The Naked Man (How I Met Your Mother)

"The Naked Man" is the ninth episode in the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 73rd overall. It aired on November 24, 2008.

Plot
Ted ponders how long it will take to recover from being left at the altar by Stella, asking for advice from Lily, Marshall, Robin and, Barney. He soon finds out himself as he begins to talk to a woman he always sees at the elevators at work, Vicky. Slowly they get to know one another, until Ted blurts out that he got left at the altar. He rebounds into asking her out to a date, which she accepts.

He comes home later that day, passing by Robin talking on the phone outside. When he enters his apartment, he finds Mitch, Robin's blind date, sitting naked on the couch. After an awkward exchange, Ted leaves and tells Mitch to take the seat cushion he's on with him, as it's trash now. After hearing from Lily that the blind date had been going badly, Ted goes back and confronts Mitch again, who tells Ted about his "move", The Naked Man, where one takes advantage of a distraction in order to get naked in front of their date in hopes of sex, by means of confidence or by pity. Ted tells the gang about the move's effectiveness (2 out of 3 times), and they proceed to rebuff the claim, thinking Robin may end up shooting Mitch instead. Taking the notion seriously, they storm back to Ted's apartment to find a makeshift "Do not disturb" sign hanging from the doorknob.

Convinced that The Naked Man indeed works, Barney believes it will revolutionize the one night stand, comparing it to the forward pass or the slam dunk, much to the chagrin of Lily, who still believes Barney has feelings for Robin. Barney then likens himself to Batman, with his secret identities and "gadgets", and Mitch to Superman, citing that he "just rips off his clothes, and he's good to go."

Ted's still amazed that The Naked Man worked on Robin. She tries to explain herself when Marshall calls her a slut, saying that the only reason to sleep with someone is true love, namely because he was recently strong armed into reading The Notebook by the secretary's book club at work. Everyone disagrees, and Lily claims she can name at least 50 reasons to sleep with someone while everyone but Marshall helps (some of the reasons mentioned are expiring condoms, "paratrooping" [a slang term for sleeping with someone in a foreign locale in order to have a place to stay], and breakup sex). Stuck on 46, Lily resolves to finish her list as Barney tries to convince Ted into doing The Naked Man with Vicky on their upcoming date while he goes out to attempt The Naked Man himself. As Barney's getting ready, he calls Ted to let him know that he's going through with it. To his surprise, Ted is too after he realized that there was no future between him and Vicky, mainly because she is incredibly rude to a waiter.

On their second date, Robin's tries to start up small talk with Mitch, who realizes that they're on a "I'm not a slut" date, and tells Robin that she's out of his league. After debating which pose to display themselves in, Ted finds a copy of some of his favorite poetry in Vicky's apartment and decides to put his clothes back on. When he finds out that the book isn't even hers, he busts out The Naked Man, as does Barney on his date, and Lily on Marshall.

Ted tells Lily and Marshall at the bar of his success with The Naked Man, and they tell him that it worked out for them as well. Robin, still trying to defend herself, brings Mitch with her to the bar. Marshall takes back what he said, to Robin's relief, and she lets Mitch leave. Ted thanks Mitch for the move, saying that it worked for everyone. Marshall decides to call Barney to see how it worked for him. As it turns out, Barney fails and was forced to leave her apartment naked. Even leaving his cell phone. Which was then thrown in the toilet after the call was ended. (The "Naked Man" having worked 2 out of 3 times; Ted and Lily succeeded while Barney failed) Ted proposes a toast to his hero Mitch, The Naked Man.

Meanwhile. Barney is roaming the streets naked trying to get home. Embarrassed and having to hide from other people. He comes across some cheap suits on a rack outside but was not interested in any of them. So he continues to roam naked.

Continuity

 * As Ted recalls strange occurrences at his apartment, one of them is a goat in his living room on May 8, 2009. The goat was first seen in Ted's bathroom on his 30th birthday as mentioned in Ted's voice-over narration in the first season episode Milk. During The Goat episode, future Ted stated that the goat in his bathroom was actually on his 31st birthday, which would be April 25, 2009.


 * Barney lack of knowledge is inconsistent with his portralyal in Zip, Zip, Zip as when Robin leaves the room he immediately strips down.

Cultural references

 * When Ted is standing around naked in Vicky's apartment, he opens a book of love poems by Pablo Neruda and discovers it is bookmarked to his favorite poem, which appropriately is Desnuda Eres ("You are Naked").
 * Ted's toast at the end to Mitch, The Naked Man, is very similar to that of Commissioner Gordon's statement of Batman at the end of The Dark Knight.