How I Met Your Motheris remembered for a lot of things — not the least of which is one of themost disappointing series finales ever— but it charmed widespread audiences with its outrageous and time-bending humor for years and defined the careers of its stars, including the MCU’s Cobie Smulders. Smulders is one of thefive main cast members ofHow I Met Your Mother, playing Robin Scherbatsky, an aspiring reporter who has recently moved to New York when she is taken in by the rest of the group after a wild date gone wrong with Ted (Josh Radnor).
Robin is presented as the cool and collected member of the group in season 1 — but as she is more ingrained with them and the series searches for more avenues to comedy, she becomes just as crazy as any good sitcom character.More details about Robin’s past are revealed throughout the show,including her difficulties with her father and an unimaginable pre-reporter career. Around the time of the show’s conclusion, Cobie Smulders revealed her favorite episode, and it’s the one that entirely changed Robin’s character.
“Slap Bet” Is Cobie Smulders' Favorite How I Met Your Mother Episode
HIMYM Shared Their Favorite Episodes
In 2014,Entertainment Weeklyasked the main cast and crew members ofHow I Met Your Motherwhat their favorite episodes were; Smulders' answer was season 2, episode 9, “Slap Bet.“Robin and Tedare dating in season 2, and in this episode,Ted is perturbed by the fact that Robin has a past he doesn’t entirely know about and becomes obsessed with knowing why she hates malls.The whole gang gets in on this discussion, with Marshall (Jason Segel) theorizing that Robin is married and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) that she was a porn star.
Season 8, episode 20, “The Time Travelers”
Season 6, episode 13, “Bad News”
Season 2, episode 9, “Slap Bet”
Season 5, episode 12, “Girls Versus Suits”
Season 4, episode 13, “Three Days of Snow”
Season 1, episode 22, “Come On”
Narrator
Season 6, episode 11, “The Mermaid Theory”
Marshall and Barney also instigate a slap bet over who is right (the winner gets to slap the loser). In the end, Barney tracks down a video that he thinks is porn, and prematurely slaps Marshall. Robin then says: “I wish it was porn. It would be less embarrassing.” She starts the video again, which is revealed to be a very tacky ’80s-esque music video, as she was once the teen pop star Robin Sparkles.Occasional reveals of other Robin Sparkles music videos became a recurring eventthroughout the show. Of this first episode being her favorite, Smulders said:
Any time Robin Sparkles is in an episode, I like it. Especially when we get to shoot music videos. … My backup band are all crew members or writers, so I really like those. “Let’s Go to the Mall” has a special place in my heart just because it was the first one and it was an upbeat version and it was new territory, so that was a big one for me.
Alanis Morisette Was The Inspiration Behind “Let’s Go To The Mall”
Specifically, Alanis Morisette’s Earlier, Cringier Career
In an interview at the time the episode had just been filmed,IGNlearned about what went into creating Robin Sparkles. Co-creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays had “written a lot of stupid cheesy songs on Letterman for years” and saw an opportunity to do something similar withHow I Met Your Mother. However,Alanis Morissette was the inspiration for Sparkles' music and style,specifically pre-Jagged Little PillMorissette, whose material was “really cheesy,” according to Thomas. He cites the music video for “Walk Away,” featuring a young Matt LeBlanc, which certainly has the same spirit as “Let’s Go to the Mall.”
Why “Slap Bet” Is Widely Considered To Be The Best HIMYM Episode
“Slap Bet” Started Iconic Running Gags & Has One Of The Best Sitcom Twists Of All Time
“Slap Bet” is easily one of thebest episodes ofHow I Met Your Mother, in no small part because it sets up multiple series-long-running gags.Viewers first saw the video for “Let’s Go to the Mall” here, but additional Robin Sparkles episodes would carry on the hilarious concept,and “Sandcastles in the Sand” and “P.S. I Love You” would eventually join Sparkles' discography. This episode is also the beginning of the slap bet gag, as Marshall wins the right to slap Barney five times from “from here to eternity.”
But the true reason this is such an iconic episode of television is certainly the Robin Sparkles reveal itself. The creators “decided that in 2006, there is an embarrassing piece of videotape footage of pretty much everyone,” but no one could have guessed this grossly over-the-top secret. The entire cast’s reactions as they all turn in unison to just stare at Robin are flawless. Smulders, of course, fully embraces her alternate persona, which is so glitzy and cheesy it should be illegal. It all amounted to an entirely unique gag forHow I Met Your Mother, which still holds up today.
