HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: The Fight
December 9, 2008 by Kath Skerry
Last night was chock full of the past (Ted being punched on St. Patty’s Day), the present, the future (stop mocking us with the goat, damn you!) and even a spoiler for the “Sex and the City” movie! This episode was like an assault rifle. BAM BAM BAM, things were happening constantly, I could barely type fast enough to keep up while watching.
The last episode centered on “The Naked Guy” routine and how each member of the gang was affected by it. This episode is how everyone feels about fighting, with Doug (Will Sasso “MADtv”) as the catalyst. The series has been headed to more episodic writing but still maintaining what makes it different from all the other half-hour comedies that are on now and come before it – HIMYM can play with history and the future but they don’t rewrite it to suit their needs (“Friends,” I’m talking to you!). This episode played with the fact that Doug, a bartender that we have never heard or seen before, has been around for ages. Clips of old episodes interspersed with Doug were cleverly used, like Barney’s journey to bag a lesbian.
I loved learning Barney has realized he could have an entire conversation with his friends by just naming titles of black comedies from the 80s while he focuses his attention elsewhere. As a TV fan, that’s just hilarious that I wish I could do that myself. While Barney is preoccupied, Doug questions why they are not at their usual booth. We now know how they get their booth: Doug yells and kicks people out and goes so far as to pick a fight.
I have to ask: what is with this show and the horrible hairstyles? Ted’s hair don’t from his college days, Marshall’s in recent episodes – though I didn’t take notice of the atrocity in this episode and Doug’s toupee. That toupee was just wretched. I couldn’t tell you if they finally gave Jason a haircut because I couldn’t stop looking at that horrible mass of fur. Is that the same toupee Marshall’s uncle and then Marshall attempted to wear at his wedding?
While Doug is a big advocate for fighting, Marshall and Lily are not. Lily is trying to teach her students not to fight but is having a hard time. Even having Marshall, and later Ted, as speakers for her class do not help. Robin, on the other hand, gets all hot and bothered by a fight. Her hockey-loving Canadian ways gets her all sorts of excited about a mere mention of a fight, let alone a scar or missing teeth. Barney uses this knowledge to engage in a fight to win Robin over. Cobie was awesome in this episode. One second she’s snuggling up to Barney and touching his warm bruised eye, the next she’s making googly-eyes at Ted, then she nearly pounces on Doug and even goes so far as to stake a claim for Marshall. When she learns that Barney and Ted faked being in the fight, she couldn’t run into her room fast enough.
I loved how everyone thought the Erikson’s fighting would be tickle-torture and cocoa breaks. Have they really not met his brothers? They made the kid drive naked and spill scalding coffee on himself. Lily understood that Marshall was not kidding when he mentioned fighting with his brothers. It was like “Fight Club”! As Ted tells his kids, do not get in a fight with Uncle Marshall, that guy is freaking crazy! Sparked by Doug bringing up Stella, Ted goes in for a punch, Doug punches back and then Marshall…we have NO idea what he does but after the black-out and then showing Marshall with that toupee in his hand, it was like seeing a kill-scene from “Mortal Kombat”.
This episode had so much going on yet it flowed well from one scene to the next. It felt filled but not overfilled like the Erikson’s turkey. Ted may be over Stella but he still has some issues with being left at the alter, especially with people holding pity parties in his honor. It’s good to see that he’s still feeling the pain, just a little because people just can’t get over having that happen to them so easily. Many shows would have had Ted completely over the whole Stella-situation in the next episode but HIMYM reaps in the reality that life takes time. The show has taken its time introducing us to the mother; they continue to show Barney still has feelings for Robin yet isn’t taking a more proactive initiative. She still has no clue of his true feelings.
How do you liking the Robarn development? Are you finding it too slow or just the right pace? Did this episode make you want to brawl or are you a pacifist? Can anyone remember what is in the Erikson’s Thanksgiving mayo salad? That thing is SICK.
I have come up with another theory regarding all the “Star War” mentions. Jason Segal costarred with Kristen Bell in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. Kristen Bell is costarring in “Fanboys,” an upcoming flick about a bunch of fans on a quest to go to Skywalker Ranch. Skywalker Ranch is the home of George Lucas. George Lucas is the creator of “Star Wars” the film Ted and Marshall seem to talk about frequently this season. This is a subliminal message for us to go see “Fanboys” to support Kristen Bell. DONE, I’m there.
Our HIMYM aficionado Jen can talk the talk, but is unwilling to walk the walk when it comes to fighting right now. She’s extremely exhausted from all the concerts she’s been going to in the past couple days. If someone gets in her way when she finally does crash, she will go all Marshall-crazy. I’m just warning ya.
