TV Recap: HIMYM - Murtaugh

If ever you thought How I Met Your Mother isn’t laugh out loud funny, this is the episode that would change your mind. How can you resist a grown man dressed in a black net shirt and tight blue pants with pink hair? Exactly, you can’t. By the way, Barney was only dressed like that to prove to Ted that age is just a matter of how you view yourself.

See, Ted has this Murtaugh list. Murtaugh is Danny Glover’s character in the Lethal Weapon movies. In the first one, and each subsequent one, Murtaugh says he’s “too old for this shit.” Since this is one of the best movies ever made according to our boys, Ted decided he’s too old for some stuff and thus created the Murtaugh list. It sprang from Marshall’s beer bong. It would be broken out at any party from the time they were twenty on. When they were younger, though, the next day would be full of fun and no hangovers. Now that they’re older, Ted’s next day consists of sitting on the sofa holding a trash can and Gatorade. Poor guy, we’ve all been there. So the beer bong made the list in case Ted ever though doing a beer bong would be a good idea.

When Barney wants to Ted to teepee his laser tag place because he was banned for playing too rough (he picked up one kid and used him as a shield and held another kid down with his foot while he shot him), Ted tells him they’re too old to teepee anything and he writes it on the list. Barney looks at the list and thinks it looks like all the fun stuff is on there and when Ted tells him there’s no way he could do all that in a weekend, Barney accepts the challenge. Thus begins the hilarity. The rules are simple: if Barney completes everything on the list in one day, Ted has to teepee the laser tag place. If Barney loses, he has to listen to Ted talk about architecture for three hours. The rules are set, let the challenge begin.

The first thing Barney does is sleep on a futon at a friend’s house. This, of course, gives him horrible back pain but the shots he does next should soothe his pain. Why doing shots with strangers is on the list makes no sense. I mean, how long do you have to know some one before you do shots with them? That one’s just silly. Anyways, the shots don’t, however, make his infected ear any better. He got his ear pierced and now it’s gross, red, and pussy but one of the items on the list is putting off going to the doctor. Gross. Still, he’s flying right through everything when Robin says she thinks the point he’s trying to prove is admirable. Ted, on the other hand, can’t wait to get old. No, seriously. He wants to have all the excitement and anxiousness of youth behind him. He doesn’t want to have to worry about jobs or finding the right person and when you’re old, you don’t have to worry at all because you’ve already done all of that.

Ted should have kept his big mouth shut because now Robin has her own list. She challenges Ted to do everything on this list and if he does it before Barney finishes his, Barney can never do anything on the Murtaugh list again and the lecture would be six hours instead of three. Ted starts out on his list, which includes eating dinner at 4 pm and going to bed at 8 and waking up at 4 am, and seems to be progressing nicely when Barney and Robin come crashing through the door in crazy rave attire. Of course going to a rave was on the list, as was dying your hair a crazy color (Barney chose pink).

Just when Barney was accepting defeat, though, Ted told him and Robin about his night. He went to bed at eight but couldn’t fall asleep because it was so early. Instead, he watched all four Lethal Weapon’s. This might not sound too much more exciting but it was a good lesson. Even though Murtaugh always said his most famous quote, he would continue to do everything. Finally, Ted ripped up his insane list and decided to just do what he wanted and worry about being too old the next day.

The first thing to do: teepee the laser tag place. Of course, they’re not real thieves so he, Robin, and Barney are caught by the manager who then bans Barney for life. Oh yeah, he also called the cops but I think the guys made it out okay. Marshall and Lily didn’t have such an okay day, though.

Marshall took over coaching for Lily’s kindergarten team. Naturally, he has a much different way of coaching from Lily. She would play her guitar and let the kids run rampant while Marshall screams and throws balls at them. Really. It was funny. Lily didn’t think so though and screamed at Marshall that he had to relax and make sure the kids are having fun. Who would’ve guessed that the kids would then lose terribly in their next game? Oh yeah, anyone with a brain. At least Lily thinks Marshall could be a good parent once he agreed having fun is a big part of sports. Yeah, they had a pretty throw away story line. Although, there was one of their hilarious telepathic conversations.

Okay, if you still think this show isn’t funny, there’s something terribly wrong with you. I mean, I don’t want to offend but, seriously, maybe you lost your sense of humor along the way somewhere. You should find it because you are definitely missing out. Till next week…