HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Wooo!

Woooo! You ready for delve into this episode? Bring your earplugs if girl screams are not your thing.

We start off the episode with Robin still unemployed and adrift. It seems like she and Marshall switched places. For the first few episodes of this season Marshall was jobless and, let’s be honest, creepy. Now Robin is jobless and really chatty. Marshall, however keeps talk-blocking her. She wants some Robin-Lily time and he keeps getting in the way. I loved that every time she would replace the specifics of the story with general words Marshall still understood the story. Unlike Barney’s conquests, we don’t normally hear about Robin’s. I assume events transpire but she’s not one to brag like the ol’ Barnacle.

Meanwhile, Barney’s on his own mission: to reign supreme in the Ted’s Best Friend contest. Goliath National Bank needs an office building downtown and who just happens to be an architect and Barney’s best friend? Ted! The company originally was going with the Swedish collective, Sven, but Barney in a fit of patriotism (cue music) suggests Ted. Yay! All three boys could be working together. Barney suggests a conference call that I reckon at other companies does not mean to go up to the roof of the building, drink beer and throw crumbled cans at pigeons.

I loooooved the shout-out to Mad Men! Another show set in NYC that isn’t shot there. The fact that Barney would slap a secretary on the ass like it is a normal business day and fear no repercussion makes me imagine what it would be like to see NPH on Mad Men. Weiner we already know NPH looks awesome in a suit, make this happen! Oh wow, I had to pause because I was getting all sorts of adrift with just the thought of Jon Hamm and Harris in a scene together. Breathe Jen, breathe…oh wow, come on, you know you want me to say it would be legendary if this ever happened. Alright, and moving on.

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a bar besides MacLaren’s on this show, and it was a nice change of scenery. In a city that has a wide-range of places to hang out and be seen, we as the audience aren’t allowed out too often. Enter: Giddy Ups where we meet guest-star Jamie-Lynn Sigler celebrating her birthday. And who we quickly learn that her character Jillian is a “woooo! girl”.

Now ladies, haven’t we all needed a little freedom, to get out of our stuffy work clothes, get out on the town and let loose? Do you remember how Ted and all great Buckeye residents deal with anger, that they push it down, way down, until they don’t feel it at all? “Woooo! girls” try to stifle their anxieties by screaming at the top of their lungs at random acts like finishing a shot, hearing a great song or calling your friends a slut. It’s the faux-happy way of suppression.

Robin: “Yeah, she doesn’t look woooo-ish. Maybe she only observes the high holidays like Mardi Gras and Spring Break or maybe she is a cultural woooo!”

Flash to Ted and Barney. Seriously, can someone tell me if this series has some deal with LucasFilms? I love me some Star Wars but how often does it need to be mentioned? Ted’s favorite movie has been referenced over and over again. Barney has his own replica of an Imperial Army trooper in his living room. Now in between Ted drawing his presentation for the new Goliath National Bank building he has also drawn the perfect Princess Leia topless picture. Please, can we move on to a different movie? We got a “Stand By Me” but now we’re back to “Star Wars”.

Barney was fixated on the picture until Marshall comes in and tells the guys about a text from Lily about the woooo! girls. Barney runs out of the apartment on a mission. Seconds later, Barney appears and is upset that Lily has been holding out on some woooo! girls. Barney is right though; Joe Francis would have absolutely no career if there were no such thing as woooo! girls.

Poor Ted. He put so much heart, soul, and topless Princess Leia drawing energy into creating the new GNB building but the board went with Sven instead. Marshall tries to console Ted by offering up the idea of peeing on the current building.

In between feeling bad for Ted we saw Robin wearing a cowboy hat hanging out the top of a stretch Hummer. She has transformed into a woooo! girl. At this point I imagine that this is just going to make Barney love Robin even more. There is a woooo! girl in his ranks, a wish fulfilled that we didn’t even know about. Did you see Barney checking out Robin’s ass on his way out of MacLaren’s? Oh yeah, he was not subtle about that at all. Nearly rubbernecking. Lily and Robin have a Seussical discussion, which reminded me of Robin’s Seus-inspired poem during Marshall’s hat intervention.

At work, Marshall talks to Bilson about Ted’s building and learns that Bilson voted for it. Marshall interrupts Barney’s “Freedom Charges” meeting for a “conference call”. Anyone else think the Sven Collective was reminiscent of Mike Myer’s Dieter character on Saturday Night Live? The music was a little more upbeat but the black clothing and the awkward dancing, totally Dieter. Sven’s presentation featured magic, a T-Rex shaped building, with Barney’s office in the head. His rosewood desk would have a button, a button that makes the T-Rex exhale fire. Oh, and there is a strip club in the letter “N”. [Note: there was two N’s circling the T-Rex, which one would be the strip club?] I’ll admit, I laughed out-loud to “fire Marshall”. Yes, a little lame but it harks back to the inside-joke Ted and Robin had while they were dating. [Ex: “He is in major denial” “Major Denial” *salute*]

I do agree with Marshall, birds hold grudges. A friend of mine was trying to feed some seagulls at Revere Beach and hit one on the head. It flew away and then came back with friends and tried to attack us! They also told their friends down in Atlantic City who then tried to maul me so I had to hide underneath a pier. So if I were left on top of GNB like Barney, I’d be freaking out.

Lily and Marshall have always been closer than normal couples. So I can understand how Robin could feel a little inadequate with her career and love life when she is around those two all the time. And I’m glad that Barney stepped-up and gave the job to Ted, who really needed something in the win column. It is good to see that both Marshall and Barney tried to do something good for Ted. Barney can be crass, rude and step over people to get what he wants but when it truly matters, he does what he can for his friends.

Though, learning that Marshall still told Ted the truth and they tied Barney to the mechanical bull is definitely hilarious. Ah, I can’t stop laughing at Barney not having the ability to walk after 3hrs on the bull and trying to get in on a three-some with Jillian and her friend. Physical comedy is entertaining.

Here are a few of my things to ponder after this episode:

1. Barney’s French accent and French landmark dropping when making fun of the Sven Collective, which is from Sweden.

2. Cobie looking insanely skinny in this episode. I first noticed it when Robin was talking to Lily about Jillian’s possible whoooo! habits but even later in the episode when Lily showed up in the plastic firefighter’s hat. Has she not eaten since “The Best Burger in New York” episode?

3. Anyone else notice the Veronica Mars alum as one of the Woooo! girls?

4. Seriously, why won’t they cut Jason Segel’s hair? That pink cowboy hat (which strangely looked like something Rodeo from Rock of Love would wear – not that I watched that show at all, my roommate loved it) was not flattering.

5. Will we be seeing more of Jamie-Lynn Sigler? She thinks Ted is cute and we left off with her looking for him. I’m not even wondering about if she is the mother, just if they will date. We never saw any interaction with them and I’d like to see that.

Please share your things to ponder and your opinion in the comment section below.

— posted by Jen

GMMR’s resident HIMYM aficionado Jen is honest enough to admit that she has been known to be a “whoooo! girl”, and alcohol was not needed. She also has a slight case of ornithophobia. She doesn’t care that pigeons are relatives to doves, they are gross and scary. She has never seen Hitchcock’s “The Birds” but has seen “That 70s Show’s” ode to Hitchcock and that was enough for her.