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I just noticed an irony: There is a “fist” in pacifist.
Great episode, great recap!
As a 27yr old male myself, I think a lot of the Star Wars references is just because it tends to come up when a few late 20 early 30 something’s get together. I’m not talking about the guys who still sleep between Star Wars sheets and eat cereal out of a bowl with a straw in their 30’s either. I think it applies to even those of us with a wife, children, and real life grown up jobs. If you were lucky enough to grow up with the awesomeness of Star Wars, you never stop wishing you could have your very own light saber or be able to jump to hyperspeed on the commute home. Something about those movies brings out the adolescence in all of us.
Though I do like your conspiracy theory idea as well!
First off, I wanted to second your jab at Friends for playing with time for their beneifit. Like when Rachel was pregnant for, oh I don’t know, over a year so the pregnancy could be revealed at the end of one season and the baby could be born at the end of the next!! There are many other examples, but I won’t get into it because this is about HIMYM. I’ve only been watching HIMYM since the end of last season and have since watched all the other episodes online, but one of the first things I noticed was how good the writers are with continuity and not contradicting themselves when it comes to past, present, and future events. Friends is one of my favorite shows of all time, but those continuity errors really bug me.
On to the episode itself, it was very funny. I really loved Barney’s way of ignoring his friends and Robin’s obsession with guys who fights. Barney was adorable trying to get Robin’s attention with that. I loved when Robin was suddenly attracted to Marshall at the end and Lily said something like bitch, don’t even. I don’t know what it was exactly, but it was great. So anyway, I’m a first time poster and just wanted to say I love your recaps and probably wouldn’t have started watching this show if I hadn’t kept hearing how great it was on GMMR.
all my guy friends reference Star Wars on a regular basis, its the age group, those boys are obsessed!
I don’t remember all the ingredients of the mayo salad, but I do know that adding gummy bears to a salad makes it NOT a salad!
Robin was hilarious this episode. I love when she goes all Canadian.
Notes from astute online friends that this sleep-deprived person noticed but couldn’t place while watching: the song played was one of Robin’s ex-boyfriend’s songs, you know, Simon’s (James Van Der Beek) band the Four Skins; when Ted talks to his kids about training in kung fu and we see him and Marshall watching a kung fu movie in college I noticed the sandwich buuuuut forgot what a sandwich means in Ted’s stories. See, this episode really was like a Charlie’s Angel movie title: Full Throttle. Constant references to past episodes. Blink and you miss it.
Scott: I love “Star Wars” and I’m 28 but I’m just amazed that it seems like every episode there is a reference to the movie. But seeing that they are all growing up, that part of all our childhood never dies, the part of you in love with “Star Wars”. They’ve passed a milestone age yet are all still young-at-heart and still young. I love the references, don’t get me wrong. Sort-of seeing Marshall cut up a turkey with a light saber is awesome, and I totally want that to be true in a few years but before this season is was seasoned in, a little mention here, a glimpse of Barney’s life-size model there but now it seems like S3 is the “Star Wars” referencing season.
Who wants to make a bet that we see Marshall make a sound like a Wookie before the end of the season?
Anyone else notice the baby carriage directly behind Lily during the Erickson Thanksgiving “three to five years later”?
I always wondered how they always got the same booth! And thank goodness Jason/Marshall got a hair cut – it looks a million times better..
Good episode all around, kept my interset and kept me laughing. I will see anything Veronica Mars – I mean – Kristen Bell is in…even if it’s Star Wars related. 😛
RC – I just re-watched and I do see what might be a baby stoller behind Lily! Still wondering how they’re going to handle two pregnancies…
Jen – anyone – what does the sandwhich mean in Ted’s stories? I completely missed that somehow? …..help!
JennyL: Sandwiches is Papa Ted’s way of not telling his kids he was smoking pot.
Ted told his kids at Slapsgiving that since that particular Thanksgiving he and they (the kids) always have Thanksgiving at Uncle Marshall and Aunt Lily’s. I have to re-watch that part again but was Ted there? If so, a gf or even the mother could/should be with him. I only remember Marshall’s family being at the table.
Funyuns and mayonnaise! I always get sick watching that episode.
The sandwich is pot, for those who are wondering. Ted didn’t want to come out and tell his kids he smoked pot, so he merely said “eating a sandwich.” i love that gag, especially during the college reunion and all three eating a sandwich together.
great recap, this show never fails to send me into a fit of awesome giggles.
Hi everyone!
English is not my mother language, so i couldn’t listen to the lyrics of the music in this episode. Anyone can help me? I really like that music, the episode begins with and it comes up at the end too.
Rebeka
@Rebeka: It is “This Man He Weeps Tonight”, by Dave Davies of The Kinks.