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Of Course
HIMYM episode 5x17 (105)
Of course - bang bang
First aired:
March 8, 2010
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Matt Kuhn
Barney's Blog

Images (34)

Barney tries to sleep with a woman who wrote a book on how to avoid men like Barney. The gang learns that Robin is still taking her break up with Barney hard. Robin deals with her newly realized feelings for Don.


Recap[]

The New York Police Department's river patrol pulls Barney out of the Hudson River one night in March 2010. Upon being asked to explain by a police officer how he got there, Barney explains that the chain of events started one week before.

He had picked up another woman at MacLaren's. However, she suddenly leaves him just when they were ready to return to his place. Meanwhile, Robin and Don, who have established good chemistry on their morning show, hang out with Marshall and Lily at the bar. Marshall encourages Robin to keep Don, to the point that he later pretends to be Robin accepting Don's invitation for a date. At Ted's apartment, Barney tells the gang about his failure to snag the woman. Ted claims that the woman may have read tips from a certain book called Of Course You're Still Single, Take a Look at Yourself, You Dumb Slut. However, after checking out the book for a loophole, Barney discovers that the woman he met at the bar, Anita, is the actual author of the book and announces that he is going to seduce her.

Himym anita appleby j lo blog

Anita Appleby's new book: Of Course You're still Single Take a Look at Yourself You Dumb Slut

Later at the bar, Robin admits to Marshall and Lily that she met Anita during a segment on her show, where in she told Anita the truth about Barney and their breakup. Anita shows how to break Barney's spirit by saying "No," which she demonstrates on the cameraman who suddenly gets her some coffee. After Barney had talked about one too many of his new ladies, Robin calls Anita and tells her to put her plan into action. Marshall confesses to Lily about being upset that he'd been pushing Robin to keep up with Barney's sexual activity after their breakup. He was particularly mad at himself for rubbing Barney's exploits in Robin's face through song ("Bang Bang Bangity Bang"). Barney tells Ted about his failure to find a counter-strategy in Anita's book. After Ted tells him (in song) of a plan to combine 17 dates into one "super-date", they go to a strip club.

Robin cancels her date with Don after Ted informs her of the super-date Barney was planning. Marshall later vents his anger at Ted for crushing Robin - he (and also Barney) joined Marshall on the "bang bang, bangity bang" song. Then Ted realizes he, too, had been a jerk to Robin after she tried to bounce back from her breakup with Barney. After hugging Robin at the restroom, the three head to Barney's apartment, where Lily narrates to him every occasion that Robin cried somewhere else and later vented her frustration at the shooting range after hearing Barney brag about his sexual conquests. Barney heads off to the shooting range and apologizes to Robin about preparing a wonderful date for Anita when he never tried it even once with her. He decides to let Robin and Don go on his super-date, promising as well to Robin that he would not sleep with Anita.

Anita confronts Barney at the bar for not showing up to their date and finds herself being treated to her own "No" strategy. Barney is defiant and Anita offers him multiple compromise offers, the last of which prompts him to head to the Hudson River and jump. Barney is later fined $500 for the misdemeanor and watches fireworks meant to cap off the super date, while Don and Robin kiss watching them. Robin declines to talk to the gang about the date the following morning, but later breaks into the "Bang Bang Bangity Bang" song, and everyone except Barney joins in as he looks at Robin and smiles.

Continuity[]

  • Marshall's "song-writing" abilities have been demonstrated in previous episodes, including Sweet Taste of Liberty​, Spoiler Alert​, and Slapsgiving.
  • Robin's fondness for guns was first revealed in Where Were We?​, where she also takes Marshall to the shooting range to get over Lily leaving him.
  • Lily reveals that Robin has been upset with Barney since their break-up in The Rough Patch​, telling the guys how she started crying after Barney gave a detailed description of a girl he hooked up with in The Playbook, and felt hurt when he held his number up on TV during the Super Bowl in Rabbit or Duck​.
  • In Last Cigarette Ever, Future Ted mentions that Robin and Don would be dating within three months, a prediction that is fulfilled here.
  • Robin says "but...umm" during her interview with Anita, a habit first pointed out in Jenkins​.
  • Robin decides to let Mike off her hook in Hooked (albeit after doing one more load of laundry for her), and he appears to have gotten on Anita's here.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

Gallery[]

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:Of Course images.

Memorable Quotes[]

"Of Course You're Still Single, Take a Look at Yourself You Dumb Slut"

—title of Anita's book

Anita: So I'm in the interSEXtion and I only have a couple of SEX before the light changes. And when everyone's honking at me and it totally SEX. But, I can't turn around because a jogger slipped and fell in horse SEXcrement.
Anita "subtly" slips the word sex into conversation


"Bang, bang, bangity bang. I said a bang, bang, bangity bang!"

—Marshall's song about Barney's conquests. Joined in by Ted and Barney and later reprised by Robin.

Barney: I knew I was bad at being a boyfriend. I had no idea I'd be so bad at being an ex-boyfriend.

Robin: Am I just another number to you?
Barney: you're not just a number to me.
Barney and Robin talking about their past relationship

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • When Mike offers Robin and Anita coffee you can clearly see in the background a sign that says "No food or drink on set".
    • However this might not be a goof because we've seen the whole crew of the show be unprofessional on set before. Ex: Don not wearing pants, smoking live and using foul language on air; Mike being on a "chicken run", playing with paper planes, falling asleep while recording and a bunch of member not wearing pants because of Don's influence.
  • When at the shooting range, Robin uses improper gun posture, locking her elbows.

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • Marshall mentions that he is still angry at the Empire from Star Wars when he punches the head off Barney's Stormtrooper.
  • After throwing up in his stormtrooper helmet Barney admits he did something worse when Phantom Menace came out.
  • Barney jumps into the Hudson River from Riverside Park.

Music[]

Other Notes[]

  • The Star Wars stormtrooper previously seen in World's Greatest Couple in Barney's apartment makes a return. It was removed by Lily when she moved in, was present in Do I Know You? and appeared to be absent during scenes of Barney's apartment in Bagpipes. However, it is now a standard stormtrooper where as previously it was a clone trooper.
  • Ted says that the French restaurant for the "super-date" is named "Tomber Les Culottes" which means "drop the panties" in English.
  • Before the episode, Cobie Smulders had objected to the show's depiction of Barney and Robin after their breakup:

I was pretty vocal about it. You know, "I don’t think that Robin would be sitting here as he’s talking about fucking some chick." And they wrote the episode that revealed she was extremely emotional [after the break up].

Guests[]

Reception[]

  • Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode with a grade A-. [1]
  • Brian Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 9 out of 10. [2]
  • Cindy McLennan of Television Without Pity rated the episode with a grade B-. [3]
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 9 out of 10 stars. "...who even knows what a kravat is? And would someone wear one on a superdate?"

References[]

External Links[]


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