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The Possimpible
HIMYM episode 4x14 (78)
Possimpible
First aired:
February 2, 2009
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Jonathan Groff
Barney's Blog

Images (4)

When Robin learns she has to find a job or risk being deported, Barney helps her make a video resume. Lily, Marshall and Ted all examine their own resumes.


Recap[]

Robin finds a work permit notice from Immigration stating that if she does not get a job in the next seven days, she will be deported back to Canada. Marshall says that she may be able to stay if she marries an American citizen, as a result, Barney kneels down behind Robin as if to propose (as he is madly in love with her) but stands back up when Marshall says "They wouldn't be able to complete the transaction in time." She first tries for a position on the News 10 channel but fails since she has no catch phrase to end her broadcast and simply strings together weird phrases (finishing with "wear a condom").

After Ted laughs at his basketball record, Marshall defends himself by mentioning a medical condition he has that prevents him from playing. It is later revealed that the condition is actually "Dancer's hip," a malady common among ballet dancers. The gang jokes about it, much to Marshall's dismay, but we later find out that Marshall does dance quite a bit, or as he tells Lily, "more than you know." Barney shows his "awesome video resume", after seeing it, Robin requests to have one made.

Robin notices that Barney's video resume uses meaningless buzz words such as "the Possimpible" to describe the nexus between the Possible and the Impossible. Robin does not agree with his method of getting a new job (including breaking 15 bricks with her forehead and wearing an Amazon warrior outfit). Her last remaining choice is the Lottery girl job. After Robin is turned down from that job, Ted, Marshall, and Lily are there for her in her last hours in the U.S. Barney finishes Robin's video resume without her, and it gets her a job at channel 12 hosting a new morning show.

Meanwhile, Ted, Marshall, and Lily reflect on the unnecessary additions to their resumes. Ted still includes his stint as a supposedly controversial college radio DJ (a persona he named "Doctor X"), Marshall includes his basketball dunking championship from Minnesota, and Lily includes her victory at a hot dog eating contest (29 dogs in 8 minutes, resulting in a fairly sizable belly and with a nickname of "Lily the Belly"). None of these "achievements" have anything to do with their current careers.

While Ted and Marshall delete their "special" entries from their resumes, Lily actually updates her resume after eating 33 hot dogs in 8 minutes at MacLaren's in front of a cheering crowd.

Continuity[]

  • Lily first says "You sonuvabitch".
  • In his video resume, Barney can be seen reading the Bro Code, which he shows Marshall in The Goat.
  • Moreover, in the same video, Barney says to himself that he "achieved great success in [...] athletics". In fact, even if Barney is the only one who does not work out in the gym in The Yips, he is seen running long distances in Miracles and finishing a marathon in Lucky Penny.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

  • Barney almost proposes to Robin if it means she gets to stay in America. A possible early hint toward his desire to marry her (or being open to it if it's with Robin).
  • Other websites created by Barney appear in The Playbook and The Stinson Missile Crisis​.
  • Robin says she's over her "dating prison inmates" phase as she's no longer 19, and in The Sexless Innkeeper​, she mentions being attracted to her 10th grade math teacher, who is in jail for tax evasion, "among other things".
  • Robin again faces deportation in Duel Citizenship when she is charged for assault, prompting her to apply for dual citizenship with the US, which she receives by Say Cheese​.
  • Marshall's dunking abilities and his basketball nickname, "Vanilla Thunder", are brought up in The Window, where he indeed can no longer dunk, presumably due to his "dancer's hip".
  • Ted officially admits to having been the college radio host Doctor X in The Stamp Tramp, to nobody's surprise.
  • Robin applies for the role of Currency Rotation Specialist (or, as Ted describes it, "Coin Flip Bimbo") on Million Dollar Heads or Tails in False Positive​.
  • His statement "actually doing things gets you fired" is a clue about Barney's job.

Gallery[]

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

Memorable Quotes[]

Barney: If I can leave you with one thing, let it be this:  Nothing, and everything, is possimpible.

Robin: How did you pull this off?
Barney: I am the master of the possimpible.
Robin: You really are. Thank you.
Future Ted: So, thanks to your Uncle Barney, we got to keep your Aunt Robin.

Barney: All my life, I have dared to go past what is possible.
Interviewer (Barney faking voice): To the impossible?
Barney: Actually, past that to the place where the possible and the impossible meet to become... the possimpible.

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • During the flashback from college, when Marshall and Lily are listening to Dr. X's show, at the first shot of the radio, some popcorn can be seen there already, although Marshall has not thrown any yet. The kernels vanish when the scene zooms in on the radio.
  • Marshall says he was the Slam Dunk Champion in Nicollet County; however, Marshall was born and raised in St. Cloud, located in Stearns County, which is several counties north of Nicollet County.
  • When Ted brings Marshall a light beer at MacLaren's and makes fun of his dancer's hip, only Marshall's top two shirt buttons are unbuttoned, but in the next shot one of the middle buttons has also come undone.
  • In the scene where Marshall is deleting his Slam Dunk champion off his resume, you can see at the top right hand corner on his laptop screen read "10:56 AM", even though it is dark outside. Also, it's quite odd that he's using an Apple OS on his PC laptop.

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • During the filming of Robin's video resume, she comments on how she had to wear an Amazon warrior costume. At one point Cobie Smulders was considered to play the DC Comics Amazon princess, Wonder Woman in Joss Whedon's defunct Wonder Woman film.

Music[]

Other Notes[]

  • The episode was originally titled "Special Skills" which was later changed to "Barney Stinson: That Guy's Awesome".[1][2]
  • When Lily stands up after eating the hot dogs, the bloated belly she shows is due to Alyson Hannigan's real life pregnancy.[3]
  • Lily's resume contains information about her having Java programming skills as well as fluently speaking Italian and being certified to teach English as a second language. This is seen when she edits the hot dog entry under "Special Skills".
  • Barney's video résumé is so ridiculous that he cannot maintain a straight face as the camera zooms out near the end. He also removes his glasses at least four separate times on the video.
  • Barney claims that the accent he used on his resume is British, to which Ted adds "and a wee bit Scottish". Scotland is part of Britain; the accent Barney refers to is English.
    • A "British accent" is another term to refer to an English accent. There is no term that refers to all accents in Britain at once.
  • The clip in Barney's video resume of the tanker truck falling onto the pavement and exploding is from the 1996 film Twister featuring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.

Guests[]

  • Regan Burns - Producer
  • Seth Morris - Director
  • Tina Casciani - Marisela Diaz
  • Angela Martinez - Rochelle Harper
  • Colleen Shannon - Lottery Girl
  • Ara Anton - Herm
  • Wayne Lopez - Referee
  • Mark Tomesek - Dr. Goodman
  • Patrizia Medrano - Female Reporter (uncredited)
  • Mohammad Kavianpour - Camera Operator (uncredited)

Reception[]

  • Donna Bowman of The AV Club gave the episode an A grade.[4]
  • Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 7.8 out of 10.[5]
  • Cindy McLennan of Television Without Pity gave the episode an A- grade.[6]
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 7.5 out of 10 stars. "...Robin ... the new lottery girl..."

References[]

External links[]


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