Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Who's Your Daddy?
By DeAnn Welker | Season 6 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.25.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The whole gang spends the episode debating why it's okay for guys to like girls who act like little babies, but how the opposite is never true: A girl isn't attracted to a guy who talks like a little boy. Barney, of course, takes this a challenge and spends the episode talking like a five-year-old to women at MacLaren's. He gives up after asking a girl to change his diaper (ew!), but then Robin finds him at his place with a girl who wants to be his mommy. It's very creepy, but not a bad sociological point about the whole "Who's Your Daddy?" thing, if you want to consider it that deeply. (I beg you not to want that.) The whole episode follows this theme, as Ted dates Robin's immature and perky new co-anchor Becky (only to realize in the end, as he's tying her shoe and she's eating an ice cream cone, that he's essentially her "daddy" -- sending him running in the other direction). We learn Robin's the only girl without a "daddy," because she's her own daddy and mommy and weird survivalist uncle. I think there's something about feminism in there, but it may have gotten lost amid all the talk of daddies and, you know, Barney.
Marshall, who doesn't want to be any girl's daddy, follows his own father's advice to try to ensure his Eriksen is, in fact, a son: He eats pickled herring and then dips his man parts in ice. But, little does he know, Lily's eating a lemon and heating her lady parts to make a girl. In the end, they forgive and forget and try to decide on a name that doesn't make Lily think of a bratty kid in her classroom. (Hint: There is no such name.)
Discuss this episode in our forums, read our HIMYM dictionary, then see why our vlogger thinks HIMYM is the new Friends, below.
Want to immediately access TWoP content no matter where you are online? Download the free TWoP toolbar for your web browser. Already have a customized toolbar? Then just add our free toolbar app to get updated on our content as soon it's published.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Saget!Ted tells his kids that their friends, Stuart and Claudia, had a baby in fall 2010, and Lily and Marshall were the first to visit. They haven't named the baby yet, which leads to a giant argument in front of Lily and Marshall, in which they insult each other back and forth over the names. Lily and Marshall hope that won't be them, then look at the baby and each calls out her name: "Emily" and "Lisa." They're horrified at each other's choices -- as if Lisa and Emily are really that different. La-dee-da credits. Then they're at MacLaren's, still talking baby names. Marshall has a list of awesome ones. But Ted stops him before he chooses LeBron, Shaquille or any other basketball names; those just won't work on a chubby white kid. So Marshall suggests Rob, but Lily hates it because of a Rob who put paint on her at school. She doesn't like Brian because one stabbed her with a pencil. She doesn't like Johnny because one ate a goldfish, which is also why she doesn't like Gill. Jeremy splattered her with red paint.
Robin somehow showed up during this conversation, and tells them not to name their baby Becky, right? They're all confused, and she wonders if they even watch her show, with her new terribly perky co-anchor Becky. They haven't watched it, but Ted did, because Robin insisted he see how awful Becky is. Cut to the newscast, where Becky gets all cute and whiney about sad news stories, trying to talk about something happy. Back at MacLaren's, Robin asks what Ted thought, and he squeaks that she was charming. Robin would like to know why the little-girl act works on men. Barney, who's also somehow arrived at the table, wonders if Robin would like the long or short version. Everyone: "Short!" Barney: "Who's your daddy?" Lily says that phrase is really creepy, but Marshall thinks it's fun. He says it to her, and Robin asks if Lily is now his daughter, since they make such sweet love. Marshall's logic is that she is not his daughter, but he is her daddy. Ted agrees it's disgusting. Robin says the opposite would never work: A guy could never pick up a girl talking like a little boy. Barney: "Challenge accepted!" He dashes off.
Lily pulls out her list of baby names. Marshall hates Tara because of how obsessed he was with a girl by that name, the hottest girl in school. They even wrote songs about her. Flash horrifyingly to that. Marshall hates the name Esther because of a stripper he and Barney saw who did some disturbing things while naked. Marshall beckons Ted to the bar for a drink, where Ted points out Marshall's list is all boy names, and there is that possibility he could have a girl. Marshall can't even think about that, since he can't imagine being a girl's dad with the way guys treat them. Flash to his fantasy, in which dorks make up a song for his daughter; then one where she's stripping and he's trying to cover her with his coat. Marshall wonders what if she makes bad choices, and flashes to her dating a very old, plastic version of Barney, who asks her "Who's your daddy?" Marshall fantasy vomits. Back at MacLaren's, Marshall just wants a little boy! Ted tells the people around them that's not what it sounds like.