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Sunday, November 25, 2007

How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving

ORIGINAL EPISODES, MONDAYS @ 8PM ON CBS

This was a classic HIMYM episode and one of the best they've ever showcased. I was not one of the people enamored with the slapbet countdown clock. I thought it took away from the anticipation of the moment to give us a time when it was next going to occur. The last time Marshall used one of his slaps it came totally at random and was one of the funniest moments of last year. In the end though, the countdown actually worked out relatively well and the comedy of the moment was not lost; in fact it was damn funny!
The slapbet is one of the best comedic story lines on any show today and I doubt it will be surpassed for quite a while longer. Even better was the creation of "Slapsgiving." This is the greatest holiday ever, second only to "Chrismukkah." It was nice to see Lilly resume her role as Slapbet Commissioner. She takes the role so seriously (as is required) that I can't stop laughing while she ponders her rulings, although the postponement of the slapbet for the remainder of Thanksgiving was very much telegraphed and predictable. Although I was a bit annoyed at the postponement and the obvious attempt at building more suspense, it turned out alright so I can't be too upset. The saving grace for Slapsgiving was Marshall's surprising Slapsgiving song to commemorate the occasion. I swear I was laughing so hard that I started to cry during the song. The constant "oh oh oh's" from Barney, the lighters waving in the air, Robin's really old date waving a cell phone with the light on, and Marshall's wonderfully funny piano playing/song singing, are things I'm not likely to forget for a very long time.

A great side note to the whole Slapsgiving event was the buildup. Barney was so afraid of Marshall that I almost started to feel bad for him. Seriously, Marshall can be VERY creepy when he wants to be. When he starts talking in that low, deep voice and his eyes radiate evil, I really started to get creeped out myself so I'm sure Barney would be. Usually he's so put together though that you couldn't picture him like this. Definitely a nice change of pace and a new side of Barney that we got to see.
As for Robin and Ted, tonight was great! I love these two together and although I know they don't end up getting married I miss them. They really do have great chemistry together as actors and bring out the best in each other. I'm glad we finally started to see the awkwardness between them post-breakup that we weren't seeing before this. It's never easy going through a breakup but to have to hang out with your ex everyday is unimaginably hard. It was just a matter of time until they let loose and slept together again. They didn't breakup because they fought or didn't love each other anymore, so you had to know this was coming given the intensity of their feelings for each other. I personally love the fact that they slept together again. I'm hoping we get some more of them before the writer's decide to introduce someone new for Ted.

Speaking of awkward ex-situations, when Robin and Ted were alone making pies he threw out one of the best and most awkward comments of the night and the season: "Remember last Thanksgiving when we slept together 7 times?" So funny! By the way, while I'm mentioning the pie making, it was so wrong for Robin to have Ted making a pie for Bob. They might be friends but that's really a knife to gut.

I should mention something about the inside couple jokes. It is so true that couples have inside jokes that no one else ever gets but them. This joke I totally got but I definitely wouldn't have thought it was as funny as they did. Very good idea to come up with this joke; extremely insightful of them to notice how people tend to put military titles in front of innocuous statements.

Briefly, why in the world does Canada have Thanksgiving? I never knew the reason they celebrated it but that's the oddest reason to have a holiday than I've ever heard of.

Hopefully next week Robin won't be dating anymore really, really old guys. Truthfully he wasn't that old but watching an actual old guy make out with Robin (even if it was a figment of Ted's imagination) was disturbing. I could definitely do without that from now on. Anyways, I hope the greatness continues, as I have no doubt it will, so until next week, enjoy the review!

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