Slap Bet
Encyclopedia
"Slap Bet" is the 9th episode in season 2 of the television series How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...

. It originally aired on November 20, 2006. This episode was originally titled "Robin Sparkles."

Plot

Ted
Ted Mosby
Theodore Evelyn "Ted" Mosby is the titular fictional character of the U.S. television sitcom How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Josh Radnor...

, Marshall
Marshall Eriksen
Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother, created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and portrayed by Jason Segel.-Character profile:Marshall is an easy-going, naive optimist from St. Cloud, Minnesota...

, Lily
Lily Aldrin
Lillian "Lily" Aldrin is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by American actress Alyson Hannigan. She is the wife of Marshall Eriksen and the best friend of Robin Scherbatsky...

, and Barney
Barney Stinson
Barnabas "Barney" Stinson is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris. The character has been extremely well received by critics and has been credited for much of the show's success...

 find out that Robin
Robin Scherbatsky
Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Jr. is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Canadian actress Cobie Smulders.- Early life :...

 does not want to go to a mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

, and Robin doesn't want anyone to know why she's averse to malls. Ted tries to guess and in doing so reveals that he was trapped under a fake boulder at a mall in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 when he was nine. Marshall believes that Robin was married in a mall in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, while Barney believes that Robin did pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

 in Canada. They agree to a slap bet (where the winner of the bet slaps the loser as hard as he possibly can) and appoint Lily as the slap bet commissioner.
Ted thinks both ideas are ridiculous, but tries to find out if she's married. Robin tells Ted that she is married, having married a guy in a mall. Ted promises to keep it a secret, but then tells Marshall and Lily. Seeing as he's won, Marshall slaps Barney, but Barney still investigates the subject.

Shortly after that, Marshall uses his law-school access to search a legal records database. He tells Ted that there is no record of a marriage license for Robin in Canada, but she has had several parking tickets. Ted, after asking Robin a bunch of questions, gets her to tell him that she's not really married, but not why she's afraid of malls. Marshall also tells Lily of his findings, and Lily, as the slap bet commissioner, informs Barney and allows him to slap Marshall three times (one slap because Marshall lied, and two for being prematurely slapped).

Barney then reveals that a man in Malaysia has found a video with Robin in it, and it will be posted on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 shortly. He refers to her as "Robin Sparkles", to which she is surprised and questions him as to where he heard that name. Ted is no longer interested in finding out Robin's secret, but Robin later insists that it is time for the secret to be revealed. Barney plays the opening part of the video, in which Robin (dressed as a schoolgirl) seductively pleads a teacher not to give her detention. Barney, for the sake of Robin's dignity, pauses the video and says that he has proved his point, and then slaps Marshall. Robin asks Barney why he slapped Marshall, and Barney tells her about the bet and that he thought that Robin had done porn earlier in her life. Robin plays the video, saying it was not porn. It turns out to be a stereotypically 80's music video where a young Robin (referred to as Robin Sparkles) sings "Let's Go To the Mall", Robin's minor hit in Canada as a teenage pop star.

Lily points out to Barney that he did not win the slap bet. Lily then gives Marshall the right to slap Barney either ten times immediately in succession or five times available to Marshall for all of eternity
Eternity
While in the popular mind, eternity often simply means existence for a limitless amount of time, many have used it to refer to a timeless existence altogether outside time. By contrast, infinite temporal existence is then called sempiternity. Something eternal exists outside time; by contrast,...

, pending Barney's preference. Barney chooses the five slaps, which Ted refers to as a "horrible call", because Barney must now live in constant fear of being slapped. Robin tells Ted that she is actually glad Ted knows her secret now. They kiss and Marshall slaps Barney, proclaiming, "That's one". They all continue to enjoy the video, and Marshall menaces Barney.

Continuity

  • This episode introduces two long-running gags on the show. The first is Robin's former life as Robin Sparkles, and the second is the agreement that Marshall can slap Barney five times at any point in the future. (In "Disaster Averted
    Disaster Averted
    "Disaster Averted" is the ninth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 145th episode overall. It aired on November 7, 2011.- Plot :...

