Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was so good that I think maybe I’ve been too easy on other recent episodes.

Numerous first rate gags on hand this time, from Robin’s sixteen “no’s” in reaction to Blah Blah’s insinuation that she and Barney were a couple (protesting so much, in fact, that I think an eventual Robin/Barney pairing is now inevitable), to the running jokes involving Ted’s bad kissing habits and the technique of saying “come on” in a low key but condescending tone to get people to admit sexual secrets.

But it’s not just the verbal silliness that makes a good How I Met Your Mother work.  It’s the visual gags, too, that keep the show firing on all cylinders.  Here we had the amusement of Ted’s ever-shifting hairstyles, the use of sandwiches to represent joints, and, of course, Barney’s crazy/hot scale and its onscreen visualization, as well as the multiple demonstrations of how it works and how Blah Blah’s placement on the scale kept moving.

Finally, we also had multiple flashbacks, including a good look at dippy Ted the liberal college fool eager to show off his feminist cred in order to get in Lily’s pants and looking entirely like a dope.  Others have pointed out that  this episode had significantly less Robin for a change.  I don’t share the disregard that some have for Cobie Smulders, but it’s plainly obvious that the show works best when it’s acting as a true ensemble.  Consequently, it’s nice to see the focus shifting away from the adventures and/or heartbreak of Ted and Robin.  I hope that this is the beginning of a trend that will carry throughout as the season continues.

Lastly, top marks to Abigail Spencer for her fun job as the crazy but hot Blah Blah.  One of the other continuing pleasures of How I Met Your Mother is its ever changing progression of hot female guest stars, and Abigail Spencer may well be the sexiest one yet.

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