This evening, we were watching The Naked Gun — suddenly, there was a pop, and the picture vanished from the TV. Then it started making a clicking noise, which I couldn’t stop with the TV’s power button. I made a joke about the smoke coming out of the set, and then we realized that it wasn’t a joke — we could smell smoke. So I did what I should’ve done right away and unplugged the TV — that stopped the clicking, and the smoke stopped, too.
I guess we really are in the market for a new TV after all. Remind me not to joke about cars or houses!