The How I Met Your Mother Blog

This is a 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 ten’s.

Season 1: The Pineapple Incident

After sucking down a quintet of shots at the bar, Ted blacks out. He wakes up the next morning with a sprained ankle, a burned jacket, a phone number written on his arm, a pineapple on his dresser, and an unknown woman face down in his bed. With the help of his friends, Ted attempts to piece together precisely what happened the night before.

This is in the top three best How I Met Your Mother episodes ever. This is the episode I show people if they’ve never seen the show. It was hilarious (Josh Radnor is excellent at playing drunk) and it had the awesome Danica McKellar as Trudy (who we saw again this season). The basis of the episode, that Ted over thinks and should take a night off from being so cerebral, get wasted and see what happens, was believable and executed with genius using what would become the signature flash-back style of the show. Told from the following morning Ted woke up with a girl in his bed, a pineapple in his bedroom, and a phone number on his arm. Turns out that anytime Marshall, Lily, or Barney put him to bed, Ted ended up back at the bar. From Cheap Trick Karaoke to using the women’s restroom, it was a rough night for Ted and a great episode for us.

My favorite line from this episode, if not the whole show: “How hard is it to sneak into the zoo? I need to see some penguins like right now.”

Season 2: Single Stamina

Barney’s gay black brother is in town, but he doesn’t want to tell Barney that he’s getting married because he’ll be losing his only single sidekick.

This was a fun episode. We got to see Wayne Brady catch-phrase and high-five alongside Barney. The ratio of humor/drama was balanced with Barney’s slow acceptance of marriage. I loved Marshall’s envy of girls getting to order fancy drinks and all the scenarios that Barney and James had for picking up guys and girls. It was one of the first flash-forwards also, showing Lily and Marshall married at James and his husband’s wedding a few years later. This scene, showing Ted and Robin dancing together, opened up the opportunity for the two of them to be together a long time (even though now we know that’s not true). Overall, a fun episode.

Season 3: The Yips

When Barney loses his way with women, he hopes a trip to the Victoria’s Secret Fall Fashion Show will help him regain his form.

I liked this episode. It was Barney-centric and hilarious. I agree that something about it felt a little “blah”, maybe because it didn’t really advance the overall plot so much. Read more on my thoughts from the recap earlier this week.

Advantage

The Pineapple Incident is the clear winner. It’s one of the season one episodes that still stands up. It is also the first episode, for many fans, that really sold them on the show. A rare decisive win for season one.

Scorecard

Vote

{democracy:14}

The photos above are of the female guest stars. I’ll put up episode stills later tonight or over the weekend.

Found this today, thought it was adorable:

Alyson Hannigan was turned down for a job as a bartender when she couldn’t get work as an actress because she looked too young. During a lean period in her acting career, the 33-year-old star took a course and tried to get a job pouring drinks at Hollywood hotspots.

The How I Met Your Mother star tells the New York Post, “I never got hired anywhere. I looked 12. They said, ‘Honey, people are just gonna laugh when you try to card them (ask for their identification) – they’re gonna want to card you.”

via Hip-Hop Elements

PS. In that photo, Lily is holding a “World’s Greatest Couple” cup that has a photo of her and Barney on it. I don’t remember that from the eponymous episode, do you?

PPS. While looking for Hannigan pictures I found a few nice ones. Check it:

EW has a report on what it was like to visit the How I Met Your Mother set on the day they filmed the Victoria Secret Party scene. The writer is surprised to find the models every bit as fetching in person as they are portrayed on screen.

Sounds like a cushy job. Maybe if this blogging thing takes off I can visit the set. Fingers crossed!

Coming off a hugely strong episode last week, I was worried that the show wouldn’t be able to maintain momentum. My fears were assuaged early on and this proved to be a strong episode that focused primarily on Barney. The gang joined a gym, Barney got the yips, Wayne Brady popped up, Barney sweat-suited up, and the boys attended a Victoria Secret fashion show. Not a bad run for a single episode.

Continue reading »

Monday night’s episode sees Barney finally attending a Victoria’s Secret fashion show. Supermodels Heidi Klum, Miranda Kerr (which will make reader Maud very happy, she is quite the Miranda Kerr fan), Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Marisa Miller and Selita Ebanks will guest star. Just before attending the event Barney loses his mojo with the ladies. That sounds like hilarity will ensue. I’m wondering if Ted will score his own underwear model.

Look for a special appearance from Wayne Brady reprising his role as Barney’s brother as well.