The nine reasons How I Met Your Mother’s Barney and Robin worked tonight
“That must be that tantric bagpiping that Sting is into … shut the bagpipes up.” – Ted to Robin, about the noisy “bagpiping” neighbors upstairs
What? A How I Met Your Mother episode that was centered around Robin and Barney being a couple, and Marshall and Lily’s domestic issues? I guess that’s not so weird this season, but what is weird is that I actually liked the way both situations were handled, and I laughed.
I’ve been lukewarm about Barney and Robin being together this season. At first, I was really open-minded and on-board, trusting the writers. But then, as they became just a typical couple, I felt disappointed, let down by Bays and Thomas and the entire writing team that I trust to deliver such greatness as “Slap Bet” and “Naked Man.”
Tonight, it worked. I enjoyed Robin and Barney together on several levels, and here’s why it worked:
How I Met Your Mother – Canadian jokes won’t save them all
I really didn’t think it was possible to screw up an episode that should have sailed along on Canadian jokes alone. But somehow, How I Met Your Mother stole all of the funny (well, most of it anyway) out of that situation.
Really, who wrote this?
Because I guess I should thank you for the few funny things, along with the connections to past episodes that made me smile. But making the Canadian citizen story lackluster, and pairing it with an annoying Marshall and Lily adventure made for the worst HIMYM so far this season.
How I Met Your Mother – Poems, songs and photo montages
How I Met Your Mother, oh how you made me laugh tonight. Yes, Marshall and Lily were annoyingly cute (but Barney and Robin were back to their snarky selves) and I got really sick of gouda jokes, but you made up for it in infinite ways.
For instance, I didn’t know just how funny tweed was:
“Ah, tweed, textile of the eunuch.” – Barney to Ted, on his new professor duds
And you milked it throughout the episode, in true Bays and Thomas fashion: just enough to stay funny but not crossing that line (which you may have crossed with the Gouda).
But the sexless innkeeper is where you brought it home tonight, and you can be sure I’ve transcribed Barney’s and Ted’s “Sexless Innkeeper” poems after the jump….
How I Met Your Mother’s Barney and Robin: just a typical couple
“Yes, totally. Only thing, I like my testicles attached to my body rather than rolling around next to some eyeliner in Robin’s purse.” – Barney to Ted, about changing to be a better boyfriend to Robin
I said a few weeks ago in my post about the premiere that I loved the way they were handling the Robin / Barney pairing. Yeah, they blew that tonight. After Robin becoming the typical girlfriend last week, jealous over Barney frequenting a strip club, “Robin 101″ gave us a run-of-the-mill typical relationship angst episode. All that we love about Barney and Robin has died, withered like the plant on my mantle.
Sure, we got the Bays-Thomas non-linear storytelling, we got some funny quotes and we even got some catch-phrases, but the overarching problem of this episode just kept nagging at me. Man, I think I sound like Aryeh, don’t I? I don’t mean to be negative, really I don’t, but I didn’t laugh out loud tonight, and I really, really want that from How I Met Your Mother.
HIMYM – The origin of Chewbacca exhibit is in Albuquerque, of course
“I once fantasized about that silhouette chick you see on a truck’s mudflaps. It took me less than a mile.” – Barney
Does this one even need a setup?
If you were looking for some forward movement on the “mother” story, you were probably sorely disappointed with this episode. What you got instead, though, was some classic Bays / Thomas non-linear storytelling, an actual Marshall / Lily story that was funny and a date with Ted that was only mildly annoying.
What might have disappointed you (read: me) was Robin turning into the typical girlfriend….
Rumors around Dr. Horrible and JOSS WHEDON — Webisode Clack
With the recent cameos of Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer on the 61st Emmy Awards, there are rumors zooming across the Great Wide Interweb of a potential sequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. In fact, during a recent interview to promote the second season of his FOX series Dollhouse (yes, we can’t believe it either), Whedon pretty much said that there would be a sequel. But, before you go screaming down the aisles of the comic book store repeating this good news, there are a few things to take into consideration.
Barneyisms, Gremlins, Indiana Jones and Barnman
Yeah, we still don’t know anything about the Mother, but who cares? Barney stole the show and I didn’t realize how much I had missed him. And the best news? Being with Robin has not castrated him in the least; we’re not suffering from Dave and Maddie syndrome and we still get the Barneyisms.
This week’s Barneyism was perhaps one of the greatest Barneyisms in the history of How I Met Your Mother. If you were watching movies in the ’80s, then you hold Gremlins in a place nearer and dearer to your heart than it deserves to be, but you adore it nevertheless. You even have a stuffed gremlin. You know you do. That’s why Barney’s list of “Rules for Girls” was precious to you:
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