How I Met Your Mother/YMMV: Difference between revisions

* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: Is Barney a selfish and contemptible [[Jerkass]] who [[Laser-Guided Karma|deserves what happens to him]] (i.e. being temporarily abandoned by Ted for sleeping with Robin, and getting banned from laser tag for assaulting children)? Or are his actions justified based on his [[Freudian Excuse|crappy childhood]] and rejections, among other issues that make him fragile?

** His shrink thinks so, calling him "A narcissist with severe attachment disorder"

* [[Arc Fatigue]]: It has been six seasons and there have been extremely few hints at who the mother might be. Five years of explaining and we only know these details:

** She is not Robin.

** When Ted first met her, he didn't wait three days to call her, which ''The Three Days Rule'' said he should have.

** He had his last cigarette two weeks into dating her.

** Assuming she didn't have a fake ID, she was at least 21 in Season 3 (she was in the same club as Ted and Barney on St. Patrick's Day).

** She was {{spoiler|Cindy's roommate}} at the time of "Girls vs. Suits."

** She {{spoiler|plays bass and has legs.}} At least at the time of "Girls vs. Suits".

** Ted {{spoiler|met the kids' mother the day of a wedding in which he was the best man.}} But {{spoiler|not at Marshall's, though he has agreed to be the best man at his friend Punchy's wedding and to be Robin's at hers.}}

** The Barney-Robin Romance arc was starting to become this by season 7, fortunately it actually seems to be moving forward now.

** So was Ted-Robin, but lasted one and a bit episodes so far.

* [[Awesome Ego]]: Barney.

* [[Base Breaker]]: From the evidence on message boards, it seems that if you watch the show, you either love Lily and think she's a hilarious and endearing character and wonderful wife, or think she's a mean, shallow, selfish bitch who doesn't deserve Marshall. The latter is probably a vocal minority, but the split is quite noticeable.

** Ted has a split similar to Lily's, but there's a notable trend for his haters to be extreme Barney fans. Given the fact that Ted and Lily are far less willing than Robin and Marshall to ignore Barney's bad behavior, [[Misaimed Fandom|it's hard to stop certain suspicions from emerging...]]

** The [[Noodle Incident|green dress]] became one in "Now We're Even".

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdCBwMJ4xEY Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit!]

** Vampire Weekend's "Oxford Comma," playing during a hilarious sequence which switches from {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Ted not realizing he's in the wrong class and Barney and Robin denying they're boyfriend and girlfriend.]]}}

** A certain scene concerning Ted's career was appropriately accompanied by The Decemberists' "Here I Dreamt I was an Architect"

** 'Girls vs. Suits'. '''Seriously'''.

** "''You Just Got Slapped''".

** Also the music backing Barney doing anything awesome suit related, the most notable being his first suit up.

** Ted's Super Date song, which he [[Ho Yay|demonstrates to Barney]] in a highly elaborate fantasy sequence

'''Ted:''' *cough* [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Strip club!]] }}

** ''"Barney Stinson: That Guy's Awesome"''

* [[Darker and Edgier]]/[[Hotter and Sexier]]: MTV's ''I just want my pants!'', premiering 2012, involves a group of single people in New York who like to drink together, have personal issues, and the main character is looking for one special woman. Unlike this show, however, most of the cast is a bunch of shallow, sex-obsessed, yet still somehow sympathetic 20-somethings with bad jobs, and the special woman is special because she took the protagonist's pants after they had freaky sex, and then gave him a number that turned out to be a Thai restauraunt.

** This show itself is arguably a slightly D&E and H&E version of ''[[Friends]]''.

* [[Designated Villain]]: Barney in "The Goat". Put aside [[The Bro Code]], Barney did absolutely nothing wrong, because Robin has been single for a year after she broke up with Ted; she is fully aware of her action with Barney, but nevertheless we're forced to believe that Ted is right for cutting his friendship with Barney and Barney's guilty for giving comfort to Robin when she needs it. It also didn't help that Robin's explanation to Ted made it sounds like Barney is taking advantage of her fragile condition to have sex with her, Marshall and Lily are not helping either with neither of them even bothering to doubt Ted's rash decision despite Barney being basically the reason that they're back together in the first place.

** Ted explains, "I'm not mad at Barney. I've just outgrown him as a friend." It still just seems like he's angry at Barney, but at least he has a way to justify it otherwise.

