Is How I Met Your Mother funny?

Cafe Society
41

If you don’t think “Slap Bet” is one of the funniest 22 minutes of TV ever written in the last ten years, then I just don’t know what to say to you.

That being said, the comments about continuity, call-backs, etc… are so true. Season two was probably the best about this. The rest in spoilers.

[spoiler]
In the ep. where Wayne Brady first guest stars, we learn about “single stamina,” and how couples always want to sit down, and go home early…well, at the end, at Wayne’s wedding, Lily and Marshall leave, but Ted and Robin say they’re going to stay. I missed it the first time i watched, as I imagine most people did, because we don’t find out until several episodes later that they are broken up, and thus single, at that point.

There’s also the penultimate ep. of the season with Ted and Robin walking into the apartment a mess, and not explained until the last bits of the next ep, though that’s not quite the same since it’s essentially a two-part episode about Marshal and Lily’s wedding.

But there’s also the penny that Ted finds in one episode, nothing major, big deal Ted’s the kind of guy who gets excited about an old penny…that finally pays off later in the episode where Ted has to determine who is at fault for him missing a plane.\

And we’re still waiting on that fifth slap…[/spoiler]

It might have been someone on the boards that made the comment that HIMYM is, in the 2000’s/2010’s, to people currently in their early 20’s to mid 30’s, what “Friends” was to the same age group of people in the 90’s. It just hits home for us, because we’re in the same boat as the characters we’re watching.

And I disagree with the comments about Ted/Josh not being likeable…he does the best with what he has. It’s hard being the straight man, especially when every other character can be so over the top. But I think Ted is written really well most of the time…he has shown many times that he is quite capable of being like Barney or Marshall for short periods of time…usually when drunk, but not always. And sometimes he has been the “wacky best friend” to their “straight man.” (The roadtrip to Chicago for pizza comes to mind, as does Ted saying to Hell with the Murtaugh list and getting old, and deciding to TP laser tag.)

42

Wow, even after seeing that episode many times, I don’t think I ever caught that.

43

I especially liked that the titular pineapple didn’t get explained until the Russian remake.

44

It is a show that, maybe due to scheduling, I have never “watched” but every one of the dozen or so episodes I have seen, spread over years, has been very funny.

45

It’s what I call “restful” entertainment. It’ll make you think a bit, but it’s never super challenging (unlike say “House”) and won’t leave you on edge. I laugh, I sympathize, I actually care about the characters.

Very well done IMHO and I emjoy it.

46

One of my favorite bits of continuity is how we see Ted getting ready for a date in “The Platinum Rule” but don’t actually see the date until “Ten Sessions”. Actually, both of these episodes are great examples of the types of episodes this show does that no other show will do given how they are structured.

47

“Ted” is lame for a reason: He’s the one telling the story to his kids.He’s going to pull some punches when it comes to how he was back in the day.
It does surprise me that he tells so many stories to his teenage kids about the chicks he banged. The three-way epsiode was especially far-fetched in regard to a story you’d tell your kids.

48

Never seen the show. What is the premise? Are there flashbacks, and if so how much of the show is typically a flashback? Do they jump around in time, or does it just flashback to the same rough time period? Is it really about how some guy met his wife “back in the day”?

49

The whole premise is about a guy telling his kids a ridiculously long story about meeting their mother. By ridiculously long, I mean he’s gone back at least 6 years before actually meeting her. But that’s just the premise, it’s not really that important to the story. There are flashback (and even flashforwards), but not that much more than an average sitcom. Otherwise time flows like a normal show would. Some of the flashbacks are from the actual characters, like in a normal sitcom. Other times it’s Ted (the, “I” in How I Met Your Mother) going off on tangents, or even forgetting what happened when (including an entire substory that didn’t happen until the next year). There’s lots of little jokes that wouldn’t really work in another show without the over framework, like everyone calling a girl “Blah-blah” because Ted (the one telling the story) can’t remember her name.

