i know i'm one of the only people on ilx who watches *how i met your mother* on a regular basis, but did anyone else see the robin sparkles episode? where robin didn't want people to know that she had

pretty weak episode imo

yeah but the PANTS STORY!!! kidding. creepy gun-losing robin was fun though.. and did the episode REALLY end with ted re-dating laura prepon?

"She was the heiress to the Massengill fortune."

donna was pretty lame, but barney interrupting the flashback was pretty good, also "it's like, let's all eat baloney sandwiches and be racist"

"It's like, let's all eat baloney sandwiches and be racist"

xp!

i only laughed at that after i googled "massengill"

that line is perfectly timed to become the new bord description if nothing else
xxp

The four worst things that could happen (plus one): (1) Supervolcano. (2) Asteroid hits the earth. (3) All footage of Evel Knievel is lost. (4) Ted calls Karen. (5) Lily gets eaten by a shark.

i am totally OK with a Prepon arc if she continues to provoke Marshall/Lily hilarity

wow a girl on Livejournal has assembled an insane but fun list of callbacks from the last ep. I wish I had this kind of attention to detail. I didn't notice Scooter in the restaurant as a waiter, for one..

Barney's wearing the purple and black tie that Wendy tries to give him in the flashback later in the episode. (So presumably he went back for it!)
Ted's ex-girlfriend Karen is a reference to lots of eps (How I met everyone else-phone call, Arrividerci Fierro - breakup) but (FAIL!) Marshall never commented on the break up in Arrividerci Fierro as if he didn't like Karen
SHHS Senior Prom - Shaker Heights Hight School - Ted mentions he is from Shaker Heights, Ohio in I'm Not That Guy when they're reading the bio for Ted Mosby, Porn Star. (bthew - Lily says "Bus to Providence" but that's a joke, because Providence is a ghost town, in Ohio!)
Lily's hair in the first Karen flashback is the same as when she meets Scooter for lunch so presumbaly it's around the same time (and what's with Scooter's hair? Yuk). Yet (FAIL!) no mention is made of Scooter's Umpire Career - which presumably he's just given up on? (ref to Best Prom Ever and Something Borrowed, of course!)
Robin's lunch with The Iron Man is a reference back to The Platinum Rule, as is Barney's lunch with Wendy.
Karen's pretentiousness and red-wine drinking ("it's a pinot noir, it's pretty strong! Cut it with some cranberry juice...) totally explains Douch-Zombie-Ted and why he was so rubbish at being pretentious and got over that phase so quickly when they finally broke up (How I met everyone else).
Barney spends a LOT of time staring at Robin during this episode. they should run a "barney staring" clock at the bottom of the screen. Glad to see the writers haven't forgotten. Also, he makes a dig about Ted still living with his ex as if worried they will backslide again (Benefits)
You see Marshall eating the bowl of fruit before Lily complains that's why she has to paint him naked, but (FAIL!) the gang already know the reason she painted Marshall naked (for life class, in Columns!) But hey - at least we now know the exact date of the new dart incident! Feb 5th 1998! Big win for the timeline.
Blauman (see in the Company gym with Billson) is DEAD according to Barney in The Chain of Screaming after resigning and trying to pee on the conference table. FAIL!!!!!!!!!! No one has ever called Barney out for blatently lying about that.
Has Marshall's Evil Kenival love ever been mentioned before? (possible FAIL!)
Waiting the appropriate amount of time before Marshall and Lily tell ted they hated Karen - reference to the Backslide Window in the Bro Code!!
Ted says Marshall wore a rasta hat and asked everyone to call him MJ smooth! A reference to Marshall's look after coming back from Amsterdam in Miracles
Scooter's belief that Lily loves waiters causes him to actually BECAME a waiter (you see him later in the Ted/Karen lunch scene). But (FAIL!) I'm surprised Ted didn't recognise him given that he tried to stop Lily's wedding! (Something Borrowed) And are they trying to say that restaurant really hasn't changed it's table cloths in the intervening 10+ years?!?!
Robin's snub-nosed 38 police special - glad to see that Robin's gun-nut-ness is a proper running theme of this season (Not A Father's Day, Naked Man, etc)
Barney's "A hug is just like a public dry hump" sent my mind straight to The Possimpible. But I'm dirty like that.
Not continuity - but "Ted, I want you to go outside and bite the curb" is probably referncing American History X. Which made me smile.
Robin's sleeping pill problems - Hockey game dream (nice) and also "Falling asleep while eating ribs" is a direct callback to her lying/giggling in The Bracket!
Theodore Evelyn Mosby!!! A refernce to How Lily Stole Christmas.
Lily fancying Marshall's calves is a reference to Brunch.
Karen comes into the bar at 2am. Nothing good happens after 2am Ted!

I like the show, but no one should be spending that much free time on it.