** Ted also noted that he had seen Barney do a lot of horrible things in the years that he knew him. For a friend like Robin, who's a relatively good person, Ted was able to forgive her once she came open with the truth and apologized. For [[Jerkass|Barney]], the fact that he couldn't obey his own rules, which he held so highly, was the last straw for Ted.

** He's obviously still mad at Barney.He tells Barney when ditching him that "I always though I was the limit" referring to the people who Barney hurts. It shows that not only is Barney's immaturity not the reason but that he thinks that he is the one being hurt by Barney and not Robin. Ted also seems to not care about the Bro Code and sees it as juvenile so I doubt this is motivation. Even if we are going to take this into account , why is Ted not mad at Robin? She did have sex with one his best friends.

** "You just got slaaaapped...across the face my friend!"

* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: Barney, Ranjit, Wendy, Victoria, Tony.

* [[Fanon Discontinuity]]: Do not mention "The Rough Patch" around Barney/Robin fans.

* [[Fetish Retardant]]: {{spoiler|Post break-up with Don}} Robin. As Barney puts it "you're giving me a de-rection". It should not be ''possible'' to uglify Cobie Smulders that much.

* [[Harsher in Hindsight]]:

** A season 1 episode has Barney courting a bridesmaid, his excuse for never seeing her again being that in the morning he's shipping out with the Peace Corps for two years. We find out mere episodes later that {{spoiler|his [[Start of Darkness]] was getting stood up by his girlfriend the day they were supposed to ship out with the Peace Corps together for two years.}}

** {{spoiler|Several times during the first few season, Robin talks about she doesn't want kids. In season seven, we learn she ''can't'' have kids.}}

*** Later, {{spoiler|in a season three episode, we learned that 'Aunt' Robin appeared prominently in the pictures drawn by Ted's kids.}}

* [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]:

** Pre-infamous-Jason Segel-nudity-in-[[Forgetting Sarah Marshall]]:

'''Marshall''': Well, what did you expect, you've seen my penis. }}

** Barney's insisting that no one should have children until they're at least 45. He was already expecting twins at the age of 37 when that episode aired.

'''Barney''' : Yeah, if you're a [[The Smurfs|SMURF]]. }}

** Barney's habit of mocking Canada just gets even more hilarious after the revelation that he's one-quarter Canadian.

* [[Ho Yay]]: "Three Day Rule" is packed with this. There was the fantasy of Marshall and Barney cuddling together in cheerleadering outfits, Marshall and Barney on the brink of sexting Ted while pretending to be a girl he likes, and later competing over who Ted would rather sleep with. Not to mention the [[Ho Yay]] generator Stan, who has such a good grasp of romantic language that Barney and Marshall nearly fall for him.

'''Marshall''': I don't know, it's weird. }}

** The first episode has Marshall (fake)-proposing to Ted. And it also has Barney kissing Marshall.

** "Rebound Bro" has Barney and Ted acting as if they've broken up as a couple.

** Barney in "Unfinished" in season 6 tries to seduce Ted into taking an architect job at Goliath using his techniques to pick up women. Which would lead to this gem (and gets lampshaded by Lily later)

** In the episode "Slap Bet," after Barney tells Marshall that his hand is 'monstrous,' Marshall replies "What did you expect? You've seen my penis."

** This extension of a scene in Season 3's "Third Wheel". ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLp9Co66SKQ#t=3m26s @ 3:26])

** Ted and Barney's fantasy Super Date, complete with a musical number in "Of Course" has both of them so flustered by the end of it that they both shake it off by [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|going to a strip club]].

** In "The Mermaid Theory", when pirate!Marshall starts to see cabinboy!Barney as a mermaid:

** Marshall even has this with a random male at the collage he went to with Lilly and Ted: "Sweet and Cute but Just enough of a Jerk so you want to change him"

** Marshall and Brad, when Brad was dumped by his bride.

** In "The perfect week", Ted slaps Barney's ass reassuringly before he goes to pick up a girl.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Robin needs to shave her legs, so after the guy invites her back to his place, she ducks into the restaurant bathroom where there is guaranteed to be no shaving cream rather than go back to his place where there is guaranteed to be shaving cream. It doesn't help that from what we can see, her legs don't actually seem [[Hollywood Homely|that hairy]].

** ''Twice''.

** Lampshaded in the show how everyone pretty much grabbed the [[Idiot Ball]] when Marshall and Lily bought the apartment, despite massive credit card debt. They never even checked out the apartment fully to realize it was near a sewage plant and had a crooked floor.

