Episode 19 - Zoo or False
13 April 2010
Review
Synopsis: Marshall gets mugged in Central Park. He tells his friends that it was a man with a gun. Lily insists she wants a gun to feel safer. So Marshall claims he was actually mugged by a monkey. Robin wants to use that story on her show and Marshall suddenly changes his story again.
The Good: In terms of making a story out of nothing, this is actually pretty impressive. The writers put Marshall in a position where he has equally good reason to claim both version of his mugging were true. The way his friends believe him and then question him as his story unfolds all felt very true to life. And because Barney always tells ridiculous seduction stories it felt appropriate to address the issue of how many of the stories we are seeing are actually accurate.
In the end I liked that the story had no resolution. It made Marshall look like a good guy, he didn't want Lily to be scared or the monkey to be punished and so he kept his mouth shut. The silly ending where the monkey re-enacted the iconic scene from King Kong was a pleasant way to make use of Ted's model of the Empire State Building. Speaking of which I thought they got several good gags out of that prop (see Comic Highlight), including Ted just being his cheesy self when he says "I wanna be there for my friend Robin with a story...or rather 102 storeys because that's how tall a certain iconic New York landmark is."
I also enjoyed Marshall trying to justify his embarrassment by going into great detail on the antics of wild monkeys in other countries who often steal things. That was very fitting, both for his preservation minded character and for people caught in embarrassing situations. The montage of him injuring Lily was a nice touch, both because they used actual footage from the show's past and because he punched her in the face at Halloween which was pretty funny and unexpected. It was nice to see Barney getting caught out on his lies because the story of him getting a three way had no credibility.
The Bad: The Neil Armstrong lie was implausibly dumb. At least sometimes the writers make a big song and dance of Barney's lies to make them entertaining. But when they are this silly I just don't see any value in them. Every time Lily does her gruff "scary" voice she does the show's credibility no good.
I'm still against the premise of How I Met Your Mother's comedy. They take a funny idea like getting mugged by a monkey and then milk it so hard that it's not funny anymore with a couple of lines. This was very far from the worst example of that though.
Comic Highlight: Ted has constructed a model of the Empire State Building in his apartment. He is playing with two models on the very top and making them talk to one another. Robin walks in behind him and asks:
R: "Are you acting out the last scene from 'Sleepless in Seattle' with little dolls?"
T: "How long have you been out here?"
R: "Ten seconds."
T: "Yeah just the last scene."
A nice twist on the usual way that joke is done.
How I rate your episode: A nice departure from the traditional episode and one that made good use of Marshall. I give the producers credit for trying some different things now that it looks like the show is here to stay.
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