‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: Happy Post-Halloween Walk of Shame Parade

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The show celebrated Halloween a day late, but found a clever way to work in the holiday-less Nov. 1 date. After a Halloween party at Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Marshall’s (Jason Segel) office, they joined Ted (Josh Radnor) for their favorite Halloween tradition – the morning after Annual Post-Halloween Walk of Shame Parade. Every Nov. 1, the guys watch from their stoop as girls walk home still in costume from their one night stands. This year was extra special because they caught Robin (Cobie Smulders) walking in her “Florence Nightinbedwithastranger” costume, as Barney calls it. Robin led Lily (Alyson Hannigan) to believe she’d slept with Marshall and Barney’s co-worker Randy (Will Forte), but “where’s the poop?” made a return. Lily – no pun intended – sniffed out the truth. Jealous that her coworker Becky was becoming even more well-liked after doing a cheesy commercial, Robin did one for adult diapers.

“I’m going to the bathroom right now,” went the ad. “Say, ‘Ahhhhh.’” If it wasn’t for Smulders, I’m sure the ad would have been more squicky than funny, but thanks to her delivery of the sweet release, I couldn’t help but laugh. Between this commercial, which Future Ted said ran for seven years, and Robin Sparkles, the show sure is building up quite a catalog of embarrassing media for Robin. While I’d love for her to get a great break, it’s quite fun to see Smulders so gamely go for shame.

While Randy didn’t get to sleep with Robin, he did get fired, which led him to realize he could use the severance pay to start his own beer brand – Wharmpess, as in his last name. (Check out the show’s mock ad for the beer below.) When Marshall hired him back, Randy did everything in his power to get fired. It wasn’t until Marshall tried his “delicious” beer that he finally fired him. “I care about making dreams come true,” said Marshall in GNB’s feel good video. Did the fake “I care” videos from GNB employees remind anyone else of the Veridian Dynamics ads on “Better Off Ted”? Oh right, only me and 10 other people watched that show. Anyway, Randy’s return was a nice bit of continuity, and Forte is certainly a great comedian, but the storyline kind of fell flat for me. Randy’s just not that interesting.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.
Ted, meanwhile, was finding his adoring class turning on him after Zoey (Jennifer Morrison) invaded his classroom. To get them to show up to class, Ted had to lay down the law and stop being their friend. If they didn’t attend class, they would get an F, he told them. Of course, they showed up for class, but the damage had been done. I think it may be for the best. Ted seemed way too close and too friendly with his class. That way leads to trouble. And speaking of trouble, Zoey sure caused a lot of it for Ted this week. It seems the show is going the purely antagonistic route with them, at least right now. That could definitely change as we learn more about Zoey, but at the moment, she’s enemy No. 1 for Ted, which is something different for him. I don’t think Ted’s had a real antagonist since Bryan Cranston played his boss in Season 2.

We also got some fun Halloween costumes, although we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the characters in costume. “The Slutty Pumpkin” was much more a Halloween episode. Barney’s enduring love for “The Karate Kid’s” bad guy Johnny Lawrence is totally a Barney move. That was also like the third reference to the movie this season. I think someone in the writers’ room is seriously rediscovering their love of the film. Lily and Marshall dressed as a matador and bull, respectively, which was in keeping with their fantastic couples costumes – Sonny and Cher, pirate and parrot – from “Slutty Pumpkin.” Ted, meanwhile, was a hot dog. Although dated, I kind of wish he’d gone as a hanging chad again.

Readers, did you like tonight’s costumes or the ones from the Season 1 classic “The Slutty Pumpkin” better? Were you hoping for more of a Halloween episode or did you like the post-Halloween angle? Do you enjoy seeing Ted have an enemy? And what did you think of tonight’s commercials?

— Vlada Gelman (follow my TV musings on Twitter at @stayingin)

Related:
‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: Little girls made of sugar and spice
‘How I Met Your Mother’: ‘A lot is going to change and get complicated,’ says co-creator Craig Thomas
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