** Mosbius Designs has failed....(Classic Schmosby)

** "NOBODY ASKED YOU PATRICE!!!"

** "I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR!" Particularly famous as a very common [http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lheg4eGYzn1qhxr17o1_400.gif reaction gif] on various comms and discussion boards.

** Barney's catchphrase of "True Story".

* [[Misaimed Fandom]]:

** Barney roots for the bad guys in several films, like this quote about ''[[The Terminator]]''.

*** Undoubtably, but there is some [[Subverted Trope|quality advice]] under the [[Testosterone Poisoning]].

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Zoey actually keeping the recording of Ted praising the Arcadian and using it against Ted.

** Tony writing (and probably therefore, Stella condoning) "The Wedding Bride".

'''Victoria''': Aaaaand we have weird. }}

** Also, Marshall/Lily/Ted:

* [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]: Ted and the gang constantly refer to Barney as disgusting and despicable for his womanizing.Yet Ted has done things just as bad as Barney on a lower.He has tried to hooku up with two married women tried to cheat on Victoria with Robin ,as had casual sex and as tried to ride the "Tricycle".

** Also applies to Lily as she is deceitful and manipulative yet again nobody calls her on it.

** Ted actually ''does'' call her on this during one episode over her obvious attempts to break him up with Karen. Of course, it kind of falls flat considering that he ends up breaking up with Karen ''anyway''. One [[Alternate Character Interpretation|wonders]] if she ''[[Magnificent Bastard|planned it that way.]]''

* [[The Scrappy]]:

** Zoey. "Oh no, I'm married to Kyle McLachlan and don't like boats." Ted even ''[[Creator's Pet|shills]]'' her at the end of "Natural History"!

* [[Serious Business]]: "The Stinson Missile Crisis" and other episodes have noted the ridiculous lengths Barney goes through to get laid.

* [[Shipping Bed Death]]: {{spoiler|Barney and Robin.}}

** And that she ends up marrying some other guy.

* [[Ship Tease]]: They sure do have fun teasing Barney/Lily like crazy... of course, [[Like You Would Really Do It|it will never happen]].

** They also did one with Barney and Robin... in the episode they actually hooked up. The tease allowed the actual hookup to be a surprise.

* [[Squick]]:

** Robin's favorite sex act "The Old King Clancy".

*** Though the above is not described, Urban Dictionary does have a definition...

* [[Tear Jerker]]:

** At the end of the first season, Lily breaks off her engagement with Marshall and leaves for San Francisco, leaving him crushed and sitting outside the apartment in the rain holding the engagement ring.

*** {{spoiler|This troper teared up the moment you see Marshall's dad's phone ringing on his work bench, with him no-where in sight. You just know that if he isn't there to answer Marshall's call, then something has happened to him.}}

** Barney and {{spoiler|his dad, Jerry's}} talk in "Legendaddy"

'''Barney:''' {{spoiler|Because if you're gonna be some lame suburban dad, why couldn't you have been that for me?}} }}

** Later in the same episode

** The last scene in A Change Of Heart, where we see Barney {{spoiler|enter the restaurant and meet Nora's parents, then it cuts back to him standing outside the restaurant, revealing it to be his imagination. The look on his face as he decides not to go in is heart-wrenching... Wow, Season 6 is pretty sad.}}

** The ending of Tick, Tick, Tick... poor Barney, he did the right thing, and ended up alone...excuse me, I need a tissue.

* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]: Ted has shown some [[Jerkass]] tendencies in certain episodes that make it hard to root for him at times.

** All the characters except Marshall are this once in a while, but Barney is a straighter example: usually, he's a despicable (though entertaining) dick who the viewers are never sorry to see get royally screwed over due to his own arrogance or stupidity, which makes the rare times where he ''is'' legitimately sympathetic all the more poignant.

* [[The Untwist]]: The reveal of {{spoiler|Robin as the bride at Barney's future wedding}} at the end of Season 7 came as an utter shock to about 2% of viewers. At most.

* [[Warped Aesop]]: Lily, after Marshall's co-worker Jenkins {{spoiler|drunkenly kisses}} Marshall, her immediate reaction is to go to Lily, take full responsibility for what happened, and apologize like a reasonable adult. Lily's reaction is to {{spoiler|beat the crap out of Jenkins while Barney takes pictures.}} The only moral here? The Aldrin-Ericksons are nuts.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:YMMV]]