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How I Met Your Mother: Showdown
(S03E20) Only Barney Stinson can say the words "Bob Barker is my father" and make not only his four friends believe him, but make the audience believe him, as well. Of course, you'd only believe him for about five seconds. But something about the conviction with which he says everything makes you want to believe. That's probably why he's able to bed so many women; he's sincere just long enough to get the job done.
This time around, though, he actually believed what he was talking about. That's why I vote for the entire The Price is Right subplot as the Best Barneyism of the week. Though I did have a laugh when Barney ran through Marshall and Ted's apartment practicing how he'll "come on down" to Contestants' Row. Also, his speech about TPiR (and, yes, he used that abbreviation when making it) had a "truth, justice and the American way" ring to it that made the Price fan in me well up a little... or was it the part about hot chicks on top of cars?
One thing I never get, though, when I see a character from a sitcom go on a game show: the behavior by the character always seems like it's more over the top than any real person would be on that show. Yes, it's perfectly within Barney's character to get all the prices exactly right, push the leader out of the way when he scores a dollar on the Big Wheel, and openly mock his fellow Showcase contestant when she overbids. But the only time you'd see any of that happen on TPiR is when a fictional contestant is on the show. I guess just having Barney jump around and scream like an idiot, like normal contestants, was too boring.
As usual, Bob was up to the task; the look on his face when Barney asks him "are you proud of me?" made it seem like he was asked that question at least once per season for the last 35 years. Too bad Barn chickened out when he finally had the chance to say something. Boy, that mother of his really screwed him up, didn't she? Though those flashbacks were a good opportunity for CBS to pull out footage of the dark-haired Bob from the 1980s. Either way, it was a nice way for a couple of CBS's younger show runners to pay tribute to Barker before he leaves the air this summer.
About the other subplot... CBS sent us a screener of the final two episodes of the season, and I made the mistake of watching them before I saw this one. Why was it a mistake? Because some small details that you see in this episode become much bigger details in the next two episodes. I'll let you folks guess which details are which. But it kind of ruined the "a ha!" moments that I would have had if I saw the episodes in the correct order. I should have known, since Bays and Thomas are very good at referring to previous episodes when telling stories. Oh well...
Marshall and Lily are damned adorable, aren't they? "Can you be the big spoon for a while?" he asks her as they cuddled in that hotel room. I love how they decided to "sneak off" just to cuddle with each other. Oh, and to help Lily gain five pounds to get into her wedding dress. The seamstress who called Lily a "bitch" when she complained that she's too skinny for her dress probably spoke for the thousands of women starving themselves in the weeks before their wedding, just so they can get into their dresses. But of course, all we guys have to do is adjust the waistband in our rented tuxes and we're good to go. Huh. No wonder you never hear of "Groomzillas."
How in the world did Robin ever suppress the alpha-male in her long enough to be "Robin Sparkles?" Seeing her berate Lily into cramming that fudge in her mouth made me fall in love with her all over again. Oh, and I also admired the fact that all she had to feed Lily at first was "a half a bag of Fritos and some Cool Whip." Yummy. She's probably one of those people who has a refrigerator that has nothing but water and booze in it. Kinda like mine.
Which best man speech would you have wanted to hear more? The one about Lily and Marshall in the HOV lane (ah, the imagery when Lily's head appeared...)? The one about how Lily thought her boyfriend's love of Funyuns was directed at her? Or the one where they held hands "really hard"? I would have wanted to hear the third one, if only for the entertainment value.
This was definitely one of the funnier episodes of the season, maybe just under the Top 5. Yes, Barney and his Barker obsession was a big part of it. But who doesn't love to see Marshall and Lilly make cute, especially so close to their wedding? And there was very little of the Ted and Robin relationship mishegas. But don't worry, we'll get to that eventually. I'm giving this one a 6.
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