How I Met Your Mother: Feeling Out of Place Never Looked This Funny

Ah yes, here it is: a wonderful, gleeful, very funny episode of How I Met Your Mother. Yet again, this show seems to have a direct link into my brain: tonight's episode was all about feeling out of place in your own life, something I've been feeling a bit lately. For Robin, this means considering having to give up her Canadian citizenship, i.e., the very core of her identity. For Ted, it means realizing that your bro trips will never be the same as they were when you were 19, except for the violent stomachaches after bad pizza. The meaty plot, coupled with some very funny jokes, made for my favorite episode of the season thus far. Let's look at what worked:

Robin studies to become an American citizen. This was funny because (1) we got to see Robin act Canadian, A LOT. I love Canadian Robin. Especially drunk, I-will-fight-you Canadian Robin. (2) We got to see Barney teach her to be an American. My favorite lesson? Holding up a picture of Queen Elizabeth II and telling her it was Elton John. Priceless, and not really that much of a stretch. (3) We got to GO TO CANADA. More specifically Toronto. Even more specifically a Tim Hortons. I love Tim Hortons. And I love that we finally got to see a Tim Hortons, because Robin always talks about them. And they are great. (4) Curling, Canadian money, hockey......do I really need to go on? I want Robin to take a trip home with Barney to meet her parents. That would be funny. (5) Robin thinks being American is basically being mean and telling people what to do....basically act like drunk Canadian Robin.

Marshall brings Lily on the bros trip. Don't get me wrong, I like being single, but I get where Ted is coming from. Sometimes you don't want to feel like the third wheel to someone else's relationship. It's a little demoralizing, especially when your trip full of energy drinks and beef jerky turns into massages at Crumpet Manor (I will get to that later). Additionally, the fact that Lily needs to pee constantly is pretty damn funny. Also, that book on tape would make me want to kill myself. Loved the gross pizza place they went to and the stomachaches they got afterward, especially when Marshall screamed "CUT IT OUT!" I've been there, and it's not pleasant.

Crumpet Manor. Marshall and Lily would go to a place like that. Cornmeal massages, a wishing well, a bench to sit on. The place sounds like it should be a stop on the next version of Candyland. Also, love the fact that all the pampering made lulled Lily into an almost comatose-like state.

Tantrum. One word: TANTRUM!! Excuse me while I go do push ups in the kitchen.

THE SONG. You know the one I'm talking about. The one about when I wake up. The one involving me knowing I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man the man who wakes up next to you. CAUSE I WOULD WALK 500 MILES AND I WOULD WALK 500 MORE JUST TO BE THE MAN WHO WALKS A THOUSAND MILES AND SHOWS UP AT YOUR DOOR. BA DA DA DA. BA DA DA DA. DUM DIDDLE LA DIDDLE LA DIDDLE LA DA DA. Come on, you know you were singing along too. And you loved it. Every minute of it.

Lily has an iPhone. Nothing else really here except that I love my iPhone so much and was looking for an excuse to say it.

There really was nothing I disliked about this episode, it was all great. I will leave with you the quotes:

"We were like Lewis and Clark, if Lewis and Clark peed in a soda bottle and had a bong made out of a cantaloupe."--Ted

'Tantrum!"--Ted

"We'll stay up all night. I'll drill you, then I'm gonna help you study."--Barney. UP TOP.

"Punch buggy yellow. Yellow. That reminds me I have to pee."--Lily

'Let's go buy something that's bad for us, then sue the people that made it. That's American, Robin."--Barney

"Now to prove you are American as apple pie and the childhood obseity it leads to...""--Barney

"Maybe I'll rob a liquor store, maybe I won't, my choice."--Robin, being American

"Learn English!"--Robin trying to be American and yelling at a cab.

"Oh my god what happened last night?" "You went Canadian."--Robin and Barney, as he finds her in a trashed hotel room in Toronto.

How I Met Your Mother: You Know You're a Sexless Innkeeper When....

Tally ho, good readers! What did we think of this evening's episode? Personally, I have to say better than last week, and best one of the season yet. I was a little worried, because I hate it when Lily and Marshall get weird, but I'm also a sucker for montages, which we had plenty of tonight. That being said, here were the three keys to greatness for tonight's episode:

• Lily and Marshall's Double Date Quest. Never having been in a serious relationship, I cannot relate to Lily and Marshall's desperate need to find a couple to play with. Never having been in a serious relationship, I can totally relate to their frenetic energy and desire to impress, which might make them act a little bit crazy. I love the way Lily overengineered the evening--her and Marshall prepping was akin to a general planning for battle. Additionally, I also loved Barney and Robin totally rejecting their craziness, and the way the rest of the episode played out as a result. Especially the...
  
• The Montages. Honestly, set images to ironic music and I will laugh, laugh, laugh until the cows come home.....or until the montage stops. We got two great montages tonight. The first was a music video Marshall made to commemorate their special evening:

• Wasn't that funny? And creepy? I'd give 51% funny and 49% creepy which is just the right balance for something like this. The second montage, and by far the superior one, was of Robin and Barney dealing with the fact that Lily and Marshall found another couple to hang out with. In fact, most couples around them had found another to hang out with. The only thing left for Robin and Barney to do was wander around aimlessly, wallowing in their couple loneliness and binging on junk food to words of "All By Myself." Yes, that sound you hear is me cackling because this is the funniest thing I've seen all day. PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT. That leaves us with just one key left...
  
• Barney's Lesson of the Week: The Sexless Innkeeper. Apparently a Sexless Innkeeper is someone who you go home with at night who you have no intention of sleeping with. You do it only because you need a place to crash for the night. I enjoyed learning this term because now I know what to call myself. No, I will not tell you the number of times it has happened to me, because I don't like public humiliation. It is a brilliant concept though. Even better was Barney's ode to the Sexless Innkeeper:

All in all, this was pretty great episode, even if the whole Lily-and-Marshall-want-a-couple-to-hang-out-with plot was highly reminiscent of that Season 8 episode of Friends where Chandler and Monica meet a couple on the flight back from their honeymoon that they get way too excited to hang out with. HIMYM is the new (and better) Friends after all. As is my custom, here are your quotes:

"There's still pie."--Lily holding a knife, as a couple tries to escape her apartment.

"It was like we were on a date with a sad, chubby girl our mom made us call."--Barney

"Which is funny because usually it's the innkeeper that offers turndown service. Up top!"--Robin. Nice to see Barney rubbing off on her.

"We're so lovable." "No we're not. We're ugly and gross."--Lily and Marshall, and they eat ice cream. I've been there.

"Cat funeral, cat funeral, it was an accident, and not entirely my fault."--Marshall's song

"You're a sturdy, cheese-bearing cracker."--Lily to Marshall. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID. (I know it doesn't really apply.)

"How do we know you two won't hurt us again?"--Lily, in the rain, to Robin and Barney. It was just so funny.

"Dammit, why is there something so attractive about a bad boy...and girl."--Lily, still in the rain, to Robin and Barney.