FCC rules make Ted's selective self-censorship just bizarre. You can't say certain words, and everybody "eats sandwiches" instead of smokin' the Ganj. But of course they have no problems with explicitly discussing sex, whether it's casual sex with strangers or all the times Aunt Robin or Aunt Lily got a good pounding. But when it's the noisy upstairs neighbors, it's "playing the bagpipes".
edited 3rd Oct '14 11:51:58 AM by Lawyerdude
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.Yeah, I mean, I get why it was done, it's just Ted calling himself out on it in Murtaugh in particular was particularly nonsensical, and drawing attention to that doesn't help.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.Slap Bet is what came to my mind, too. It started not one but two of the show's most beloved running gags. And as a bonus, more Barney getting hurt!
Speaking of which, as an aside, my favorite slap was the second one. It was the only one (I think) that had no build up or prep at all. It just came out of nowhere.
In regards to the current conversation, maybe people are just really open about sex in the 2030s? I dunno. There are other things about the series that are more jarring. That one can just be handwaved when remembering the Doylist perspective.
And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.![]()
It can just be an individual sort of thing no different than it is today about some who openly discuss things and others who don't.
Sometimes inconsistency is perfectly consistent. Characters are prone to some hypocritical behavior. Future!Ted even acknowledged a few times that his stories got inappropriate and it makes sense he would dial back on some other things.
"Slap Bet" and "Drumroll, Please" are typically labeled as the Growing the Beard moment. Funny enough, one of the episodes I really dislike was one of the first I saw, "Robots vs. Wrestlers" in syndication on like the FX channel. The characters act like douchebags and had the gall to call the people at the party they crashed douchebags.
I'm not sure what the best episode is, but I'd say the funniest would be "Subway Wars". 'Course, I think Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is the funniest movie of all time, so TV episodes that follow the "everyone's racing for the finish line" plot tend to score pretty high with me.
Oh my gosh, I forgot about "Drumroll, Please". I mean, I kind of watched the first 3 1/2 seasons out of order and watched it live near the end of Season 4 so I missed a lot until I tried to marathon it right before the finale. And because of that, I didn't really understand the fuss about how great Victoria was. But rewatching it, I was like "oh my gosh, this is the cutest thing ever, I could definitely see her as the mom in the event of cancellation".
Yep, what they did with Victoria was what gave me confidence that, when it came time to finally introduce the Mother, they'd totally pull it off. And I was right!
Granted, I think "Drumroll, Please" was better than any of the Mother's episodes, even "How Your Mother Met Me", but it's better than 99% of HIMYM episodes.
"Drumroll, Please" usually ranks among the best episodes of the series, it's not just setting the show up for better stuff to come along. So yes, any later episode is likely to fall short.
When it first aired I said the only flaw of "How Your Mother Met Me" was that it covers a lot in one episode. While still very well paced, it could have been a two-parter and no one would complain because there was plenty of plot.

The one thing I really didn't like in "Murtaugh" was Ted's censoring. The way he stumbled upon himself to cover up that the line is "I'm too old for this shit" was just really unrealistic, as though the idea of his teenaged children knowing a fictional character swore was horribly insulting.
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