How I Met Your Mother - "Little Minnesota" - Episode 411

Hey, everyone. Tanya asked me to step in for this week's recap of 'How I Met Your Mother', and to be honest, I've never seen the show before in my life. I love Doogie, and Jason Segel's pretty damn funny in all the Apatow movies he shows up in, but besides that, I'm a total virgin. I'll do my best with it, but please - go easy on me in the comments. My only excuse is that I'm young(ish) and I need the money. More How I Met Your Mother after the jump...

 

Why is it that so many sitcoms start off with the main castmembers sitting around a table in a restaurant or bar? I call it Happy Days Syndrome. Anyway, Ted's sister Heather is coming to NYC for a visit, and has decided that she's going to move there for good. This news is tremendously well-received by Barney, who has been pining for Heather for years now. When I say 'pining', of course you know I mean 'making up dirty Christmas carols about her whenever her holiday card shows up.' Hey, any excuse to get Neil Patrick Harris singing is perfectly okay with me.

 

 

Ted does his best to keep the news of Heather's visit a secret from horndog Barney, but thanks to loudmouth Lily who can't keep a secret during the holidays to save her life, that plan falls completely down the crapper. Ted makes a very Bond-villain entrance in a rented swivel chair at Ted's apartment (the snifter of whiskey and raised eyebrow were both excellent touches), and he assures Ted that he's only been joking about Heather for all these years. He invites himself to dinner alongside Ted, Lily, and Heather, and even goes so far as to offer Heather a job at the bank he works at.

 

Meanwhile, Marshall and Robin wander the city together, and eventually end up at Marshall's favorite bar, a place where the Minnesota Vikings are worshipped as gods and anyone who isn't from the North Star state gets tossed out on their ass. Literally. "It's strangely comforting being carried like this." It certainly is. Robin takes to the bar quickly, and even steals a Vikings story from Marshall to get herself in with the locals. Marshall doesn't take too kindly to this, so in a jealous, macho rage, he outs Robin as a Canadian and gets her kicked out.

 

Lily offers to keep an eye on Heather for the sake of Ted's sanity. On a flashback visit to Marshall, Lily finds Barney and Heather half-naked in Barney's office, and she doubts Ted is going to be too pleased. Barney and Heather make Lily swear not to tell, so of course, she does, and almost immediately. Ted confronts Barney and Heather about it, and the two of them confess that nothing ever really happened at all. The two of them were a little upset that control freak Ted never trusted them, so they set the whole scenario up to get back at him. To make up for it, Ted buys Heather the briefcase she was eyeing in the storefront window (you know, the one she managed not to steal), and to boot, he co-signs the lease on her new NYC apartment.

 

To make up for his jerkiness at the Vikings bar, Marshall takes Robin to the Hoser Hut, a local Canadian karaoke bar where the Canadian invention of Trivial Pursuit is honored, stories of strip bars that serve alcohol are passed around as legend, and doughnuts are handed out for free under framed photos of Paul Scheiffer. He really goes for Robin's sympathy vote by belting out a horrible/sweet rendition of "Let's All Go To The Mall", and with that, all is well in sitcom land. Hurray!

 

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS - 

 

I didn't know Jason Segel was even on this show. Is this where he got his start, or did he make the jump after all the Apatow success? Also, was that Bob Saget doing the voiceover?

 

Not that I'm surprised, but Neil Patrick Harris is the funniest part of this show by a long shot. His explanation of Ted's thoughts to Heather as he waffled on whether or not to her lease was hilarious. 'DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH!'

 

It is my firm observation that Minnesota sucks (hey, I have a two hour layover in their airport under my belt to back me up), but if that is their idea of 'mini-burgers', I may have to re-think my stance. 

 

For the record, I have nothing against Canada. Nothing except Crash Test Dummies, of course. Noooooo, noooooo, noooooo, nooooo.

 

I hope that will suffice, folks. Not only do I have no idea how to recap sitcoms, but apparently I'm also not too hot at recapping shows that don't involve smoke monsters, immunity challenges, or mad scientists. Thanks, Tanya!

 

-littlebigmouth.