In the grand tradition of the Lemon Law, the Mendoza Diagonal, and the Bro Code, Barney Stinson has now introduced us to the Ewok Line (May 25, 1973). It’s too bad that Ted was so much of a buzz kill because, considering Barney’s Ewok slide show, we may have been treated to so much more Ewokian culture. Plus, Marshall stands up to his boss, and Robin starts dating her therapist (and yes, it is a lilcreepy).
It’s hard to argue with Barney’s logical basis of the Ewok Line. If you were older than ten years old when Return of the Jedi was released, you’re not going to remember your first Ewok experience as all cute and cuddly. I was born on the correct side of the line, and find the Ewoks adorable (I mean, seriously … how can you beat these eyes?). Of course, the theory get’s blown out of the water when the subject — in this case Nora — didn’t catch Jedi until her late 20’s. Speaking from my personal perspective, that’s just wrong (though, How I Met Your Mother has always had important rules when dealing with girlfriends that haven’t seen the Star Wars movies).
(Note: There is no such thing as the Gungan Line, because nobody likes Jar Jar Binks, no matter what your age).
I have to agree with Ted and Barney’s portable focus group: Robin dating her therapist is just plain creepy. You can try trading moments of vulnerability, sure, but the math on that doesn’t work. There’s no way you can spin the story where it is not just plain unhealthy on Robin’s part. The only way this particular storyline can be redeemed is if we get a cool Neil Patrick Harris/Harold and Kumar go to White Castle reference.
That being said, can we talk about the sheer awesomeness of a portable focus group/field trip? You could easily decide the important questions of life. I’m not sure I would use it to determine the veracity of the whole Germany loving David Hasselhoff meme, but hey, who am I to judge? Though, at least I know who Edward James Olmos is.
I’m not surprised that Marshall Eriksen saves the planet; I’m just a little surprised he needs Martin Short to get it done.
Notes & Quotes
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Oct 10, 2011 @ 21:21 EST5EDT
Of course there’s a Gungan Line. Just ask all the kids who love Jar-Jar on “The Clone Wars”. You just don’t like him because you were TOO OLD.
Oh and don’t get me started on the BluRays where the Ewoks now blink.
Reading this I noticed you didn’t notice that the party in the office was supposed to be the Ewok party at the end of “Return”. Or maybe you just didn’t mention it. Every time they roll out a new cake you can hear them kinda-sorta sing like the Ewoks.
Robin dating her therapist is a bunch of BS because this all happened because she was in love with Barney. Now apparently she isn’t anymore? But what really makes this whole storyline so weird is that they don’t manage to PORTRAY it as weird. When they did that on “Old Christine”, it really felt creepy. Here, like so often with HIMYM, the 4th wall totally falls down and you go “ah well, I like this actress and the actor, they are both cool, hey he worked for Obama and he did this other great movie and he was on ‘House’ so sure I can see them together” and not as what they are supposed to represent. It’s this whole level of bad like when you start drinking rotten milk and you can’t get the taste out later on. The same thing that so many people have going when they see supposedly “cute” Marshal and Lily together.
But I have to say I laughed at the Germans like Hasselhoff joke.
I think we just stick with the show because it once was really great and we now live with it like with a spouse we married 20 years ago and it just isn’t exciting anymore. But now and then it still shows that they were really sooo funny so many years ago and then you laugh and eat a piece of cake and go to bed kinda sorta content. I mean it’s not horrible at the moment but on the other hand this level of “meh”. To me it’s on par with “Two and a Half Men” but apparently there are people who think that show is a trainwreck now with Bruce Willis’ son on it so what do I know…
Oh and a small addendum: we’ve seen the characters on the show take out their smartphones numerous times. Barney supposedly has a whole phone machine calling girls between a certain age-range randomly to come to the bar.
And it needs a focus-group to decide what the first name of an actor is? Really? How can THAT joke be pitched in the writing room AT ALL. That’s asking of me as the viewer to forget basic principles of life as it is today with THE INTERNET. Every friggin Robin Sparkles video has been watched on the show, there have been numerous websites put up just for the show, there’ve even ben JOKES bout the smartphones of the characters on the show and I am supposed to believe the 10 seconds it takes to look up the name of an actor on IMDb or Wikipedia is something that lingers between Ted and Barney for WEEKS?
What’s next? Ice is actually hot as a joke?
It’s so god damn embarrassing that the writers expect us to be dumb to laugh about something.
I have to disagree a lot with the previous commenter. I really likethe episode, I think it improved much from the previous one, though not yet on par with the first three episodes of season 7–but they are back on track, so I have hopes!
I do find the dating with therapist thing creepy, but Meg, it’s Kal Penn. He can get away with it. And I also disagree about the Edward James Olson joke; I laughed out loud at it. The fact that they made it Edward and Jacob was just plain genius in my opinion. But the funniest had to be Marshall’s fish jokes.
I honestly think this show is still much better than Two and a Half Men (which, to me, not funny at all withouth Sheen). HIMYM is so much more than comedy; it’s funny, yes, but it also presents good, realistic love stories. The away Ted acted around Victoria, his ex… I really could relate. Not many sitcoms are able to pull this off.