Noretta

"Noretta"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 7
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Written by	Matt Kuhn
Production code	7ALH07
Original air date	October 24, 2011 (2011-10-24)
Guest stars
Kal Penn (Kevin) Bill Fagerbakke (Marvin Eriksen Sr) Chris Elliot (Mickey Aldrin) Wayne Brady (James Stinson) Frances Conroy (Loretta Stinson) Cristine Rose (Virginia Mosby) "Weird Al" Yankovic (Himself)
Season 7 episodes
The Best Man The Naked Truth Ducky Tie The Stinson Missile Crisis Field Trip Mystery vs. History Noretta The Slutty Pumpkin Returns Disaster Averted Tick, Tick, Tick... The Rebound Girl Queen of the Furrow

"Noretta" is the seventh episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother and the 143rd episode overall. It aired on October 24, 2011.^[1]

Plot

Barney's brother, James, drops by for a visit before Barney and Nora leave for a date which Nora promises will be special. Though James admits that he thinks Nora is a nice girl, he is unsettled by the fact that she is too much like his mother, Loretta. Kevin comments that it is natural to like people who remind them of their parents.

During their date, a series of mishaps, including Nora breaking her tooth while ice skating, a rat falling onto her head, and a man committing suicide nearly dissuades her from sleeping with Barney. He manages to turn all the incidents around, although he is unsettled when he sees the similarities between Nora and his mother. However, he sleeps with Nora anyway and remarks that her resemblance to his mother makes her more special to him.

Marshall accidentally insults Lily when she admits to feeling unattractive as her body begins to swell from pregnancy. To show her how beautiful she is, Marshall makes up a board game. However, the plan backfires when Lily recalls Kevin's words about how it is natural to like someone who resembles one's parents; Lily remembers that her father also loved to create absurd board games. When she admits to being uncomfortable around Marshall because she keeps imagining her father, Marshall winds up seeing familiar traits of his father in Lily. They cancel their romantic plans for the evening, though Marshall admits that the common traits that Lily shares with his father makes her attractive to him all the same.

Meanwhile, Ted admits to Robin that he is uncomfortable with Kevin after seeing Kevin standing in the apartment in his boxers. When Kevin reveals to Robin the incident occurred after he spilled coffee after seeing Ted walk by half-naked, he admits that he feels uncomfortable with how close Robin and Ted considering their history. Robin assures him that there is nothing between her and Ted and that Ted is insecure about being alone. When Robin and Kevin's evening alone in the apartment is interrupted by Ted, Kevin goes along with Robin's insistence on comforting Ted. However, he becomes upset when Ted invites Robin to a "Weird Al" Yankovic concert until Ted openly admits to feeling lonely and the sole reason he invited Robin was because he had already exhausted all his other friends and acquaintances. Sympathizing with Ted, Kevin pretends to be a "Weird Al" fan and agrees to go the concert.

At the bar, Ted says that he had suggested to "Weird Al" the lyrics for Like a Surgeon. Kevin and Robin go to the apartment, leaving Ted alone at the bar, where he meets a "Weird Al" fan who strangely resembles his mother. In the final scene, it is shown that "Weird Al" gets a letter from Ted (who is 8 at that time), which does in fact give him the inspiration for "Like a Surgeon".

Continuity

• Barney is still wearing the Ducky Tie in this episode, continuing his bet with Marshall and Lily.
• Marshall continues with his conceptualization of new games, as shown in "Game Night". Lily's father and his strange board game ideas were first introduced in "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap".
• Robin continues her tendency to claim that certain American pop culture subjects are ripped off from Canadian ones when she says Weird Al Yankovic's ideas came from a Canadian musician named Peculiar Jacques. In the season 4 episode "Murtaugh", she also claimed that the Lethal Weapon series was based on a Canadian action film duo named "McElroy and LaFleur."
• James mentions that Barney has slept with a lot of people's mothers, and Marshall pats Ted on the back. This references the recurring joke that Barney claims he and Virginia shared a "passionate moment" when he dropped her off at the airport after the events of "Brunch". Barney makes the first allusion to the incident in "Little Minnesota" and then has a flashback to it in "Home Wreckers".

Barney's blog

Barney lists some of the things he considers awesome in a lyrical parody of the song "My Favorite Things".^[2]

Cultural References

• Ted responds to the gang's mocking of his story about suggesting "Like a Surgeon" to Weird Al with, "You guys can eat it. Just eat it". (A reference to Weird Al's "Eat It")
• Loretta is a Julie Andrews fan. She and Nora sing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music.
• Ted has a documentary film about coin collecting that he says was directed by the actor who played Argyle in Die Hard. No such film actually exists.
• The final flashback to "Weird Al" is dated February 21, 1985, which was the real-life actual date when he recorded "Like a Surgeon". When he begins reading Ted's song suggestions, he exclaims, "Why can't they just leave me alone!" He usually refuses parody submissions or ideas from fans.^[3]

Reception

Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode a B.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Shows A-Z - how i met your mother on cbs". The Futon Critic. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showatch/how-i-met-your-mother/listings/. Retrieved October 6, 2011. 
2. ^ http://www.cbs.com/shows/how_i_met_your_mother/barneys_blog/71133/
3. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Frequently Asked Questions". http://www.weirdal.com/faq.htm. Retrieved October 27, 2011. "Al does not allow himself to look at other people's song ideas. Legal issues (and personal issues) prevents him from using suggestions from his fans or anyone else" 
4. ^ "Review of "Noretta" at AV CLUB". AV Club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/noretta,63860/. Retrieved 31 October 2011.