How I Met Your Mother: Little Minnesota
By fred | December 16, 2008
(S04E11) After a really great and funny episode of The Big Bang Theory, I was also really expecting this one to keep up with the high level of laughs of its lead-in. It’s the holidays and of course, it comes with it, it’s a time of year when there’s a lot of singing. Things were no different here, and gave us many reasons to love this episode.
Yes, awesomeness continued to shine in on this Monday night as for their last episode of 2008, the folks of How I Met Your Mother decided to surprise us a little by making this episode not really about what we first thought it would be about, given its title and the way things started. But thinking about it, it was all for the best.
Because sure, you may find it hard to believe that Barney didn’t try to get into Ted’s little sister’s pants, or that they’d even pulled out a little something together to set up Ted and make him realize how wrong he was about his sister. But let’s be honest here : Sure, Barney is who he is, and it’s not his love for Robin that will stop him from sleeping with as many (hot) girls as he can and more.
But as he’ll tell you himself, Barney is Ted’s best friend, and he already broke the Bro Code once before, almost losing BFF Ted and ruining their relationship forever. Barney knew it was a mistake, but failed then because of many reasons and special circumstances we all know already, but he’s not going to do anything to “hurt” Ted anymore, and while he’s certainly not going to gonna refrain himself from joking about it, he won’t cross the line.
It actually made sense to me, and let’s face it : did we want to see Barney have sex with Ted’s sister and Ted get pissed and all that crap, or did we just want to get the jokes, starting with some reinvented Christmas/Hanukkah songs:
To the tune of Jingle Bells :
Pulling down her pants, yanking off my own
Underneath the mistletoe, I’ll make your sister moan!
Oh, Heather’s hot, Heather’s hot, we’ll go all the way…
To the tune of We Wish You A Merry Christmas :
I wish I could see her naked
I wish I could see her naked
I wish I could see her naked
And down on all fours
To the tune of The Dreydl Song :
Ted has a little sister, gets hotter every day
And if I ever meet her, with her boobies I will play
Sister sister sister…
And that wasn’t all, Barney also got himself a swivel chair (”No one touch the chair, it’s a rental!“) to make one Hell of an entry, whispered to Ted’s sister what Ted really meant at dinner, or slowly slowly very slowly pretended to walk away so that Ted could stop him… I’ll admit that there wasn’t as much Barney as one could dream of, but as per the character it was all awesome, I loved it, and it’s not like the episode suffered from it.
Because Ted and Lilly’s inability to keep a secret was probably not as good as it could have been, just like the way they ended the story between Ted and his sister had nothing special, but the real meat of the episode was about Marshall and Robin, and that was simply legen… wait for it… dary!
Oh yeah, I enjoyed it so much! So many things I loved there, from Robin’s love of “real men” (and not those NY men who are all 10% girl) to her (and hers only) burgers (and she did ate them all, didn’t she?), to her faking her way into Marshall’s bar, making fun of Canadians and passing his stories as hers (by the way I thought it was extremely fitting that even then “her” father would call her “son” since, as well as know, he really wanted a boy…) to Marshall outing her Canadian roots like that. Plus, every time she uses her Canadian accent it just makes me smile, I just loved her “I’m glad you found out” !
And just how great was there trip at Hoser hut, welcome with some Crash Test Dummies of course, classic. And yes, when you bump into someone there, he is the one apologizing for it, and offers you a donut! Just awesome, and soon enough even Marshall was pulling out the Canadian accent! …before turning off the lights, and that’s really not good of course, as Canadians actually are, really afraid of the dark!
No seriously, what was not to love? And I know many of you probably all saw it coming, I should have, but I didn’t. Even when Marshall told Robin she’ll recognize the song he was gonna sung, I failed to put one and one together. But as soon as I heard him singing, I was laughing out loud and applauding right there in front on my screen! What a brilliant way to work a little Let’s Go To The Mall back into the show!
Maybe this wasn’t your typical HIMYM episode filled with flashbacks, flash-forwards and other devices they’re so fund of, but the main plot (Canada day) worked more than fine, Barney was awesome, so all in all it was a great episode, very well written, hilarious all the way and a really enjoyable half an hour. Another perfect way to end the year in my opinion.
And if yo don’t want to end it here just yet, two things :
1. Go read Barney’s blog to find his letter to Santa. Like the man, it’s just awesome. A little preview to get you laughing already: “And bro, if you have a sec, wake me up — I’d really like to talk to you about how you sneak out of so many women’s houses undetected. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
2. Sing along! You got your Christmas songs earlier on this post, and of course everyone knows the words of Robin’s hit!
That’s me — what did everybody else thought ? Did you love the episode as much as I did ? Share your thoughts and favorite quote in the comments below…
Posted in Reviews
Shows: How I Met Your Mother
ha ha those last ones are the best: Ted’s sister, for everyone to dress better
aw, “dad”
ha ha that’s so cool Forgetting Sarah Marshall on dvd, that was my favorite comedy of the year
and yes this was one of the best, most memorable, and one of my favorite episodes ever.
One thing that i’ve noticed recently is that one of the things that makes HIMYM great is that it has a lot of really memorable and iconic episodes “The Slutty Pumpkin”, “The Duel”, “Slap-Bet” tell any hardcore HIMYM fan these and they know what you’re talking about. Other shows don’t have the episode recognition that HIMYM has, by the way i am eagerly awaiting “The Goat” hope it doesn’t disappoint.
ha ha check out this trailer with Jason Segel.
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/12/16/must-watch-paul-rudds-i-love-you-man-trailer/
“Don’t ever get into a fight with Uncle Marshall.”
if HIMYM must have their cameos they should get some of these guys. Lou Ferrigno would be Legendary
hehe… yeah, even in his letter to Santa Barney is freaking awesome!
You’re right, this show does have such memorable episodes like no other show does, and I too cannot wait to add The Goat to that list!
PS: Thanks for that trailer, looks really fun! And clearly, Uncle Marshall is indeed crazy… ;)
When Robin put the mask on in the last scene, I just couldn’t stop laughing… Great episode!
Yeah, how funny that everyone remembered the song and the lyrics, but no one managed to recognize the one and only Robin Sparkles right there among them!