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

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

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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:

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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!

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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…

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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.

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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 nine’s.

Season 1: Belly Full of Turkey

Ted and Robin are surprised to run into Barney when they volunteer at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving. Lily is on the brink of freaking out when she goes to Thanksgiving dinner at her future in-laws house.

Personally, this episode always felt a little weak to me. The group was split up, no one was in the normal setting, and the B-plot about Ted looking for volunteer work wasn’t strong. It was funny that Barney was serving mandatory community service but just happened to be awesome at it. Also, that mayonnaise salad Lily made was disgusting. I’m sure that this isn’t the episode of the three that will end up being discussed so let’s move on to the main event.

Season 2: Slap Bet

Ted and Barney discusses their viewpoints on knowing things about women. Barney thinks that the more you know the more likely you are to find a deal breaker. Ted wants to know the deal breakers right away, as Robin refuses to go to the mall to cover her secret.

Slap Bet. Wow, when this episode first aired I thought that it would be the one that brought in a bigger audience for the show and, historically, would be when the show ‘made it’. I think that was true, to a point. Casual HIMYM fans always mention this episode in their favorites. It also had the wonderful Robin Sparkles video which was a truly awesome reveal. For me, this episode was special because the week before it aired I had predicted that Robin had been married at some point before meeting the gang. While not technically correct, it was still cool that I was kind of right.

I loved the dialog in this episode. Ted pestering Robin in bed about the various reasons she might not like malls: “Got arrested in a mall? Found out you were Canadian in a mall? Got mauled in a mall? Trapped under a fake boulder at the mall?” and Robin’s answers to Ted’s inquisition of her wedding details. Also, this episode has what might be the funniest “edgy” line of the show. Barney, having been slapped my Marshall says “Your hand is enormous.” Marshall replies “What do you expect? You’ve seen my penis.”

I didn’t think Season 3 had a chance against this episode, that was until I saw Slapsgiving.

Season 3: Slapsgiving

As Marshall and Lily prepare to host their first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, Barney eyes Marshall’s Slap Bet Countdown Clock website with dread.

This was a great episode. We had the payoff for slapbetcountdown.com and got to see slap #3. The Ted and Robin storyline was as good if not better than the Robin Sparkles secret (which I’m sure will receive some contempt from other viewers). Slapsgiving was more dramatic, more mature. The characters are getting older and its showing. This episode, like Slap Bet, ended in a song performed by one of the characters. Side to side, 80’s music video aside, I think “You Just Got Slapped” beats “Let’s Go to the Mall”.

It’s also important to keep in mind that Slapsgiving could not exist without Slap Bet. In that sense, the success of this episode, a year later, gives even more points to Slap Bet and season 2.

Advantage

The poll shows seasons 2 and 3 in a dead heat. I think it’s too close to call so I’m going to go with a tie. It may be like kissing your sister, but isn’t that better than being a teenage pop star in Canada or getting slapped? What do you think?

Scorecard

Vote

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Not only is today Thanksgiving but it’s also my birthday. That’s why right now I’m off somewhere deep in the woods of Connecticut with my family and this post is being published by robots.

This weeks’ showdown is going to be awesome. To make sure it’s as awesome as can be, I’m delaying till Friday or Saturday due to the double holiday. Check back tomorrow to weigh in on your favorites.

In the meantime, we can start voting.

Cheers, have a great Thanksgiving Slapsgiving.

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I isolated the “You Got Slapped” song from the end of Slapsgiving and created an mp3. Grab it for your iPod, ring tone, alarm clock, whatever. Share with your friends or burn to a disk and use it as a stocking stuffer.

• Version 1 (1.22 MB) - The song. This is the isolated song from the episode.
• Version 2 (1.53 MB) - The song + show audio. This track has a lead-in with Lily giving Marshall permission, then we hear the real slap, then Marshall breaks into song.

Follow along:

What is this feeling
That’s put you in your place?
A hot red burning on the side
Of your face.
You feel the blood rush to your cheek,
Tears start to fill your eyes.
Your lips are trembling but you can’t speak
You’re trying, oh you’re trying not to cry.
Ya just got slapped
Across the face my friend.
Ya just got slapped
Yes that really just happened.
Well, everybody saw it, hah
Everybody laughed and clapped.
‘Cause it was awesome.
The way that you just got slapped.

If you like this, help me out by Digging it.

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Awesome.

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“See what I got going on here? They’re turkeys, but they’re also hands. Because, later, we’re going to eat turkey, and then I’m going to slap you in your face.”

Bear with me folks, this is going to be a long one. Tonight’s episode not only reaffirmed why I love the show but told a touching story of the enduring power of friendship. It also continued the tension between Ted and Robin that started in Dowisetrepla. It was also the best episode of not just this season but quite possibly the entire series. It was so good because, like all the best episodes of this series, it not only was hilarious and full of memorable quotes, but it had a ton of dramatic characterization. I’m too effusive to hold back so don’t read on if you haven’t seen the episode, spoilers follow. Continue reading…

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