HIMYMYABTT

That stands for How I Met Your Mother You Are Better Than This.

A while back I had a conversation with someone not imaginary (this isn't a standup bit) about the best shows on TV and they picked HIMYM for best comedy. I said I could respect the decision but couldn't agree because the show falls back on sitcom conventions a lot and while it does them well I like a show like Community that tries off-the-wall things and uses conventions to misdirect. But this post isn't about how great Community is, it's about how terrible this past episode of HIMYM was and how the show is capable of better.

The episode was a post-Halloween one and the plots were all trite and dumb. Examine:

- Marshall fires a coworker and has an attack of conscience. The guy wanted to be fired for the severance so Marshall when hires him back and he purposely tries to get fired.
THE TRITE: This is pretty standard for a sensitive-male character on a sitcom. Also the guy getting fired and wanting to be fired so he does his job poorly is pretty well worn territory too.
THE DUMB: First any attack of conscience Marshall had should've been gone when he found out Randy wanted to be fired. It takes bizarre sitcom logic to decide that hiring someone back who wanted to be fired is a moral highpoint. Second, no one can make you take a job back. Once he was fired Randy could've just walked. And lastly a person actively trying to get fired and doing so much wrong can be fired for cause. A standard clause in any job is that if you are fired for cause you are not entitled to benefits. This is a storyline that only works in a sitcom universe that ignores real world logic.

- Ted is popular with his students and is the "cool teacher." This all changes when the girl who is protesting the building he designing for GNB joins his class and turns his class against him.
THE TRITE: Someone from outside a character's job invading his job life and wrapping personal issue up in the professional life is basic sitcom storyline #8.
THE DUMB: This storyline bothered me like crazy. Ted can be really hard to like at times but this was a time when I hated him. Being the cool teacher who's friends with all his students is not a good thing. The only people who like those kinds of teachers are idiots. As a professor you don't want your student's friendship, you want their respect. This is obvious to anyone who has ever taught and the more you try to be a friend the less respect you will get. I'm not saying you have to be mean and humorless. Students respect human beings so be human but playing hackysack and grabbing beers with your students is the dumbest thing ever and doesn't make him sympathetic. I can't believe it took the whole episode for him to come even close to this realization and tell his students to stop behaving like petulant brats. Also the protest is dumb and the argument against it isn't "boo-freaking-hoo," it's "if no buildings ever got torn down because they were old then no buildings would ever get built." It's New York and old buildings are everywhere. If one is run down and falling apart ripping it down isn't a disgrace, it's a good idea and progress.

- Robin is feeling jealous of the attention her co-anchor is getting for a commercial she did and because she's cute. Robin goes out and shoots an embarrassing commercial for adult diapers.
THE TRITE: Embarrassing commercials are pretty standard and adult diapers is a pretty easy target.
THE DUMB: This commercial would never exist. It is beyond stupid even in a sitcom world. Also compromising like this makes it seem like Robin's professionalism is a mask and that she really wants attention. I can understand her feeling a little miffed at all the attention Becky receives but I can't understand her deciding the best thing to do is sell-out her ideals and do a commercial just like Becky did.

All of this stuff is annoying and made for a crappy episode even if some moments were amusing. What really pushed it over the top was the guys and their after Halloween ritual of standing on the stoop mocking the people doing costumed walk-of-shames in the morning. I don't have a problem with this as a premise in itself but the problem was the execution. The guys stand on the stoop and mock women for hooking up with people the night before. The jokes are all costume based but it comes across as incredibly misogynistic. Mocking guys in the same way should've been no problem and Lily could've joined in too just for some balance on the other side as well. It seems especially misogynistic for Barney to be out there doing it when he is guilty of hooking up with random girls all the time. It really made me hate all of the guys on the show.

The point is HIMYM can be a really good show at times and the writing is clever. This was not their finest moment; it may have been their worst. There was little to no purpose to anything in the episode at all and the morning-after slut-shaming scene is one of the worst things I've seen on TV in a while. Keep in mind I watch like four TV shows. I'm sure there are people on reality TV that are doing worse things as I type this.