Who's That Girl?

I decided, for this article, to change the channel for a brand new show: New Girl. New Girl, highly recommended and toted as the new How I Met Your Mother (except this would be, like, how-I-met-my-future-girlfriend-a-few-times-over), will air its season finale May 18. Which means I have to hop to catching up.

I feel proud my readers can follow me into my new-show foray, full of ignorance and surprises and choking. It’s how I respond to jokes.

Let’s see how I do.

…I discovered right away the episode Virgins, aired April 30, probably wasn’t the best episode to review in its entirety. Instead, allow me to divulge my first impressions of half the cast and the plot as a whole; or as many characters whose names I can remember.

Jess

I do remember she came up with her opening jingle in the first, or one of the first, season one pilots. She seems sweet, clear-cut, un-passive aggressive. Dry humored without being vain or aloof. She may be sarcastic. I like her already.

But I also have a strong Zooey Deschanel bias, so bear with me. The fashion, all of it.

Nick

He seems neurotic, but not in the push-aside creepy way. I label him as The Ross from FRIENDS: well-meaning and kind, but, as his father eloquently put it, he “thinks too much.” From what I’ve seen of fan reviews and clips, the patriarch sentiment hits the nail on the head. So much so for half a second I thought he hadn’t lost his virginity before the episode’s finale. Context?

Schmidt

College-Schmidt is the best thing.

He’s loud, rude, crude, and seems so used to his own vocabulary he can’t be bothered to see why he’s all these things. But that’s why his roommates love him. Also why they invented the Douchebag jar. Well played, apartment.

In my next evaluation of New Girl, look out for plot first impressions gearing up before the season finale on FOX!

B-Blog

No! Writers! How I Met Your Mother writers! Stop messing with me!
I knew after Barney insisted he knew Robin better than Ted something would go south. Talk about foreshadowing.

But was Robin fair to assume Barney wouldn’t have come? Ted has simply known her longer—does that make him the love of her life?
We know she marries…not Ted, if not Barney. Either way, I want the madness to end.

On to the episode.

You saw my favorite parts during the live tweeting/Facebook updates. Barney’s budding relationship with Robin’s father blossomed into something of a Venus Flytrap in the laser tag arena, where their combined stubbornness erupt into a Bro of the Flies. Each enlists fellow laser-tagging ten year olds for their respective teams, fighting an arduous battle to the finish.
Pity it wasn’t important enough for Barney to stop and help out his fiancé in Central Park.

Robin, as a teenage boy, buried upon her last visit her future Something Old for her wedding: one locket. Should she find it again, beyond all doubts, before she married, then the Universe granted her it’s blessing in the union. If not—it didn’t.

Therefore, Robin spends the entire episode trying to dig for a locket she failed to mark, calling upon her friends for help before finally finding the one friend that saw through her nonchalant wall: Ted.

They find the locket-box. The locket isn’t inside.

To which I wonder where on earth it got to, if it were in the box when she buried it at all. Something tells me she left it out as a teen.
Regardless, Ted and Robin debate signs from the universe, all the way up to a cliffhanger ending: hand holding.

Writers, can we not.
Oh, and Marshall and Lily continue to pack for Italy. They’ll get their Something New In the future. Meanwhile your blogger cringes in wait.

TV's Best Dressed

A fan directed me to an interesting website this morning (um…make that late yesterday night. Technically, both,) where the owner tracks down exact, or close to, replicas of the outfits from stylish sitcom characters!

Now, we already have some of your favorites, like Shelly, down pat, but what about those stars that veer from the screen-T to something more refined? Someone, say, like Robin Scherbatsky, Lily, or Penny, Bernadette, and others from How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory?

Go sit in the corner, Rachel Green. Our new millennium starlets are giving us an upgrade.

Robin, newscaster that she is, can afford more refined, expensive brands, than say your fresh-into-the-coffee-shop social anxiety afflicted. Her houndstooth beige number, as seen in the latest episode, comes right from Nordstrom rack, though you can find the same top on Amazon and Zappos-dot-com.

