P.S. I Love You takes the Canada-extravaganza of How I Met Your Mother to a whole new level. The show consistently makes Canada jokes and references, so I didn’t think we’d see an episode where the usual Canadian humor would be put to shame, but tonight definitely did just that.
The episode features jokes about Tim Horton’s and donuts throughout, constant references to the politeness of the residents of the great white north, and even appearances by basically every Canadian star of the 90s imaginable. I mean we had K.D. Lang, Jason Priestley, Alex Trebek, Paul Shaffer, Steven Page, Luc Robitaille, Geddy Lee, and Dave Coulier. Who more could you want?
The catalyst to the Canadian onslaught is a discussion about stalkers, and whether someone has to be a total nut to become obsessed. Ted likes to reference the Dobler/Dahmer Theory, which says that whether a gesture is charming or alarming depends on the reception. It references Lloyd Dobler from the Cameron Crowe classic Say Anything (sweet) and the serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer (anything but sweet). Basically, if you’re into someone, you’re willing to accept an action as sweet, when it may otherwise be considered creepy. He has a valid point. We’ve all seen many guys do totally innocent and sweet things, and end up being called creepy since the girl wasn’t into them. We’ve also seen guys do some very weird stuff that girls miraculously find sweet. This Dobler/Dahmer Theory ought to stick.
Robin gets a bit defensive when Barney is bashing stalkers, and confesses that at one time she may have gotten a bit obsessed with someone. When she won’t tell Barney who it was, he reacts in the most normal way possible: he breaks into her apartment, reads her teenage diaries, flies to Canada, talks to all her ex-boyfriends, and eventually finding the tape that everyone’s been waiting for: Robin Sparkles 4!
Underneath the Tunes is apparently the Canadian version of Behind the Music, and they did a special on Robin Sparkles after things were no longer so sparkly in her life. Her hits had propelled her to stardom, but she eventually decided she wanted no more of it, and she became Robin Daggers.
Robin Daggers reminded me a bit of Alanis Morrisette from the start, and that was continued all the way up to having Coulier as one of the interview subjects. The song is about some man that she’s obsessed with but doesn’t want to be with. The song’s target was some kind of big mystery in Canada, but the name that came up the most frequently is Alan Thicke. Because of this, Barney rushes to Thicke’s apartment and attempts to beat Thicke up. Thicke easily subdues him and says he wasn’t the one Robin was obsessed with, he always thought it was Coulier.
Once Barney admits that anyone can cross the line, Robin admits that her song P.S. I Love You was about none other than Paul Schaffer. That’s right, her obsession was with the Letterman sidekick, which she claims is a common thing among Canadian teenage girls.
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