Penguin on the Telly

Monday’s episode was one of, if not the strongest we’ve had this season and it reminded me both why I love this show and why I’ve found Season 5 to be so disappointing.  In it we saw singing Marshall, more epic flashbacks to the college days, and some actually well-used guest stars!

The problem Lily had with Ted bringing random women to important events is the same problem I’ve had with this season of the show: too many random skanks that no one is going to remember afterwards taking the focus away from where it should be, the main five characters.   While Lily was referring to the women Ted was dating, I am speaking of the vast quantities of unnecessary, big-name guest stars.  I don’t watch How I Met Your Mother to see Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Lopez.  I watch it to see the incredible chemistry between the main cast and the smart writing based on ideas that are perfectly in keeping with what’s happened in these people’s lives in the past five years; both of these elements are necessarily diluted with the addition of a flashy guest star, humor about whom can only be based on what happens in a twenty minute chunk of time.  

Indeed, what I loved about this episode is that it played a lot with what we already know about the characters.  It has been hilariously established that Ted was a pretentious douche in college, and that Karen was a pretentious, slutty douche, so the whole Paris storyline made total sense.  The loyal HIMYM fan finds herself saying, “Haha, OF COURSE College Ted would bring Karen on Marshall’s trip to Paris, OF COURSE they would break up, and OF COURSE she would hook up with a random waiter and make out with him in front of the Eiffel Tower.”  When done well this show is, as TV Tropes would say, continuity porn, and that’s what makes it really stand out from other sitcoms on right now. 

I was also very much on board with having an episode where Marshall really got to shine (despite it being Lily’s birthday), since I’ve felt like they’ve put him on the back burner for the past couple of episodes.  I wish to say, for the millionth time if you’ve met me, that I am completely in love with Marshall Eriksen.  He has continually shown himself to be an amazing, sweet, and supportive husband, and that side of him really got to come out in this episode.  It is undoubtedly not easy to fulfill Lily’s birthday expectations, but he did absolutely everything he could to give her the perfect day, even when everything was falling apart.  Any guy who thinks up birthday brunch themes and original songs, complete with harmonies, just to make his wife happy gets an A+ in my book. 

Robin and Barney were largely background players in this episode, but they provided needed balance to the group, as well as having the awesome Japanese picture and the hilarious running joke of Barney never taking bad pictures.  This provided more “of course” moments, since Barney having a supernatural ability to look good in pictures is completely consistent with some of his other seemingly magical abilities previously demonstrated in the show. Face it, the dude is from a parallel dimension where everyone’s awesome.

Best Quotes

• Lily: A new camera, wow!
• Marshall: Little bonus, I took some naked pictures of myself before I wrapped it, put a bow on it
• Lily: There wasn’t a bow on it.
• Marshall: Wrong it.

• Lily: Oh you know, light, color, balance, aperture
• Robin: You’re just saying camera words!
• Lily (later): Auto focus, shutter speed, zoom

• Lily: Oh really? Let’s take a little stroll down Random Skank Lane
• Marshall: Or we could just keep strolling down Best Birthday Ever Avenue
• Barney: Do I get a vote?  Skank Lane! Skank Lane!

• Barney: Face, it [in pictures], I always look drop-dead, stone cold, amazing.  Unlike Marshall, who just looks dead, stoned, and cold

• Barney: The camera loves me, Robin.  No, more than loves me, the camera lusts after me.  The camera wants to put on some nice lingerie, pop in an Al Green cd, dim the lights, and do all the work while I just lie there. 

• Marshall: Careful, Lily, it’s a trap!

• Ted: Okay, I admit it, Strawberry was a mistake.  But how could I have known that going in?
• Everyone: Her name was Strawberry!

• Marshall: You know what, I’m going to go get us some Rocky Road and we’re just going to sit here and talk it out until it makes sense!

• Robin: I think Lori’s age has made her very wise.
• Barney: They say your forties are when you really get to know yourself.

Random Thoughts

• I feel like the “bringing random people to important events” conflict has arisen before, notably when Ted brings Robin to Superbowl Night and when Robin brings Bob to Slapsgiving: “Oh look, here’s the four people I love most in the world, … and Bob.”
• It’s funny that Lily married a guy who loves making up strange board games, considering that’s what her dad devoted his time to instead of her…
• I knew that adorably written “About Lily” note was from Robin – that’s how girl bromances work.
• Love it when they take a word or phrase and show how you can use it differently, ala Lily and “Yay…”
• I kind of thought the big twist with Barney and the photos was that he was never actually in any of them because he used brainwashing and photoshop to make it appear that way.  That would have been kind of weird, though.
• If you look on the table, you will see that Marshall made an actual board game for “Lillial Pursuit”
• The French hip-hop playing during the fight on the plane made that scene amazing.
• I would love to know if what they said is actually Japanese for “Name that bitch.”
• Barney singing “Happy, Happy Lilyday” in a creepy voice was just awesome.

 - Tori