How I Met Your Mother: Little Minnesota

(S04E11) I tell ya, you'll never get homesick in New York; no matter where you're from, there's a bar full of ex-pats from there sitting and following the sports teams, reminiscing, and talking about life back home. Even if you're a Red Sox fan in a Yankees world, for instance, there are safe havens for you all over the city.

In this cute and funny episode, Marshall showed Robin his safe haven, a little slice of his home state of Minnesota right in NYC, and it seemed like a fun place to hang and eat "mini" burgers. Not sure if the vision of all those Vikings jerseys (especially their butt-ugly modern-day models) is something you'd want to see all the time, but, hey, where else can you complain about the failure of the 1998 team (who were the first team to go 15-1 and miss the Super Bowl) ten years later and not be laughed at?

Both plots this week were pretty much trifle-y nothings, but well-executed, which is sometimes all you want from a sitcom. Was the story about Ted learning to trust his wild-child sister as she moves to New York predictable? Sure. But between Barney's reworked Christmas / Hannukah carols where he sang about banging said sister (the Best Barneyism this week... though the rented swivel chair was a close second) and Lily's inability to keep a secret, the plot was funny even as it was hurtling towards the inevitable corny conclusion. Also, it was nice to see a) Lily operate without Marshall for a change and b) Barney actually follow The Bro Code for once and not sleep with Heather. In fact, he used Lily's penchant to blab to his advantage more than once, but not always to just fetch him some tail. That's not like him, but it was refreshing.

The Walleye Saloon plot was funny not only for the 1999 NFC Championship jokes and the jokes about Canadians being afraid of the dark, but it was just full of little gifts for the attentive viewer:

The names on the backs of the Vikings jerseys, for instance, had members of the cast and crew on it; there was a "Smulders" jersey in the crowd, for instance. The jersey Robin wore had "Fryman" on the back, in honor of show director Pamela Fryman.

Marshall's jersey was the classic jersey of Vikings legend Jim Marshall, which is notable because a) Marshall is wearing a Marshall jersey, and b) there's no name on the back to make it obvious.

Finally, of course, there's the song Marshall sang when he took Robin to the Hoser Hut, which is New York's slice of Canada: "Let's Go to the Mall." The funny thing is that everyone in the bar knew the song by heart, but no one recognized that Robin Sparkles was sitting amongst them, even before she ashamedly pulled a hockey mask over her face. Shows you how far Robin's come from her days in the Great White North, which should make her feel better even though she's single and not working right now.

More fun stuff:

• Lily continues to hint at her bad girl tendencies, doesn't she? So, she still shoplifts here and there to turn her on? It really makes me wonder how she's going to handle being penned in by her marriage as she gets older.
• Robin is so right about the strip clubs in Canada. As a friend of mine said once, they're "all nude, all crude." Though who wouldn't want to envision Robin "sucking down a 20 oz. pilsner while watching some coal miner's daughter strip down to her pelt"?
• How much are we going to see of Heather now that a) she's in New York, and b) Ted's on the hook for her lease? Did she end up getting that job at GNB? I don't think we found out.

Anyway, what a nice way to go into the holiday break. Let's hope the second half of the season is as funny as this episode was.