(S05E23) This episode was about as "meta" as an episode can get. And it was meta in a very funny way. However, I wonder if the release of the trailer for the movie-within-an-episode, 'The Wedding Bride,' last week ruined the fun of things a little bit.

Sure, we didn't have to publish it. But, Fox studios not only sent it to us, but the clip was released to other sites as well as Facebook. They wanted everyone to see this trailer, with Chris Kattan playing "douchebag" Jed Mosley. But knowing it was out there, and what Tony's view of how the whole Ted/Stella thing went down, before the episode aired kept it from being surprising. In fact, at some point the meta-ness of the episode became less funny and got slightly worn down.

By the end, I was wondering why we weren't exploring Marshall's super-niceness more or seeing more of the normally wonderful Judy Greer.

When you bring Greer in as a guest on an episode, you really should make sure you use her properly. Until the very end of the episode, though, Greer's character of Royce could have been played by just about anyone; we never saw Greer's sense of comic timing, her dizziness, or her physical comedic gifts. Even at the end, when we found out that Royce had enough baggage to fill a small jetliner, Greer played it straight.

It makes me start to wonder if the writing staff has just lost the ability to write for anyone other than the main gang. Most of Ted's more promising dates/girlfriends/fiancees have either been boring, unfunny, or had no chemistry with Ted. There was nothing about them that made them charming enough to make viewers believe that Ted had found the mythical Mother, or even someone who could challenge him for a while. The last woman that really did that with Ted was Robin, and we all knew how that went. At this point, even if we do meet the mother, we may just shrug and say "Eh, I'd rather see a story about Marshall."

I mean, couldn't they have built an entire episode around Marshall and his inherent niceness? That stroll down the street where Marshall said hi to everyone by name showed that there was lots of comic potential in his nice, backwater, cowtipping, hick, Minnesota upbringing (and that's coming from Robin, who comes from the Country of Nice, Canada). Instead of having Lily explain how Marshall helped thieves load a moving van full of stolen stuff, why not show it?

Well, I'll tell you why, because we had to have just one more scene of Chris Kattan saying, "No can doozville, baby doll." And, yes, it was funny, but not at the sacrifice of a great guest star and an even better B-story.

More fun stuff:

-- The movie got a lot of stuff wrong -- though I loved that little blond kid showing up at random all the time -- but it got some stuff right, like the red cowboy boots and Ted being beaten up by the goat.

-- Barney was in fine form tonight; my vote for Best Barneyism is when, after describing how great having sex is with a thin woman with daddy issues who also thinks she's fat, he has a moment of self-awareness: "How do you guys still hang out with me?"

-- Though I also liked a) how he's seen 'The Wedding Bride' as many times as he's probably seen 'The Phantom Menace' and thinks all of it is true, and b) how he said "Kiss her!" in the theater when Ted told Royce about his baggage. Would even Barney yell the f-word in a crowded theater?

-- My favorite baggage that I could make out: "Cubs Fan" and "Still Thinks His Ska Band Will Make it," who bumped into "Will Only Date Guys in Bands." Which ones could you make out?

-- Leave it to Robin to think that Ted's engagement and two-minute date with Stella were "a little cheesy." This is the woman who fell for the blue horn gambit. But yes, those moves of Ted's were a little cheesy.

-- Who were the couple that Ted and Royce were having drinks with at MacLaren's? Have we seen them before?

-- How about this career resurgence for Chris Kattan? First, a recurring role on 'The Middle,' now the role of "Jed Mosley." He played Jed so over the top, it's almost like he's making fun of what he did in that terrible movie 'Corky Romano.'

-- I just caught Malin Ackerman in a cable rerun of the awful Ben Stiller movie 'The Heartbreak Kid.' Sigh. At least she knows the tropes of a terrible rom-com when she sees them.

-- I do love how Tony's movie "slipped" near the end, basically forgetting all pretense and just calling Kattan's character "Ted Mosby." Though that could have been how Old Ted recalled the movie to his kids.

[Watch clips and free episodes of 'HIMYM' at SlashControl.]

[Follow @joelkeller on Twitter.]