10 Worst How I Met Your Mother Episodes
7. The Stamp Tramp
This episode
has a witty title, I’ll give it that. Unfortunately, in this 22-minute instalment
in Season 8, the episode offers little else. Having seen episode after episode
of Barney growing as a character, falling in love with Quinn and ultimately
proposing to her in one of the most epic and heart-warming ways ever seen on
the show, this episode manages to eradicate it all.
Seeing Barney return to his old ways, hunting out strip-clubs which are eager to please him lets the viewer know that nothing has changed in him despite this emotional journey. Episodes that dehumanise Barney are some of the worst. He might be the comic relief character, but he's still supposed to be a person with depth and feelings - something the show touches upon but always pulls back from.
At the same time, Marshall is slandered for being a good man who puts faith in people, and his overwhelming goodness is punished without remorse which nobody ever likes to see. The gang go on an entire tirade about who gives the best stamps of approval and frankly why should anyone care?