Getting rid of TV Commercials
You can skip commercials on television, and not only by going to the bathroom.
TV commercials can be quite intrusive, sometimes with loud voices drawing quite some attention. When TV hosts request to "stay with us," many use that as a sign to switch to another channel, or to go to the bathroom.
When the remote control was invented, there was a worry among advertisers that people would just turn of the sound to avoid commercials. Many people will do that, but it's not always convenient, as you still need to keep an eye on the continuation of the program.
The DVR
To skip the commercials, it is more convenient to use a DVR (Digital Video Recorder, called a harddiskrecorder in Europe). DVR's usually allow for "time-shifting," watching a program a bit later than when it's actually aired, like a couple of minutes to an hour later. As with a normal video recorder, you can pause and go back or forward. Thus, you can pause the image when commercials start, do something else for some time, and then forward to the moment the program continues again.
For forwarding through commercials, it is best to have a feature that lets you skip blocks of time, rather than fast forward. While fast forwarding, you still see parts of the commercials, and you will still see more of the brands than you'd expect.
TiVo
TiVo is the most well-known brand in the US, even so that it is for many people synonymous with DVR's.
TiVo does have a way of inserting ads, depending on the subscription with your cable provider. You may want to check out whether that is the case with a TiVo that comes with a cable subscription.