Episode 9 - Slapsgiving
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: It’s Lily and Marshall’s first thanksgiving as a married couple. Lily wants to make it special and start a new tradition. Marshall reminds Barney that for him it will be slapsgiving because his slap countdown will occur on the day. Robin invites her older boyfriend Bob to thanksgiving which causes friction with Ted. He and Robin sleep together but the resulting arguments lead them to believe they can’t be friends anymore.
The Good: It’s good that the issue of Robin and Ted’s friendship is addressed. Having been a couple for a year, staying friends was bound to be difficult. It’s also good that the slap bet has been kept in the show, as it can be funny and rewards long term viewers.
The Bad: Unfortunately both stories are extremely poor.
The Robin and Ted story is very badly written and the acting is not much better. We already know that Robin becomes Aunt Robin in the future (304), so there is no real sense that this might be the end of their friendship.
The biggest problem seems to be that Ted and Robin have no chemistry whatsoever. The scenes between them are awkward to watch and not just because of the writing. They look like two people who were never together. When they end up kissing it seems contrived as there didn’t appear to be any tension or attraction in their behaviour.
The way their awkward conversations are written is unconvincing. Robin acts awkward in a very blunt way and Ted’s anger seems forced. You would imagine they could have talked about work or their mutual friends or any number of dull subjects. Instead we get very fake sounding dialogue which makes their scenes a pain to see. The worst example of this is Ted reeling off jokes about Bob being old. Why does Robin let him go on saying them? No one in real life would make a string of jokes like that in the middle of an argument. It’s so obvious that Ted is bitter about seeing her with someone else and they hit us over the head with the old jokes which aren’t clever or funny.
Then as soon as they have agreed to not be friends, they resolve the story. Their shared military pun making them realise their friendship still exists seems like a flippant resolution. They should have known that their friendship was going to continue on because of the group dynamic or maybe just because they care about each other.
It was an important story to tell but I can’t imagine a less real or less convincing way to tell it.
The whole slapsgiving story falls flat as well. Marshall being incessantly mean to Barney without much good reason seems odd. Even though we know Barney is annoying and mean, he gets scared and upset here and it isn’t a reaction which makes you want to see him get slapped. Like Ted’s stand up routine we get Marshall making slap jokes over and over again. It’s repetitive in a bad way because they don’t get funnier as he goes on.
When he finally does slap him, it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. So Marshall jumps into a song which is ludicrous. Singing a song about slapping just makes the whole show seem fake and silly. The writers appear to be revelling in their “funny” concept. Problem is it isn’t.
Finally Bob being played by a senior citizen isn’t funny the way they wanted it to be. They got an old man who looks the part but they try to milk the joke too hard and they ruin it. By having him say words like bliss, rad and bitches it makes it seem like Robin is dating a teenager. If he had just acted like a normal young person the joke would have been more subtle. But instead he spews forth one cliché after another.
Comic Highlight: Barney dressed as Borat for a few seconds.
How I rate your episode: The writers and actors have forgotten what Ted and Robin were like as a couple. They have also forgotten that fake awkwardness doesn’t come across well on TV. Throw in all the terrible jokes and this is one of the worst episodes the show has produced.
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