9th episode of the 2nd season of How I Met Your Mother
"
Slap Bet
" is the ninth episode of the
second season
of the
American
sitcom
How I Met Your Mother
. The episode, originally titled "Robin Sparkles", first aired on November 20, 2006 on
CBS
; the title was changed in order to keep the episode's ending a secret. The episode received highly positive reviews and features in several lists of the best
How I Met Your Mother
episodes. The episode led to two recurring jokes and storylines in the show: "Robin Sparkles", Robin's teenage
pop star
career, and the Slap Bet, in which
Marshall
slaps
Barney
at various points throughout the series.
Plot
[
edit
]
Ted
,
Marshall
,
Lily
, and
Barney
find out that
Robin
never goes to malls and refuses to explain why. Marshall posits that Robin was
married
in a mall in Canada, because whenever asked about Canada, Robin only talks about her friend who got married way too young. Barney, however, believes that the secret is related to
pornography
. They agree to a slap bet, where the winner of the bet slaps the loser as hard as he can, and appoint Lily as the slap bet commissioner. Barney then starts working his way through hours of Canadian porn, which he finds both depressing and tedious.
Ted begins to worry that Robin is married. Ted pesters Robin to reveal if she really got married in Canada. After trying to avoid the issue, Robin tells Ted that she got married in a mall, after which her husband moved to
Hong Kong
without getting a
divorce
. Ted promises to keep it a secret but tells the gang after Lily begs him, so Marshall slaps Barney.
To try and help Ted,
law student
Marshall searches a legal database and he reveals that there is no record of a marriage license for Robin in Canada. After asking her various questions about her wedding, Ted confronts Robin and she admits she is not married but finds out that Ted told Marshall her supposed secret. She is angry and tells him that she was testing him to see how long it would take him to tell the rest of the gang. She refuses to tell Ted the true reason she avoids malls. Marshall tells Lily that Robin is not married and Lily, as the slap bet commissioner, must allow Barney to slap Marshall three times (one for the lie, two for being premature).
Barney reveals that he has uncovered a video of Robin and asks her if the name "Robin Sparkles" sounds familiar, which worries Robin. Ted tries to stop Barney from playing the video but Robin lets Barney play it. The beginning of the video shows Robin, dressed as a schoolgirl, seductively pleading with a teacher not to give her detention. Barney, supposedly for the sake of Robin's dignity, pauses the video and slaps Marshall. Robin is surprised to learn that the others think that it is porn, and plays the rest of the video: A 1980s-style
bubblegum pop
music video where a teenage Robin (referred to as "Robin Sparkles") sings "
Let's Go to the Mall
". Robin repeatedly sang the Canadian hit on a lengthy tour of malls around the country, causing her to develop a
phobia
of malls.
Lily points out that Barney slapped Marshall without having won the bet and without the permission of the slap bet commissioner. Lily gives Barney a choice: He can be slapped ten times immediately, or five times at any moment Marshall chooses. Barney picks the five slaps. Robin tells Ted that she is glad Ted knows her secret now. They kiss and Marshall suddenly slaps Barney, proclaiming "That's one".
The episode ends with the group, excluding Robin, dancing to her music video.
Production
[
edit
]
The episode was originally titled "Robin Sparkles," but the title was changed to "Slap Bet" in order to avoid giving away the ending. In reruns,
CBS
used the originally intended "Robin Sparkles" title.
[1]
In syndication, this episode is titled "Slap Bet".
The menu that Robin makes up when Ted questions her about her wedding was the actual menu at the wedding of writer Kourtney Kang, which took place two weeks prior to the writing of this episode.
[2]
[3]
This is the first appearance of Robin's young bubblegum pop persona, Robin Sparkles. Sparkles appears onscreen again in the season 3 episode "
Sandcastles in the Sand
" (also the name of Sparkles'
music video
) and the season 6 episode "
Glitter
". Robin's later
grunge
persona, Robin Daggers, appears in the season 8 episode "
P.S. I Love You
".
Critical response
[
edit
]
"Slap Bet" is often included in lists of the best
How I Met Your Mother
episodes.
Staci Krause of
IGN
gave the episode 8.9 out of 10, describing it as "hilarious" and "a good break from the progressive storyline the show usually boasts". Krause said the "scene-stealing moment" was when the characters realized the video of Robin was a music video and described the video as "a very tongue-in-cheek homage to 80s pop in America".