    ," this is increased to eight slaps.) As of November 2011, he has delivered 6 out of 8 slaps:
    • Slap #1 is delivered in this episode.
    • Slap #2 is delivered in the season 2 episode "Stuff" because Barney was giving an obnoxious one-man show to prove Lily wrong.
    • Slap #3 is delivered in the season 3 episode "Slapsgiving
      Slapsgiving
      "Slapsgiving" is the 9th episode in the third season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 53rd overall. It originally aired on November 19, 2007.- Plot :...

      ." Marshall counts down to the day of the third slap, setting up the website SlapCountDown.com.
    • Slap #4 is delivered in the season 5 episode "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap
      Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap
      "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of the CBS situation comedy How I Met Your Mother and 97th episode overall. It aired on November 23, 2009.- Plot :...

      ."
    • Slap #5 and #6 is delivered in the season 7 episode "Disaster Averted
      Disaster Averted
      "Disaster Averted" is the ninth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 145th episode overall. It aired on November 7, 2011.- Plot :...

      ." It is also in this episode that Marshall agrees to let Barney take off the ducky tie in exchange for three more slaps, one of which he uses in this episode as well.

  • Robin Sparkles later appears in "Sandcastles in the Sand", "Glitter" and "Bad News."
  • The song "Lets Go to the Mall" from this episode is sung by Marshall in a karaoke bar at the end of "Little Minnesota
    Little Minnesota
    "Little Minnesota" is the 11th episode in the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 75th overall. It originally aired on December 15, 2008.- Plot :...

    ."
  • Marshall says that Robin is a "private person" at one point during the episode. Robin and Ted at this point have not yet started their inside joke of saluting when an Army rank is used in a sentence, first seen in "Slapsgiving
    Slapsgiving
    "Slapsgiving" is the 9th episode in the third season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 53rd overall. It originally aired on November 19, 2007.- Plot :...

    ."
  • The look that Robin gave in the music video is the look that Ted mentioned in "Swarley
    Swarley
    "Swarley" is the 7th episode in the second season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on November 6, 2006.-Plot:...

    ." ("Oh, and your biting your lower lip, shyly looking away and thrusting your chest out is natural?")
  • In the episode "As Fast As She Can
    As Fast As She Can
    "As Fast As She Can" is the 23rd episode of the fourth season of How I Met Your Mother and 87th overall. It originally aired on May 11, 2009.-Plot:...

    ", the song "Let's Go To The Mall" can be heard as Ted's ringtone.

Recurring Elements

  • Ted's view on couple's secrets and background information, as well as communication, is shown as something he really values in a relationship.
  • Robin and Marshall high five after learning that Robin's video featured a robot. Marshall is actually a great robot dancer. The robot would later appear in "Sandcastles in the Sand" as well as "Glitter" as Robin Sparkles' sidekick.

Cultural references

  • Robin said when she performed in malls all over Canada in the early 1990 to mid-1990s, she was forced to live off of Orange Julius
    Orange Julius
    Orange Julius is a chain of fruit drink beverage stores. It has been in business since the late 1920s. The eponymous beverage is a mixture of orange juice, milk, sugar, ice and vanilla flavoring.- History :...

    es and Wetzel's Pretzels
    Wetzel's Pretzels
    Wetzel's Pretzels is a Pasadena, California-based chain of fast-food restaurants. The first Wetzel's Pretzels location opened in 1994 at the South Bay Galleria, in Redondo Beach, California...

    . However, Wetzel's Pretzels (an American chain) did not exist at all prior to 1994, and did not expand into Canada for several years after that -- and only has one Canadian mall location.
  • Robin's song includes a reference to Canada Day
    Canada Day
    Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire...

    , the national day of Canada, and a (fake) cameo by then-Prime Minister
    Prime Minister of Canada
    The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

     Brian Mulroney
    Brian Mulroney
    Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

    .

Production

  • 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.

  • 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.

Critical response

  • Miss Alli of Television Without Pity rated the episode with a grade A.

  • Staci Krause of IGN gave the episode 8.9 out of 10.

  • Joyce Eng of TV Guide later called the episode "possibly the show's finest half-hour" and said, "nothing will ever be or beat 'Slap Bet'."
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