I'm amused by it, amused and a little scared, but the showrunners really do put a ton of thought into the continuity of this show.

which is why that barney not being able to drive vs. barney stealing the moving van thing bothers me way more than it should

Haha yes the Barney driving paradox is one of the show's biggest flaws. I admire people who remember that Marshall uses his shins to turn Lily on at that brunch when they're broken up.. I only usually dedicate that kind of love to LOST. Reading some comments on the LJ page has me suspecting this girl writes fanfic and that's why she has this crazy encyclopedic knowledge of the show... 0_o

oh and the bit where Barney said he'd only "give something" to Marshall if what Lily "gave him" was great.. so great

The calves callback and Lily's hungry look was great!

btw did jason segel gain a mess of weight? or maybe i only noticed now because he was shirtless whenever he wasn't pantsless in this episode.

hes always been kinda chubby at least the hair is better

as i think i've mentioned in this thread before, Lifetime plays HIMYM reruns on Monday nights now, and it's definitely noticeable to see Segel in season 1/2 and then in a new episode that he has gained wait...i wouldn't say "a mess" but a visible amount yeah.

gained waits

http://www.wiretotheear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/tom_waits.jpg

were it so easy to lose wait

Isn't the Barney driving incident set way back in the past (its about their memories of the car) + his first experience driving, thus there being a time+reason for potential driving lessons inbetween?

I can't believe I cared enough to think about that.

the wire reference was great. the episode was great. how could anyone in this thread say otherwise?

what wire ref?

"the game is the game"

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Tuesday, March 10, 2009 12:46 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lily: she's gots to get got
robin: the game is the game

btw prepon is so hot

i dunno man i thought she was looking a little plastic

yeah the ep was so good. robin's sleep-NHL announcing made me unreasonably joyful.

the pacing was Dirty Rockish in the constant joeks without caring if the audience absorbed them or not.

Yeah, I think Prepon is hot, but she didn't look so great in this episode for some reason. Maybe it was because the character was a douche and they played it down.

Great episode, again.

I've assumed that while Barney can't really drive, he was able to manage driving the one block from Ted's apartment to the back of Maclarens. I don't think it's that much of a stretch.

way to keep a running gag behind the draggy emotional part in the last ep. some oldschool lucy sitcom homage right there.

totally.

also, i hate myself for think about it this hard, but backing a track into an alley is sort of an advanced driving maneuver.

I actually thought the Lily relationship-breaking retcon stuff was actually pretty well done, because it was plausible that her character would do that sort of thing (both intentionally and unintentionally breaking up Ted's relationships).

It could easily just be my interpretation, but I feel like the show is more and more acknowledging that Ted is an annoying jerk, and he dates mostly annoying women, and this acknowledgment is a good thing for the show.

yeah...i think the show is building on the idea of Ted as not just a not always sympathetic character but an unreliable narrator (with some of the gags based on his distortions of the truth, like "sandwiches" and Robin's exaggeratedly old boyfriend) in a way that lets them layer stories and characterization in a neat way. i had a weird little epiphany recently where i thought, maybe Barney isn't actually as broad and ridiculous as he seems on the show, but if somebody's telling their kids about a crazy friend they had when they were younger of course they're going to make him sound even more over the top than he really was.

last two posts otm.

such a good episode. love the way they kept the three storylines - ted and lily, barney and marshall and the nightshirts, robin on tv in the background - all in one setting.

That some dude post = an awesome version of this for me:

srsly my favorite show on tv. i love 30 rock but there is not a bit of sentimentality in that show, it's all slapstick. this show is a joy to watch for other reasons.

^^^^^^^^

& bonus points for pseudo-Big Lebowski homage (flying in the sky, listening to The Man in Me)

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/ha_ha_ha_i_can_t_believe_how

it's funnier than that onion article

rules of engagement is funnier than that article

srsly my favorite show on tv. i love 30 rock but there is not a bit of sentimentality in that show, it's all slapstick. this show is a joy to watch for other reasons.

+1. this show is mad deep imo - chars inhabit a world so much more fully than in 30 rock feel like these dudes are my neighbors whereas 30 rock is always on tv. used to think that 30 rock had better jokes but now i think that its just that himym is on a next level like two episodes ago the runner about barney cheering for the villian in movies is a bite of a thrown off gag about kenneth thinking the kids in footloose were evil but a) himym's was funnier and b) that joke in that episode had all sorts of sly resonance to ideas abt the viewer and interpretation in context.

not tryna be sum sitcom theory dbag or anything and the show is mostly awesome cuz it brings lulz but yah it has something extra 30 rock doesnt imo

i would like to give a brief shout-out to big bang theory on monday. sheldon drinking his first cup of coffee and the whole episode were a hoot.

i love how you just won't start a big bang theory thread

Love that they are just refusing to make Lilly pregnant. This episode w/ loose pajamas and magazines in front of her working, it will great if they can carry on getting away with it.

is cobie smulders pregnant now also, y/n?

y