Right our from Lily’s art consultant fashionista phase, the website found her pretentious black scouting cape.  Of course she snagged it from none other than Saks Fifth Avenue, but there might be some online options besides floating around. Her 15-years-young blue tweed jacket?  Purely J. Crew.

Penny from The Big Bang Theory would settle for no less than something sweet…and a little spicy. She splurged on her smoking sweetheart dress from Guess, though we’re betting she found it bargain with her server’s wages. Or maybe we underestimate her; it wouldn’t be the first time she purchased clothes comparable to her rent payment.

Bernadette, our much more careful dresser, found her dress + cardigan staple through online and small boutique browsing. We appreciate the frugalness, Bernie, and the dress with the sweater always screams, you, but of all the characters we profiled you probably make the most bank! Take a few tips from Robin Scherbatsky---or maybe take Howard out shopping one day.

The Big Bang Query

I woke up this morning with a question in my brain. Usually they’re introspective, thought-provoking, insightful ponderings.
Today I wondered how many puns existed for my favorite sitcom shows.

After doing some Internet digging, I found a hearty list for all three that I couldn’t help but share with the rest of you. And I only hope you find them, and puns, as enjoyable as I do. Or wince-worthy. Depending on your inclination.

Big Bang Theory (Howard Wolowitz Puns):
“Hey girl, are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you are CuTE.”

(Whatever Tellurium is.)

“Do you love water? That means you love 80% of me.”

“You must be the square root of two, because I feel irrational around you.”

Leave it to the engineer to throw in the math jokes.

“I’m making a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down!”

How I Met Your Mother:

“Why does Barney wear formal attire? It suits him.”

“I just met an awesome cow. It was udderly legen…wait for it…dairy.”
(Wince.)

“I went to a wedding last week where the bride married a television. The ceremony was alright, but the reception was excellent!”

For a visual touch, a picture of a seagull with Marshall’s head: a Marshgull. Hyuck.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

"I can handle it, handle's my middle name. Actually it's the middle part of my first name."
(Courtesy of Chandler Bing.)

“The bride got a new name, and a dress.” (Think about it.)

“Chefs trade recipes on a knead to know basis.”

“I break into song if I can’t find the key.”

A pedestrian-crossing picture with Ross’ face posted inside.
“Use ROSSwalk.”

I had fun researching all the new jokes; it wasn’t a complete punishment.
…I tried.

If you have or have heard a better joke or pun, especially with original sitcoms or brand new shows, leave them in the comments! 

Proctor Proton

“Aww, it’s so cool when you use the word ‘cool’ wrong.”

Leonard and Sheldon discover they can realize their childhood dream when they find the host of their favorite science show online, Professor Proton! You might even say he’s a positive role model.
Ah I make myself laugh.

They hire him for a day of re-enacting children’s science tricks in their apartment, expecting the gloriousness and grandeur they watched from their TV sets as kids. What they find, however (besides guest star Bob Newhart), is a forlorn retiree with no life direction and a rather stony melancholy over the science world he knew.

Sheldon and Leonard do end up rekindling his spirits. Or maybe that was the beginning of the heart attack. Either way, Sheldon got to ride in an ambulance, so…best day ever! Right?

In an apartment building far, far away, Raj has Howard and Bernadette dog-sit Cinnamon, his Yorkshire terrier. Besides catering to Cinnamon’s rich (and perhaps outrageous) diet, the couple does all right. Even suppose having kids one day (um, we say yes).
Until, that is, they take Cinnamon out for her first park play-date.

When they forget to put her back in the stroller, Howard and Bernadette go on a wild dog-chase for the terrier, unaware Raj subsequently found her and brought her home much sooner. The joke is on him when he tries to guilt-trip them later. Bernadette, pulling another motherly card from the deck and scolding him for keeping them worried sick.
She’s going to be an amazing mom, Howard and I agree.

This episode, filler that I thought it might have been, still made me think of long ago 4pm children’s specials. These shows of my past inspired me to do lots of things, and were only even more prevalent generations before me. (My parents still bring up Captain Kangaroo on occasion).
Did you have any favorites? Or did they absolutely freak you out? Either way, to me, nostalgia is still “cool.”