History HIMYM / TropesSeasonFour

* CanadaEh: Super-drunk Robin in "Intervention," and the bar Marshall and Robin go to in "Little Minnesota".

* BalloonBelly: Lily, after a hot-dog eating contest in "The Possimpible", which was also a subversion of HideYourPregnancy.

* HomoeroticDream: In "The Three Days Rule", Ted lies and tells Barney and Marshall that he's had a gay dream about 'his best friend' in order to get back at them for playing a prank on him. In a hilarious twist on what often happens with these sort of plots (Barney and Marshall get freaked out and uncomfortable around Ted), the two of them end up competing about which one of them Ted had the dream about.
--> '''Marshall:''' Ted and I have a history! I could do things to him that would blow his m... ...Why do we keep trying to have sex with Ted?
--> '''Barney:''' I don't know; it's weird.

** In "Do I Know You?", Barney explains that, the later at night it gets, the more concise his booty-call conversations become, culminating in him sending the text message "?" to a woman at 3 a.m., to which she replies "!" This is an allusion to an [[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/14/exclamation/ apocryphal story]] about Creator/VictorHugo, who is claimed to have sent a telegraph message "?" (meaning "How is ''Literature/LesMiserables'' selling?") to his publisher, who responded with "!" (it is selling very well).

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Barney teaching Marshall on how to lie when they have to lie to Ted about him being laid off. As an example lie, Barney tells Marshall that he has a horse named Dandelion, and then distracts from the issue by making up a long story about how she was dying of an unusual condition causing her to change colour. Marshall eventually understands that it's a lie: "Ohh, I see what you did there. Dandelion isn't even sick, is she?"
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: The same example as the Cloudcuckoolander example above.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Barney, though most likely intentionally when explaining the 3 day wait on calling women: "Jesus actually started it. He could have rose from the dead on Saturday, but he waited until Sunday when everyone was in church, came in, and ran down the aisle giving everyone high fives. True story."

* EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: In a later episode Ted's response to running into Stella is rated on a scale from "crying about still sleeping with her sweater" to "introducing her to his new girlfriend who looks just like her, but is also French and has huge cans".

* FanService: Ted and Barney strip down for the ladies (and some men) in the episode, "The Naked Man."

* HideYourPregnancy: This happened with both Lily and Robin in Season 4, as both Cobie Smulders and Alysson Hannigan were pregnant. It was easier for Robin, given how tall she is. Amid the usual standing behind stuff/large purses and only filming from the chest up options, the show also employed more creative solutions like Lily winning a hot-dog eating contest. Lampshaded late in the season with both Lily:

** "Shelter Island": [[spoiler: Stella leaves Ted at the altar of their wedding and hooks up with her ex.]]

* YouFailHistoryForever: Barney, though most likely intentionally when explaining the 3 day wait on calling women: "Jesus actually started it. He could have rose from the dead on Saturday, but he waited until Sunday when everyone was in church, came in, and ran down the aisle giving everyone high fives. True story."

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After spending perhaps his most turbulent season, Ted ultimately decided to listen to what life itself seems to be telling him, and according to him, it ended up great. The [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome music playing]] in that scene is also glorious and appropriate.

* TherapyIsForTheWeak: Barney maintains this throughout "Benefits" while denying that he has problems. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Then he goes to Lily's class...]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Barney was getting hit by this pretty hard before he and Robin got to do the "They Do" in their case of WillTheyOrWontThey. While the show normally loves to play with how "awesome" Barney is, in more recent episodes before he hooked up with Robin, it was heavily implied that he was becoming pathetic due to his lifestyle. Barney was in denial when his therapist told him that his womanizing ways was due to how emotionally unbalanced he was. We learn that Barney wanted to grow up to be the womanizer because in his childhood an older kid at school was bragging about how many hot chicks he had sex with. Barney met up with that student, who is now a grown man, and told him that he lied about his sexual escapades because he was just a kid. That former classmate grown up to be a HappilyMarried man with children who bids Barney farewell, and basically YouSuck was greatly implied towards Barney.

* FallbackMarriagePact: Provides the page quote. According to UrbanDictionary, the kids these days are calling it a "Ted & Robin Pact".

* ShownTheirWork: When Ted is showing ''StarWars'' to Stella in order to see if they are compatible as a couple, he begins to explain the history and background of the film. [[ANewHope The original film]] was based in large part on Creator/AkiraKurosawa's ''Film/TheHiddenFortress'', just as Ted explains.

-->'''Lily:''' Wait, when you watch TheKarateKid you actually root for that mean blond boy?

* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: In "Mosbius Designs," Marshall and Barney see an actual ninja prowling through the offices of Altrucel. Barney is ''terrified.''
-->'''Barney:''' We should go. This has happened before.

-->'''Lily:''' Wait, when you watch TheKarateKid you actually root for that [[BlondesAreEvil mean blond boy?]]

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