Barney aims to prove Ted wrong when he discovers Ted's been keeping a list of things he's supposedly too old to do by doing everything on the list within 24 hours. Meanwhile, Lily is horrified to discover that Marshall has been aggressively coaching a peewee basketball team.
This episode provides examples of:
- Both Sides Have a Point: Each plot uses this trope.
- A lot of the items on the Murtaugh list are irresponsible for an adult to do, but Barney and Robin are right that Ted is still too young to worry so much about it.
- Marshall makes the case (in Sarcasm Mode) that not teaching kids to follow the rules and giving them rewards just for participating isn't setting them up for life in the real world. On the other hand, he's far too aggressive with his team of kindergarteners, and when the team loses, he accepts his participation trophy and says that it's nice to be recognized for his work. After his concession, Lily tells him his teaching style is stupid.
- Ear Ache: The first thing from the Murtaugh List Barney does is to pierce his own ear. It gets infected as time goes by, until it hurts so much he claims that he can hear it.
- Ear-Piercing Plot: Barney decides to do all the things in the Murtaugh list of things you're too old to do after thirty. The first thing he does is pierce his own ear, which gets badly infected over the course of the episode.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Future Ted notes how this only gets worse as one gets older. In a flashback to when he and Marshall were 23 and partied hard, they woke up the next day with no ill effects and couldn't wait for the next party. Then it shows when Ted tried partying just as hard at 30, he spent the next day on the couch alternating between vomiting in a waste basket he kept by his side and sipping on a sports drink.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: As Future Ted explains the Murtaugh List, we see a clip of Murtaugh saying "I'm too old for this-" and then Future Ted cuts the clip short and says "Stuff. He said 'I'm too old for this stuff.'" From then on, other characters say "I'm too old for this stuff".
- Shout-Out:
- The titular Murtaugh List is derived from Det. Murtaugh's catch phrase from the Lethal Weapon films.
- Marshall's retelling of the basketball game includes a teen wolf.
- After accepting the challenge, Barney directly quotes the Leeroy Jenkins Video.
Barney: All right, chumps, let's do this thing. BARNEY... STINSOOON! - Tastes Like Purple: After Barney's ear gets infected from piercing it himself, he complains that "I can hear my own ear!"
- Turn in Your Badge: Barney getting kicked out of laser tag parodies the "hand in your badge and gun" scene, complete with Barney begging because "this [job] is all I got".
- Unreliable Narrator: Future Ted begins the flashback to Marshall's game by explaining that he's just telling it the way Marshall told it to him, so the players probably weren't as tall as they appear and there likely wasn't a werewolf there.
