HIMYM, "Woooo!": The tears of a slutty clown

Spoilers for last night's "How I Met Your Mother" coming up just as soon as I get on this conference call...

For a show that started out exploring the advantages and disadvantages of couplehood (as represented by Lily and Marshall) vs. singlehood (as represented by Barney and Robin) through the eyes of a guy who wanted to leave the latter group to join the former, "HIMYM" has taken a decided pro-couplehood turn the last few episodes. Last week, we saw hardcore anti-childists Robin and Barney both overwhelmed by the power of "Sock!" and last night we had Robin explaining to Lily that the Woo Girls only Woo'ed to conceal their profound loneliness and envy of people like Lily.

Now, I'm firmly entrenched in the world of marriage, kids, suburbia, etc., and yet I miss the way the show tended to show both sides of the equation, like in that first season episode where Marshall really wanted to dance at the club instead of hang around with other couples on Game Night. It's one thing to suggest that some of the Woo Girls would rather be home for Game Night, but don't some people just like to party?

I also thought the Woo joke -- and the Dr. Seuss-style dialogue between Robin and Lily that accompanied it -- got repetitive after a little while before being re-energized at the very end by the Woo subtitles (particularly when Ted joined in on the action). Usually, "HIMYM" gives at least three spins on a joke, and here we only got two, with the second coming very late in the episode.

But the stuff with Barney and Sven: The Swedish Architecture Collective? Legen... well, you know the rest.

I know Barney wants to be Ted's best friend and all, but who wouldn't be lured in by the prospect of working inside the brain of a fire-breathing T-Rex, particularly one with a strip club in the N on top? Europeans and their weird affectations have been an easy punchline in America for years (see also Dieter on "SNL," or the nihilists from "The Big Lebowski"), but they're also a good punchline, and seeing Barney briefly think he'd found his kindred Swedish spirits was almost as terrific as the unexpected "Mad Men" shout-out during one of Barney and Marshall's rooftop "conference calls."

What did everybody else think?