Tee hee! I've always wanted to use the word "poop" in a headline. Be forewarned, gentle reader. There will be much mention of poop in the upcoming article.

How I Met Your Mother always brings us true-to-life stories, wrapped up in 22 minutes of pure joy. This week's episode, "Benefits," brought us two issues that are very different than each other, but which are both so universally important as we each navigate through life as best we can.

Issue 1: Friends with Benefits

The A-story involved Robin's (Cobie Smulders) and Ted's (Josh Radnor) relationship, with a liberal amount of Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) thrown in. Robin and Ted are still living together as roommates, but tensions arise, as they are wont to do, because of housekeeping issues. Ted is annoyed that Robin drinks all his milk, Robin is annoyed that Ted doesn't wash any dishes. They are both annoyed that neither of them replaces the toilet paper. (Luckily for them, they have a toilet paper elf in the form of Marshall, who likes to "read his magazine" in the apartment in the middle of the work day.)

Ted and Robin decide to alleviate all the mutual roommate annoyances by becoming friends with benefits, but this new turn of events causes Barney much inner angst. Barney is still in love with Robin, a fact which Ted finally finds out at the end of the episode and which precipitates the end of Ted and Robin's string-less sexual arrangement.

I do honestly think it's possible to have a mutually respectful, mutually casual friends-with-benefits type of relationship that is purely just about the sex. But I also think that it's relatively rare to have everyone involved to be exactly on the same page. If one person isn't feeling the same way, then the whole thing could come down like a house of cards. As Barney proved this week, this person doesn't even have to be one of the two friends who are hooking up.


Issue 2: Poop is Funny

As Marshall (Jason Segel) said in this week's episode of How I Met Your Mother, “You know, sometimes you just gotta… you just gotta man up and… and just go for it.” Because the fact of the matter is, everybody poops, and since most of us spend at least one-third of our day at work, chances are high that you might have to drop a deuce in the office bathroom.

I suppose I don't have as many hang-ups about ‘reading a magazine' in a public restroom as Marshall does (four years of dorm life cured me of this particular neurosis), but I have had some uncomfortable experiences using the bathroom at my own place of employment. BuddyTV inhabits one office on the second floor of an office building, and there is one women's room and one men's room shared among all the workers on the floor. I don't know who she is, but there is one woman who regularly uses the bathroom while chatting away on her cell phone. Seriously, she's just peeing away while saying things like, “Oh yeah, what are you doing this weekend?” This, I find very odd and discomfiting, especially when I have to do my business in the stall next to hers. What's worse is that one of my coworkers was once trapped between Cell Phone Lady and Cell Phone Lady's Friend Who Doesn't Wash Her Hands, and CPL was talking to both CPLFWDWHH and someone on her cell phone at the same time. Awkward!

Anyway, this is all neither here nor there. My random anecdotes have only a tangential relation to Marshall's ‘reading a magazine' storyline on How I Met Your Mother. Honestly, it just gave me a public forum in which I could talk about poop.


Best Quotes of the Episode:

Marshall, in full lawyer mode: “I seem to recall a deal being struck betweene three parties, wherein none would discuss a certain event that transpired. An event of the…ee-uh-ee-uh-ee-uh! … persuasion. That key, madam, buys my silence. Good day to you both!”

Robin, high-fiving Ted: “Peace was achieved. Repeatedly.”

Robin: “Yeah. Last night, we actually did it while I was returning a bunch of phone calls.”
Marshall: “I knew you didn’t get a rowing machine!”

Barney: “Dude, I ‘read a magazine’ at work every day. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been late to because I was busy ‘reading a magazine.’ But I don’t feel bad about it. That’s my time. Sure, ‘reading a magazine’ ain’t pretty, but you know, it’s something I gotta do, so why be ashamed about it? Wait, ‘reading a magazine’ means masturbating, right?”

Lily, echoing the story my own life too: “Story of my life. My cuteness interferes with people getting my message”

Kim Kardashian, from the cover of Them Weekly: “Marshall, you made a brave step today. Remember what Shakespeare wrote: ‘Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.’”
Marshall: “You’re right, Super Hot Lady Who My Wife Keeps Telling Me Why You’re Famous But I Keep Forgetting.”



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)