Slap Bet

Infobox Television episode
Title = Slap Bet
Series = How I Met Your Mother


Caption = Robin reveals her secret.
Season = 2
Episode = 9
Airdate = November 20, 2006
Production = 2ALH09
Writer = Kourtney Kang
Director = Pamela Fryman
Guests = Candace Kroslak (Girl #1)
Rachel Specter (Girl #2)
Courtney Abbiati (Girl #3)
Wayne Nickel (Reverend)
Timothy Prindle (Mr. Johnson)
Episode list =List of How I Met Your Mother episodes
Prev =Atlantic City
Next = Single Stamina

"Slap Bet" is the 9^th episode in the second season of the television series "How I Met Your Mother". It originally aired on November 20, 2006. This episode was originally titled "Robin Sparkles."

Plot

Ted, Marshall, Lily, and Barney find out that Robin does not want to go to a mall, and Robin doesn't want anyone to know why she's afraid of malls. Ted tries to find out why by telling her that he was trapped under a fake rock at a mall in Ohio. Marshall believes that Robin was married in Canada, while Barney believes that Robin did pornography 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.

However, 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 he informs Ted that Robin has had several tickets for parking illegally. Ted, after asking Robin a bunch of questions, gets Robin to tell him that she's not really married, but she won't tell him 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 3 times (one slap for being right, two for premature slapping).

Barney then reveals that he has found a video with Robin in it from a man in Malaysia, and it will be posted on MySpace shortly. He refers to Robin 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) pleads a teacher not to give her detention seductively. 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 (not including the fact that Marshall thought she was married in mall) that Barney thought that she had done porn earlier in her life. Robin then reveals that the video is not porn, and plays the video. Instead of a porn movie, the younger Robin looks at the camera, exclaims that she will sing a song, and thus the music video starts for "Let's Go To the Mall", Robin Sparkles' (as she was called) minor hit in Canada as a teenage pop star. She performed in malls all over Canada, and was forced to live off of Orange Juliuses and Wetzel's Pretzels. While everyone finds the video highly amusing, Lily points out Barney that he did not win the slap bet, and Marshall says, "It looks like someone suffered from premature slapulation." Lily then gives Marshall the right to slap Barney either 10 times in succession or 5 times for all of eternity, pending Barney's preference. Barney chooses the five slaps (which Ted considers a "horrible call", because Barney must now live with the constant fear of being slapped). Robin tells Ted that she's 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.

Trivia

* The episode's title change occurred due to the creation of a [http://www.myspace.com/robinsparkles Robin Sparkles MySpace page] . The show's creators wanted Robin's secret to surprise the audience, thus the title of the episode changed so that people who stumbled upon Robin Sparkles's MySpace would not make the connection to the show. [ [http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/05/11/carter-bays-of-how-i-met-your-mother-the-tv-squad-interview/ TV Squad Interview with Carter Bays] ]
* The full music video, though online, is also a special feature on the season 2 DVD (disc 2).
* Even though Barney & Marshall both prematurely issued single slaps to the other upon believing they had won the bet, Marshall's punishment is a more lenient 3 immediate slaps from Barney, whereas Barney's choices for his punishment were to receive 5 slaps at any point throughout eternity, or 10 immediate slaps from Marshall. This is probably because Marshall was deceived by Robin, whereas Barney didn't wait for a confession.
*There is a reference in the episode to Barney emailing everyone a video where a monkey smells its own feces (a reference to Bob Saget, the narrator of the show. His favorite video from his years at America's Funniest Home Videos is that clip, which was declared inappropriate for TV and was thus never aired).
* 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.
* Willowbrook Mall, mentioned as the location of Sharper Image, is a mall located in Langley, BC a suburb of Vancouver where Cobie Smulders is from. Willowbrook Mall is also a mall located in Wayne, New Jersey, close enough for the characters to travel to. There is also a Willowbrook Mall in Houston, Texas, clearly not the one mentioned.
* The filming of this episode was profiled in TV Guide, spoiling the "twist" ending for many viewers.Fact|date=August 2008

Continuity

* Barney has received three slaps from his five-slap punishment:
*# At the end of this episode a few minutes after losing the bet.
*# At the end of "Stuff," while performing his one-man show.
*# At the end of "Slapsgiving."
*At the end of the first episode of Season 3, Marshall calls Barney at work urging him to open his email. Marshall tells him to click [http://www.slapcountdown.com/ SlapCountdown.com] . Barney soon realizes what this means and ends the episode with an agonized, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
* One of Barney's "Oh" moments is finding out that a woman is thirty. However, Barney has slept with a "cougar", played by Jane Seymour. See "Aldrin Justice". He also reveals in "First Time in New York" that he lost his virginity to a 45-year-old

References

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mJAsgIIfNM Official CBS posting of Robin Sparkles video on YouTube]
* [http://www.myspace.com/robinsparkles Robin Sparkles viral MySpace page]