The How I Met Your Mother Blog

No, not Neil Patrick, Chris Harris rather. Who’s he? He’s a producer on the show. He’s just signed a deal to produce new half-hour sitcoms with Fox. Harris will remain on the How I Met Your Mother team for two years (fingers crossed the show will have more seasons than that). I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

I was checking for titles and summaries for the episodes coming up over the next few weeks and it seems like the show is going to focus on Marshall and Lily quite a bit. Monday’s episode, “I’m Not That Guy” centers around Marshall’s decision to pursue his dream of helping the environment or take a job at the major law firm that is courting him.

The following week’s mouthful of an episode, “Dowisetrelpa” (formerly “Homewrecker”) follows Lily and Marshall’s attempts to buy a house which go haywire due to a secret Lily has kept hidden from everyone.

Following that will be “White Noise” where Marshall takes the bar exam and Ted introduces a new girlfriend. There is no information on episode #9 which premieres on November 19th other than the title, which is all we need: “Slapsgiving”.

I can’t wait!

This is a new weekly column where the episodes from seasons one, two, and three will go head to head in a humor cage match. This week, the episode fives.

Season 1: Okay Awesome

Ted and Barney start checking out the club scene with their friend Robin, whereas Lily and Marshall try to participate in some more “grown-up” activities, as they draw slowly nearer to their wedding.

This was, as history went on to prove, the first real How I Met Your Mother episode. Sure, Taste of Liberty was good, but I feel it was in this episode that the show found its stride. That’s a tough milestone to beat.

Season 2: World’s Greatest Couple

Marshall tries to get used to being single in a world that is very coupled-oriented. Barney intended one-night-stand won’t go away. Barney uses Lily to get out of his “horrifying” situation. Lily finds a place to stay.

One of my personal favorites, this episode handled multiple storylines with ease. It’s hard to pick which is the A and which is the B since Lily domesticating Barney and Marshall’s fabulous bro-downs were equally compelling.

Season 3: How I Met Everyone Else

We get to meet Ellen, Ted’s hot new girlfriend, right before she meets the gang. We also get to see how Ted met Marshall and how Marshall and Lily first met. Ted’s girlfriend has a reaction to the meeting that gets her a high ranking on Barney’s crazy scale.

A great number of flashbacks that gave some crucial backstory for the characters. Read my full feed back here.

Advantage

I’m going to have to go with Season 2. “World’s Greatest Couple” is a glimmering gem in the family jewels of How I Met Your Mother. Agree? Disagree? Fight it out in the comments!

Scorecard

Season 1: 0-3-2
Season 2: 2-1-2
Season 3: 0-3-2

Vote

{democracy:9}

Over on ew.com they’ve got a photo essay chronically some popular film and TV stars decked out in their favorite t-shirts. Three HIMYM cast members popped up in the collection:

Alyson Hannigan

From ew.com: The late John Ritter gave this tee to Hannigan after his guest spot on Buffy in 1997. “He was such an incredible guy anyway, even if he didn’t give me a rubber ducky T-shirt,” she says. “Every time I see it I have such love in my heart for John. And I miss him.”

This isn’t nearly as cool as Hannigan’s shirt in World’s Greatest Couple, with the fairy tale cat illustration. She looks cute though and it’s a touching story.

Jason Segel

From ew.com: The How I Met Your Mother star is basically using us to plug his new favorite band, Instant Sorrow. “They’re a British band, a little bit like Oasis, or early U2,” says Segel, who says he rarely buys rock tees. “I want these guys to become a smash sensation.”

I haven’t heard Instant Sorrow’s music but if it’s good enough for Segel, it’s worth checking out. I find it amusing that Jason is such an indie music fan. Very similar to his character on Freaks and Geeks. Doesn’t it seem like the shirt says “Infant Sorrow” though? That’s both a William Blake poem and a way cooler name, maybe ew.com misquoted him?

Neil Patrick Harris

From ew.com: The How I Met Your Mother star stole this from a shoot years ago after noticing it said Clovis, New Mexico — the town where his mom was raised. He likes the ringer style, but “to be honest, my favorite is the cutoff, sleeveless tee. For breathing room.”

If Neil can’t breath in a t-shirt, he must be dying in those suits every week. I’m not usually a fan of a sleeveless look but I think NPH is dapper enough to pull it off.

Thanks to HIMYB for this story.

“I don’t care. I’ve been with one woman for too long and I need some strange.”

What Was Good

• Pamela Fryman is back!
• Barney’s chart is funny. It’s just pushing the “trying too hard” line though. Although I have a feeling the Mendosa Diagonal is going to enter the general vocabulary…
• The story of how Marshall and Barney met is my favorite. Tricking Barney into thinking he was trying to pick up that stranger was genius.
• We finally saw the scene where Ted and Marshall meet that was described in “Where Were We”. We also saw lesson four of Barney’s lessons for life the night he and Ted met which references back all the way to the pilot.
• I love that when Lily brings up the guy she made out with before she even met Marshall, over seven years ago, Marshall remembers through gritted teeth and when Ted brings up the girl that he made out with the same night Marshall remembers with a proud smile.
• The prolonged sandwich metaphor.
• A World of Warcraft reference! That hits a little too close to home for me. Although it puts me and Ted back in the “alike” column after last week’s hip hop mishap. I’m more than a little bit sad to admit that a) I saw it coming that the female avatar was going to be Ted because…I had a female avatar and b) Blah Blah was a Draenei Warrior and Ted was a Human Mage. Yeah…

What Was Bad

• I hate girls like Blah Blah. They’re not funny, they just make me mad. Who is willing to tell a guy’s lifelong best friend a deep secret at the drop of a hat? I suppose it’s really Ted’s fault, you can’t really blame the stove for burning you if you know it’s hot.
• I’m concerned the show is getting too self referential. It was funny when there was a joke about a character saying “no” a lot in repetition in last year’s finale, it wasn’t as funny tonight.
• With all the girls whispering sexy proposals into guys’ ears that makes them cave in on whatever secret/purchase/favor they’re holding out on has begged the question: what could a girl possibly offer that would make a guy do a 180 like that? Nothing I can think of. It’s becoming a plot device.
• Our favorite friends haven’t aged very well, have they? Although, this is pretty hilarious.

Favorite Moments

“Alright but spoiler alert: it ends with everyone saying ‘aww’. It starts with it too.”
“Dude this black-haired, goth chick stopped by today. WANNA TAP IT!”
“Let them drink their $1 beers. Try this, it’s a pinot noir from Europe. Yeah, I cut it with cranberry juice, it was pretty strong.”
“While you were busy majoring in being freaking beautiful I was starting my own line of handbags.”
“Lily, come on. Lily, come on. Lily…come on.”
“I’m your bro. I’m broda.”
and one of the best, if not most hand-fisted jokes in the series:

Barney: “And tonight you’re going to use The Force to get the hottest chick in this bar into bed.”
Ted: “He’s gonna use force? Because that sounds wrong broda.”

“I don’t need this. I design handbags. I’m a superstar!”
“Where’s my wife?”

Barney’s Vocab Word of the Week

Mendosa Diagonal

–noun

The 1:1 minimum ratio of hotness to craziness as plotted on a line graph a girl must fall above in order to be desirable. As craziness rises, so too must hotness.