Spoilers for tonight's "How I Met Your Mother" coming up just as soon as I renounce my Canadian half-citizenship..."Canada, you did it again. You even found a way to ruin this. Why? Why do we let you be a country?" -BarneyToday was not a good day at The Star-Ledger. We're certainly not alone in taking a beating in this economy, but the events of today had me really, really, really hoping for some big laughs from tonight's "HIMYM," particularly after the last two episodes had been so strong. Instead, unfortunately, we got a fairly iffy outing saved by some always-reliable Canadian comedy.
Now, admittedly, today's news at the paper may well have made it impossible for me to enjoy a storyline about fake jobs, Ted being on the verge of getting fired, a room designed for firing people, etc., but I don't think so. The biggest laugh I had at the episode was the security cam montage of Barney firing people -- specifically, the shot of him having sex under the table and then firing the woman he had sex with, which is completely despicable and yet completely Barney. (This is how good the writers and Neil Patrick Harris have been at creating this character: I love it when he's doing horrible things even when he's appearing in grainy footage with the sound off so I can't even see or hear anything from NPH.)
No, I just think it was a lame story, as sitcom plots about elaborate lies tend to be. Other than "HIMYM"-y touches like the aforementioned video montage, or the '70s-style caper movie title cards for each member of the conspiracy (including the chipmunk!), it was forgettable and not all that funny.
Lily playing a guessing game with Robin about Canadian sex acts -- with help from yet another classic fake website from the "HIMYM" folks (this time with appearances from an actual Canadian celebrity) -- was an amusing B-plot, and a reminder that clever euphemisms (invented or not) are often funnier than more sexually explicit punchlines, and it had a nice payoff at the end when we found out what really happened with The Frozen Snowshoe. I just wish it was in service to a better A-story.
What did everybody else think?
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