends in a "Shaggy Dog" Story as Bob farts for several minutes straight.
- A Running Gag in the series is Bob mistaking gas/needing to use the bathroom as a serious condition.
- Downplayed: Bob is confused by why his stomach hurts a little more than it should, and wonders if he might have the stomach flu. He soon finds it's just a larger than normal case of gas buildup.
- Justified:
- Truth in Television: Heavy gas buildup can cause some of the pain/discomfort associated with life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks, appendicitis, or poisoning.
- Bob is fairly health-conscious.
- Bob had a lot of beans or other gas-causing foods earlier and somehow forgot.
- Inverted: Bob thinks he's just having bad gas or is constipated, but goes to the doctor and finds out that he actually does have appendicitis.
- Subverted: After Bob farts, he's still having pain...
- Double Subverted: ...So he goes to the bathroom, which causes the pain to go away.
- Parodied: Bob somehow believes that he got pregnant.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob's diagnosis repeatedly switches between serious conditions and just needing to release gas/waste from his body.
- Averted: Nobody mistakes bad gas for more serious conditions.
- Enforced:
- To subvert some drama while adding a little bit of Toilet Humor.
- Could also be based on the author's experiences.
- Lampshaded: "He just had gas."
- Invoked: After Bob asks why he could be having digestive pain, someone informs him that it's probably something serious.
- Exploited: After this encounter, Bob decides to go to the bathroom before deciding he's actually sick.
- Defied:
- Bob is experiencing bad stomach pains and decides to try to use the bathroom before thinking it might be because of something serious.
- Bob tries to learn the difference between pain from serious conditions and from just needing to go to the bathroom.
- Discussed: "You know, this whole thing would've been over with if I just went to the bathroom before jumping to conclusions."
- Conversed: "I wonder why that character just thought he was dying, but all he had to do was release a lot of gas."
- Implied: Bob appears uncomfortable, and a few scenes later reappears while mentioning that all he really had to do was use the bathroom.
- Deconstructed: Because of this encounter, Bob starts assuming that any instance of him having digestive pain is due to bad gas or needing to use the bathroom. One day, he actually starts developing appendicitis, but assumes that he just needs to go to the bathroom and ends up developing serious complications.
- Reconstructed: However, since appendicitis has its own distinct pain of being on one side of the abdomen and/or Bob realizes that going to the bathroom isn't helping his pain, Bob starts realizing something's off and gets help.
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