[4]
Later, in IGN's list of the 10 best
How I Met Your Mother
episodes, "Slap Bet" was selected as the best episode, citing the episode's introduction of "one of the show's most notable and
iconic
recurring bits: the titular Slap Bet" and noting that "it gave rise to Robin's teen pop star alter ego". The music video was described as the "ultimate gift" to television.
[5]
In 2010, Joyce Eng of
TV Guide
called the episode "possibly the show's finest half-hour" and said, "nothing will ever be or beat 'Slap Bet'".
[6]
Miss Alli of
Television Without Pity
gave the episode an A+.
[7]
In 2009, TV Guide ranked "Slap Bet" #62 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes.
[8]
The episode appeared on
Radio Times
'
list of the top 10 episodes of the series.
[9]
Josh Lasser of
HitFix
said "Slap Bet" was the best episode of the show in a list of the top 10 episodes.
[10]
Digital Spy
rated the episode fourth in its top 10 list.
[11]
In 2012, Eric Eisenberg of
Cinema Blend
chose "Slap Bet" as the best episode of
How I Met Your Mother
. Eisenberg commented, "the highlight of "Slap Bet" is the use of
misdirection
", and described Robin's singing as "maddening and hilarious". He said the song was "one of the best TV-created pop songs of all time" and claimed the episode had "a wonderful impact on the show at large", explaining that "both major elements at play in "Slap Bet" have gone on to have effects seen in multiple episodes throughout the program".
[12]
Business Insider
noted that the episode received the second-best rating of any
How I Met Your Mother
episode on
IMDb
, surpassed only by the
9th season
episode "
How Your Mother Met Me
".
[13]
In 2018, TheRinger.com listed this episode at #52 in its list of the best 100 television episodes to have aired since 2000, and was the only episode of
How I Met Your Mother
to have made the list.
[14]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Joel Keller (2007-05-11).
"Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-05-13
. Retrieved
2009-11-11
.
- ^
Slugggo (9 May 2014).
"Slap Bet!"
.
Reddit
. Reddit
. Retrieved
17 February
2016
.
- ^
Kang, Kourtney.
"Wedding"
.
Twitter
. Retrieved
23 February
2016
.
- ^
Staci Krause (2007-04-24).
"How I Met Your Mother: "Slap Bet" Review. Robin 'sparkles' in this episode"
.
IGN
.
News Corporation
. Retrieved
12 April
2010
.
- ^
Nicholson, Max (7 April 2014).
"The Top 10 How I Met Your Mother Episodes"
. Retrieved
10 June
2015
.
- ^
Eng, Joyce.
"How I Met Your Mother: Did Robin Sparkles Continue to Shine?"
.
TV Guide
. CBS Interactive Inc
. Retrieved
17 February
2016
.
- ^
Miss Alli (2006-11-20).
"How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet Season 2, Episode 9"
.
Television Without Pity
.
NBC Universal
. p. 7. Archived from
the original
on 20 April 2008.
- ^
"TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes"
. Rev/Views
. Retrieved
July 4,
2016
.
- ^
Velarde, Ciera (31 March 2014).
"How I Met Your Mother: The ten best episodes"
.
Radio Times
.
Immediate Media Company
. Retrieved
10 June
2015
.
- ^
Sepinwall, Alan (27 March 2014).
"
'Slap Bet,' 'Ten Sessions' & more: The 10 best 'How I Met Your Mother' episodes ever"
.
HitFix
. Retrieved
10 June
2015
.
- ^
Eames, Tom (24 March 2014).
"How I Met Your Mother: The 10 best episodes from CBS comedy"
.
Digital Spy
.
Hearst Magazines UK
. Retrieved
10 June
2015
.
- ^
Eric Eisenberg (2012-03-19).
"How I Met Your Mother: Did Robin Sparkles Continue to Shine?"
.
Cinema Blend
. Retrieved
19 March
2012
.
- ^
Acuna, Kirsten (1 April 2014).
"The 9 Best-Rated 'How I Met Your Mother' Episodes"
.
Business Insider
. Retrieved
10 June
2015
.
- ^
"The 100 Best TV Episode of the Century"
.
The Ringer
. Retrieved
8 August
2018
.
External links
[
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]