'How I Met Your Mother' Season 7, Episode 7 Recap - 'Noretta'

Have you ever dated someone, only to realize later that he or she reminds you of your parents? The writers for "How I Met Your Mother" have, and thus so have Ted, Marshall, Lily, and Barney (and probably Robin, but she was a non-factor here).

Of course, many other people have had this experience, and so have many other sitcom writers, so the theme of "Noretta" isn't exactly new territory. But hey, "HIMYM" is in its seventh season and last week's Facebook homage was great, so let's give them a break.

The premise is this: Barney's brother James (the very underused Wayne Brady) is in town, and he has a problem with Nora... she reminds him of their mother. Kevin notes that it's perfectly normal for one to end up with a significant other that is similar to one's parents. But that doesn't make it any less weird.

Barney is fortunate enough to not realize it (yet), which makes him a lot luckier than Marshall and Lily. The two have lost a bit of their spark since Lily stopped feeling sexy, so Marshall is on a mission to make her feel hot again. Unfortunately, his idea involved a board game called "Chutes & Lilies" (or "Liliopoly"), which reminds Lily of the other other person she knows who loves board games this much: her dad.

Marshall thinks he's in the clear until he realizes that it's not his mom that Lily reminds him of... it's his dad. The high point of the gag, which replaces Marshall/Lily with their respective dads (played by Chris Elliott and Bill Fagerbakke), has the two actors almost locking lips, with Marshall's father in Lily's pink pajamas. Thoroughly disturbing. Thoroughly funny.

Barney, meanwhile, is playing air guitar every few minutes in anticipation of tonight, which is the night that he and Nora are finally going to check in at the "pork authority."

But things take a turn again and again as the date spirals further and further into disaster mode. "I can turn this around," repeats Barney as Nora chips out her tooth, gets a rat on her head and finally witnesses a man leaping to his death right past Barney's balcony.

Of course, it's Barney, so he does turn things around. But just before it's time to "turn things around" (yes, in that way), he realizes that Nora is in fact like his mother.

But Barney makes this point, which you may or may not agree with: "My mom is the best person I know. If Nora's even a bit like her, i'm a lucky guy."

Ultimately, we didn't accomplish much in terms of the grand scheme of things. Yes, we get it, Barney and Nora are pretty great together. We got a quick nod to Robin and Ted, but it was quickly shot down.

But hey, we got a cameo from the one and only Weird Al Yankovic, and that's a wonderful way to end any episode.

Other notes:

-Pretty amazing episode, guest-wise: Chris Elliott, Bill Fagerbakke, Frances Conroy, and Cristine Rose as the parents, plus Wayne Brady and the now-recurring Kal Penn. Solid.

-Nora singing "My Favorite Things." Awkward.

-Nice little time jump with "Ted's nuts."

-"I've been waiting for that bowl of ice cream... and tonight, I'm going to have sex with it."