Episode 10 - The Yips
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Ted suggests that they all join the gym and for a week they do. Barney meets Rhonda there, the woman he lost his virginity to. She says his brother bribed her to do it. Barney loses the confidence he gained from her in the first place and develops the yips. He becomes incapable of hitting on women. The Good: The gym plot is fun and frivolous. They make some nice jokes which fit the characters and compliment Barney’s story nicely. Marshall’s frustration at being bullied is funny as is Lily’s attempt at retaliation (see Comic Highlight). Marshall’s delivery is very good as he manages to be sympathetic and funny while basically just whining. Robin takes the gym most seriously and Ted chickens out leading to some nice jokes with them mocking each other. Barney’s plot is interesting and full of jokes you may enjoy. It’s nice to explore the origins of his behaviour and both Rhonda and his brother play their parts well. Heidi Klum is usually decent at light comedy (see Spin City) and makes a nice cameo here. The Bad: But the yips part of Barney’s story is written in a very crass, basic way. There is no subtlety or reality to the way Barney starts to hit on women. He just mumbles and blurts out inappropriate lines in a way a normal person never would. It’s really lazy writing because they chose the most childish way possible for him to act and it just isn’t funny. Comic Highlight: Lily gets stretched out by a male trainer as retaliation for Marshall being trained by a woman. When he asks her about him later, Lily says “turns out that guy had no affiliation with the gym whatsoever.” How I rate your episode: A very simple episode. Barney gets the yips, Barney goes back to normal, the others make gym jokes. It’s no bad thing to have a nice simple story to follow. But the main comedy of the episode is very poor. It wouldn’t have taken much to write Barney’s yips in a more sophisticated way but they did not. It mars what was otherwise a nice episode.
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