10 Years Ago, One Of The Funniest TV Episodes Ever Literally Put Me In The Hospital

Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson's "Broad City" is one of the all-time great sitcoms — full stop. Across its 50-episode run, it delivered some of the sharpest, strangest, and most giddily unhinged comedy TV has seen this century. Choosing a favorite episode is like asking a childless millennial to choose a favorite child, but a decade ago, I stumbled onto what many fans consider the crown jewel of the series — and I laughed so hard it landed me in the hospital for five days. Yes, I'm dead serious.

For context, I am a survivor of pancreatic cancer, and was diagnosed at the age of 23 back in 2014. I've written extensively over the years about how film and television were a lifeline when things looked, well, bleak, and it's why I reserve a special, fiery hatred for cancer fakers and medical grifters (looking at you, Belle "Apple Cider Vinegar" Gibson). Given how serious pancreatic cancer is, I don't often publicly share the funny moments from that chapter of my life, because dark humor's a tough sell when the mortality rate is sky-high. But now that I'm 10 years out, I'm more willing to tell those stories. I even sat in the audience of Dropout's "Crowd Control," begging comedians to roast me over it. Growth!

This particular story is one I've mostly saved for my inner circle, but it's high time I honor the joy (and, yes, the added medical debt) "Broad City" gave me when I desperately needed it. The episode responsible is season 2, episode 4: "Knockoffs." If you know the show, you already know exactly where this is going. If you don't ... strap in and strap on.

Abbi Abrams (Jacobson) is an artistic homebody with a penchant for staying in and watching TV, but is always down to go on a weird adventure with her best friend, Ilana Wexler (Glazer). During the early seasons, Abbi has a massive crush on her hot, bearded neighbor, Jeremy (Stephen Schneider). Rather than drag the crush out, "Broad City" gets right into it, and the two finally seal the deal in "Knockoffs." In the middle of their afternoon delight, Abbi suggests "mixing it up a bit." To Abbi, this means a different position. To Jeremy, this means asking Abbi to peg him (if you don't know what that is, neither did Kevin Feige until "Deadpool and Wolverine").

Abbi's adventure is delightful, and the humor is never at the expense of Jeremy for enjoying a woman with a "strapadictomy." So much so, when Abbi calls Ilana for advice, Ilana is so overjoyed for her friend that she puts the call on hold so she can do a handstand twerk to celebrate. "You wanna go to the grave dreaming of Jeremy's hairy, adorable little butthole?" Ilana asks, "Or do you want to die knowing that you brought him pleasure by plowing it like a queen?!" The rest of the episode is non-stop, laugh-out-loud hijinks, and Ilana's story of shopping for knockoff handbags and attending her grandma Esther's shiva is equally hilarious.

I saw this episode in the hospital after my latest (at-the-time) gastrointestinal surgery, and was just killing time before they sent me home. Alas, I laughed so hard watching this episode in my hospital room that I irritated my fresh surgery site and gave myself pancreatitis. My discharge was canceled, and I won the consolation prize of five additional days in the hospital.

Sure, I wish that my medical team had told me "no laughing" when they told me to try not to cough, sneeze, or do any heavy lifting as part of my discharge instructions, but if they had, I wouldn't have put on "Broad City." I had heard so many good things about the show, but its first season aired when I was in the real thick of my cancer treatment, and when my priority was mainlining body horror movies to distract from the body horror I was undergoing myself.

I don't know why I had the urge to watch something funny that day in my hospital bed, and I don't know why the television schedule stars aligned for that episode to be the one playing on Comedy Central when I felt compelled to finally give "Broad City" a shot, but I am so damn thankful that it did. The five-day hospital stay was worth it because it marked a major shift in my approach to discussing my illness with my medical team. I had no qualms admitting that my pancreatitis was caused by laughing too hard at the sight of Abbi fighting with Jeremy while wearing a knockoff of his custom "Shinjo," and getting it stuck in the door during her dramatic exit.

It's very easy to fall into nihilistic or defeatist thinking when you have cancer, and it becomes a hell of a lot harder to find true moments of joy when you feel like your inner clock has been replaced with a ticking time bomb. But I am forever indebted to Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, and "Knockoff" episode writers Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs (who would go on to bless the world with "Hacks") for giving me this gift.