50

Which is one of the really skeevy parts of the premise. Ted is making his kids watch an extended review of every woman he slept with before he met their mother. Including an entire season (or almost) of their “Aunt Robin” and he being fuck-buddies after their relationships had ended.

51

The unreliable narrator bit is one of the funniest aspects of the show. Just look at how many “sandwiches” appear in every memory of Ted and Marshall’s college days.

52

Wikipedia says the show is set in the year 2030. Do they actually try and project what living in that time will be like, or are they just sitting around talking in that time period?

53

Neither. It is just Ted talking, and we only see his 2 kids on the couch while he narrates a bit before entering the main part of the episode(set in 2005-2011 so far with flashbacks to childhood, college etc).

Sometimes the kids get lines at the beginning, end, or (very rarely) interspersed in the episode, sometimes they watch with varying levels of interest. The kids have obviously grown IRL so I think it is mostly stock footage of them now. The creators do say they have shot the end already, which is essential to me staying interested. 2011 and no mom in sight? 2030 with two late-teens? Running out of time here!

54

Can’t edit on this iPod in time: meant to add that the kids/ their mom are not always important. As an audience we know the 5 main characters, some great supporting cast and some guest stars, all of whom live in past-times. Sometimes the kids matter more (it is shown what they would have looked like had Ted ended up with a different woman: new kids, same living room in a brief fake 2030 with the not mom which I liked). Sometimes we get small specific clues- or huge ones- about the mom during the storytelling. Often it is just “kids, the story of Halloween 2007 was one…” blah blah blah and then a 21 of the 22 minutes are in the past. Confusing to try to type out, but a joy to follow along from the beginning. Lots of great nods to earlier episodes, subtle but hilarious(one: Marshall is great at games!).

55

Just to add to what Tess said, every so often they flash forward to Future Ted’s time (sometimes even after). Usually it’ll be a short clip at the end, and a pretty jokey one, like Marshall carving a turkey with a lightsaber or Ted talking to Marshall using holograms. But I would say 95% of the show is set in present times.

I think that’s probably one of my favorite gags in the entire show. Especially how mad he gets at losing Hungry Hungry Hippos because of the slanted floor, and when Lily imagines themselves playing bridge in future, even though they have no idea how to play it (bridges are wild), Marshall still wins.

56

HIMYM is indeed funny. NPH makes the show, but the other characters are all fairly well developed and you do find yourself caring about them. There’s laugh out-loud humor and also more subtle stuff. I particularly like the continuity in the stories, the running gags, and, of course, the occasional clues about who will turn out to be the mother. This series is just one of those shows that combine great writing with a cast that executes perfectly.

57

Thanks for the info. I may give it a try, but not sure I can stand to see NPH after all those atrocious COMCAST ads he’s done…

58

Not to mention the bit when Ted’s ex-girlfriend shows up with her slightly older boyfriend – whom Ted cheerfully remembers as if the guy was pushing eighty, because, hey, he’s telling the story and that’s how he wants it (and never mind that the septuagenarian of course spends the rest of the episode referring to, y’know, surfin’ and the 'rents).

59

Somebody said the word “Bagpipe” yesterday, and I laughed until I snorted. I laughed until I was emabrassed that I couldn’t stop laughing. That word will never be the same again. If anybody ever actually says “Bagpiping” I will probably collapse a lung.

So I came back to say: Yes, the show is funny.

60

The beauty of the unreliable narrator and the story being set so far in the future, is that it set them up to do silly things like make Barney such an absurd cliche in so many ways, but then imply later that it may just be the imperfect way Ted remembers some of it, by having Barney be far more human and touching than such a character would actually be in reality.

The writing’s really clever- they always set the characters up to be more or less not what you’d expect- I particularly love the way that Marshall is so devoted to Lily, and in some ways, so much the opposite of Barney and Ted, and yet when the chips are down, he’s the most mature and the most masculine of the bunch, and doesn’t take shit from either of them, and is frequently the character most willing to set the others straight when they’re not doing as they should.