How I Met Your Mother: The Best Episode From Every Season

How I Met Your Mother Season 2 is filled with great episodes, including Ted Mosby, Architect, Swarley, Showdown, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and the ever underrated Stuff. However, Slap Bet takes the cake as the season's best outing because of its non-stop hilarity and what it introduces to the show.

The episode follows Ted trying to deduce why Robin won't go to the mall. He comes to the conclusion that she married someone at a mall in Canada. Barney, meanwhile, is so sure that Robin did porn at a mall that he makes a "slap bet" with Marshall, wherein if Robin fears malls because of her pornographic past, Barney gets to slap Marshall as hard as he can, but if not, Marshall can live out every woman in New York City's dream and slap Barney.

However, both Ted and Barney turn out to be wrong. Robin will not go to malls because she was a teenage pop star in Canada. She sang her hit single, Let's Go To The Mall, at malls so many times that she refuses to return to those shopping districts as an adult.

Because it was not porn, Marshall wins the slap bet, and earns the right to slap Barney five times in the face whenever he'd like. This recurring slap bet, along with Robin Sparkles, both become some of How I Met Your Mother's funniest gags, and both originate from this episode.

Slap Bet isn't just a great episode because it introduces those running gags. It's filled to the brim with hilarious one-liners, and ends on a sweet note, with Ted praising Robin Sparkles. Also, you have to admit, Let's Go to the Mall is a better song than it has any right to be.