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Baby Talk (How I Met Your Mother)

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"Baby Talk (How I Met Your Mother)"

"Baby Talk" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 118th episode overall. It aired on October 25, 2010.

Plot

Marshall and Lily visit Stuart and Claudia, who are having trouble naming their newborn baby. Lily and Marshall try to come up with baby names on their own—Marshall with boy names that Lily rejects because of her past experiences with trouble-making kindergarten boys, and Lily with a couple of girl names that Marshall rejects because of his experience with a hot girl from his school and a stripper. One of these fantasies of the future includes an older Barney (who appears to have had plastic surgery) hitting on and subsequently marrying their daughter. Marshall, worried that he might have to raise a daughter, consults his father on how to ensure that his child will be male. What he doesn't realize is that Lily has been searching for ways to make sure their child will be female. When Lily and Marshall find out what the other has been doing, they realize that they have no control over the gender of their baby, and decide to give him/her the gender-neutral name Jamie. However, Lily rejects the name later because of a troublemaker in her class named Jamie.

Meanwhile, Becky, Robin's new, overly cheery co-anchor at Come On, Get Up New York! reveals that she has begun dating Ted. Robin takes issue with Ted dating a girl who uses baby talk, while Ted, Barney, and Marshall defend girls using baby talk as a way for men to feel more manly and protective. Robin states that women would never fly with a man using baby talk, and Barney takes that statement as a challenge. While Barney tries and fails the "baby talk" play, Robin finds out that Ted finds dependent girls attractive and found Robin's own independence and assertiveness during their relationship off-putting. Taken aback by this revelation, Robin goes to Barney to ask his opinion on whether he felt that he was needed by Robin during their relationship, to which he responds that he had loved Robin's independence and thought it was awesome. Robin, gratified by this, points out that there is a crazy woman in his apartment—she turns out to have come by Barney as he was indulging himself in ice cream, and responding to her in a childish manner, immediately seduced Barney. Barney while happy to have won the challenge, asks for Robin's help to get rid of the woman, and the 'independent' Robin responds by sauntering into the apartment, casually grabbing Barney's decorative sword, and heading into Barney's bedroom.

At the end of the episode, Ted and Becky are in a park, and as Becky licks an ice cream cone, Ted notices her shoe is untied and bends down to tie it. He then notices a nearby father tying his daughter's shoe and breaks up with Becky.

Barney's blog

In his blog, Barney puts down a list of challenges he plans to complete.[1]

Cultural references

  • Marshall suggests baby names LeBron, Shaquille, Hakeem, and Dikembe, all names of famous NBA players.[2]
  • The video for the song "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam is referenced in the episode in a flashback about a boy named Jeremy.
  • Lily says to Marshall, "You're writing checks my vagina can't cash," a reworking of an often quoted line from Top Gun. The original line is, "Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash."
  • The song that Marshall and his high-school friends sing to the hot girl Tara uses the melody of song "End of the Road" by popular 90s R&B group Boyz II Men. Marshall was singing bass and holding a cane like Michael McCary from the group.
  • Marshall expresses fear of having "twin girls who speak in unison". It's a trope that can be seen in films such as The Shining.
  • Marshall brings up the fact that horror movie villains are mostly little girls. This is an indirect reference to Samara Morgan from The Ring
  • While arguing over which child gender is creepier, Lily brings up Chucky, the villain from the Child's Play films, as an example of a creepy male. Marshall mentions that Chucky was merely a doll who was possessed by an adult serial killer.
  • Marshall's father drinks a beer with labeling similar to Minnesota brand Grain Belt Premium.
  • Lily mentions Tara as one of the baby names. Alyson Hannigan's character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer was in a relationship with a character called Tara.

Critical response

DeAnn Welker of Television Without Pity gave the episode a score of A-.[3]

The A.V. Club's Donna Bowman gave the episode a B+ rating.[2]

Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a rating of 7.5 out of 10.[4]

Chris O'Hara of TVFanatic.com gave the episode a rating of 5 out of 5.[5]

References

  1. ^ Stinson, Barney (2010-10-25). "Challenge Accepted!". Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  2. ^ a b Donna Bowman (2010-10-25). "How I Met Your Mother "Baby Talk"". The A.V. Club. The Onion.
  3. ^ DeAnn Welker (2010-10-27). "How I Met Your Mother: Who's Your Daddy?". Television Without Pity. NBC Universal.
  4. ^ Robert Canning (2010-10-26). "How I Met Your Mother: "Baby Talk" Review". IGN. News Corporation. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-04. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Chris O'Hara (2010-10-26). "How I Met Your Mother Review: Not Jaime!". TV Fanatic. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-04. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
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