The gang follows Barney after he leaves the bar, thinking he has a girlfriend, but find out he's been lying to his mother about having a wife and son by hiring actors.
This episode provides examples of:
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Barney gave a Take That! at the Tony Awards (specifically claiming that Margaret was screwed out of winning a Tony) despite Neil Patrick Harris hosting that event numerous times.
- Casting Couch: The mother of a child up for the part of Barney's son slept with him, with the understanding that her son would be selected. Naturally, Barney had no intention of making good on the deal.
- Catchphrase: Grant, the actor who Barney's fake son Tyler, has one much to his "father's" (and "grandmother", as later revealed) annoyance.
- Character Development: Once again, Robin is shown getting along better with children, this time because she can relate to Grant's pressure on being a child actor struggling with his job.
- Character Title: Discussed along with Barney's Rooting for the Empire. He believes and insists that most of the films were a case of Protagonist Title (specifically Die Hard and The Terminator) instead of the other way around.
- Continuity Nod: Barney mentions Bob Barker being his father, something he first claimed in Season 2.
- Continuity Snarl: During a Season 3 episode, Loretta's name was stated to be Patty. Then again, her friend who called her that is prone to Accidental Misnaming.
- Dirty Old Woman: Though she's moved on from her days as "a bit of a whore", Loretta clearly remembers those days fondly, and intensely.
- Establishing Character Moment: The episode establishes Barney's strong Rooting for the Empire tendencies, as well as Lily and Judy's (Marshall's mother) strained relationship.
- Family Title: Although Barney and Loretta are the only actual Stinsons.
- Generation Xerox: Loretta Really Gets Around in her youth, much like Barney is today. Also, Barney and his fake son both have the hots for Robin.
- Irony: Barney, king of the Catchphrase, insists Tyler is not getting a catchphrase.
- He Really Can Act: In-Universe example. Barney's (and Robin's) reaction when he saw his fake son pulling off a very dramatic performance.
- Improv: Barney's fake wife is an actress who specializes on this, and she encourages Ted to try his hand at improvising.
- Kidanova: Grant is a Casanova Wannabe for Robin.
- Like Father, Like Son: See Really Gets Around below.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Barney's fake wife and Ted. Obviously, it's Not What It Looks Like.
- Momma's Boy: The gang is shocked to learn that Barney has a healthy relationship with his mom, to the point he calls her daily, and even bothered to hire actors to pretend to be his perfect family.
- Near-Death Experience: The reason Barney resorted into hiring actors to pose as his "fake family" is because Loretta was in a near death condition a couple of years back, and her dying wish was to see Barney be a family man.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Played for Laughs: Because of Betty's "slight tendency to go off-book", Barney had to pretend he had a kid on top of pretending to be married.
- Not What It Looks Like: Ted is caught making out with Barney's fake wife; as far as Barney's mother is concerned, the situation is exactly what it looks like, but in reality it isn't.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Judy to Lily. Although not actually related, it was revealed that Loretta disliked Barney's fake wife (and kid).
- Phoney Call: While they are returning to the city, Lily is burying the hatchet with Marshall's mom. It turns out that she is speaking with Margaret and Ted, who are coaching her into how to act the whole conversation from the other taxi. Even after the slip up, Marshall is so touched that he doesn't notice it.
- Really Gets Around: Despite looking sweet and nice, Loretta admits to Lily and Marshall that she was a whore (in her own words). They are quite shocked when she gives details of the wildest sexcapades she had in her youth. Barney's mother, people!
- Rooting for the Empire: Discussed In-Universe, to the point that Barney thinks most of the villains are the Title Characters of their films.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode is a love letter to cartoon series with a Family Title. Barney names his wife Betty (real name Margaret) after Betty Rubble from The Flintstones, while the episode title itself is evocative of The Simpsons.
- Barney made an Actor Allusion to himself, saying that child actors were way better in The '80s note quickly followed by a Doogie Howser, M.D. note commercial break tune.
- Ted recalls having seen Betty act in Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards (he refers to the play by its original German title).
- Robin says that Barney's supposed girlfriend/wife must have come from Narnia to manage to make him a committed man.
- At the end of the episode where Barney is discussing how he's always Rooting for the Empire, he mentioned his love for the respective antagonists of the films The Karate Kid (as he already did earlier), Die Hard, The Breakfast Club and The Terminator.
- Squick: In-Universe, Barney is horrified when his mother recounts leaving him with a babysitter and spending three weeks being passed around by Grand Funk Railroad like a bong.
- Take That!: Barney made a Biting-the-Hand Humor (see above) against the Tony's. He also mocked Ted on what he is like in a relationship at the middle of the episode.
- Third-Person Person: Barney's fake son delivers his Catchphrase in this manner.Grant: Tyler no like-y!
- Throw It In!: In-universe: Barney originally was just pretending to be married to Betty to make his mom happy that he finally settled down. But then they had to add Tyler to the equation due to an ill-advised ad-lib:Barney: (with Betty; visiting him mom at the hospital) You see, Mom? I found someone who makes me happy. As you wished.Loretta: That's wonderful. I just wish I could've stuck around long enough for grandchildren.Betty: ...I'm pregnant!
- Ted, with Margaret's advice, takes it over the top to ad-lib a reason why Barney betrayed him first, on the overnight train to Monte Carlo, sleeping with Ted's blind fiancée in 1998.
- Too Much Information: As Marshall puts it, Loretta told him and Lily her "slightly too graphic" backstory. At the end of the episode, she even told Barney that "she was passed around like a ball" during her groupie days.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The gang's reaction upon seeing Barney's fake family before he let them know the real scenario of the situation.
- You Look Familiar: Zachary Gordon, who plays Barney's fake son Tyler, also played Ted's nephew in Season 2.
