The Slap Bet started as just a throwaway joke, but 15 years later it’s one of the most iconic things about the show How I Met Your Mother. It all started with a secret, a fear of malls, and overly competitive characters, this three-pointed joke would end up shaping Carter Bays and Craig Thomas’ television series throughout the remainder of the show.
Running gags were commonplace for How I Met Your Mother. The likes of blue instruments, a fruit-related incident, a fowl-themed necktie, a book of wingman rules, a book of pick-up plays, and a yellow parasol were some of the more popular recurring jokes and themes throughout the nine seasons and 208 episodes. The ninth episode from the second season, however, created two of the most famous and popular jokes of the series.
Titled simply, “Slap Bet,” directed by perennial favorite Pamela Fryman, and written by Kourtney Kang, this episode would move the proverbial needle throughout the future of this long-running sitcom. This episode had a simple setup, everyone’s favorite MacLaren’s patrons were going to the mall, typical east coast things, but Robin (Cobie Smulders) did not want to go. The reason she does not want to go remains a secret, which leads to the wacky sitcom characters making it their mission to uncover why their friend dislikes malls. After some speculation, the main two ideas going around are Marshall (Jason Segel) and Barney’s (Neil Patrick Harris).
Marshall’s guess is Robin was married at a mall and has not liked the complexes since her marriage ended. Barney’s on-brand guess is that Robin’s secret has something to do with pornography. Because Barney has betting problems and Marshall is partial to behaving childish, the two make an eponymous slap bet. Whoever is correct about Robin’s secret can slap the other as hard as they want. After there is video proof of what looks like Barney is right, Barney pauses the video and he slaps Marshall unexpectedly out of the joy of being right.
This slap was early, however, since the rest of the video ended up revealing our Robin Scherbatsky was a teenage pop-star by the name of Robin Sparkles. Because of his premature slap, Barney’s punishment was Marshall could slap him a total of five times throughout now and the end of history.
Since it is titled “Slap Bet,” it makes sense that the eponymous wager is what so many folks think of regarding this episode. The bet would take on a life of its own by being the most popular recurring joke in the entire How I Met Your Mother series. Barney’s fear of Marshall’s large hands aggressively sweeping across his face. So when Marshall began teasing Slapsgiving, this would be the first major time audiences would see the serial womanizer show his cowardice and become a shell of himself. This holiday event would occur again two years later, with the eponymous hand gesture being a gift that would bring everyone closer together, even Lily (Alyson Hannigan) with her estranged father. Even though the Slap Bet might be tied to Turkey Day, its impression is much more than this autumnal celebration.
The Slap Bet has every element ingrained in it that proves what made How I Met Your Mother such a beautiful sitcom while also building the foundation of how jokes and long-term storytelling were going to be written. This wager began with two people wondering if their friend was an adult star or got married in a mall and would evolve and grow into a running gag that lasted until the second to last episode of the show. This gag would also overlap other amazing jokes in the show’s timeline. In season 7, Barney and Marshall come to an agreement to remove the embarrassing ducky tie in exchange for three extra slaps (something Barney instantly regrets because of the oncoming pain).
While there were a total of eight slaps, the last one will always be special to me. This final slap occurred when Barney was standing on the altar for his wedding right before his bride walked down the aisle. This last one shows how the slaps did not always come from a sense of negative emotions. The Slap Bet also had a lot of love behind it since Barney could experience this next chapter of his life without having to worry about any massive hands slapping his face.
Something else this initial episode from Season 2 started was the inclusion of music. Robin Sparkles’ banger “Let’s Go To The Mall” might have been the first example of the cast and characters singing in an episode, but it was only beginning. Robin Sparkles would go on to have four more special episodes dedicated to her Canadian pop career, along with two actual albums worth of songs from the show. All of the characters, excluding Lily, would go on to have solos, but to me, nothing beats the 100th episode special “Nothin’ Suits Me Like a Suit” which was the perfect way to celebrate this milestone. But of course, at the first Slapsgiving, audiences heard the “You Just Got Slapped” song, led by Marshall and had some perfect interludes by Barney and his red face.
There is so much to this television series that is important to its success for different reasons. However, the “Slap Bet” episode from the sophomore season went above and beyond to become a pillar of the series and prove this was not an ordinary multi-cam sitcom.
