How I Met Your Mother

Episode Air Date: April 24th 2006

Review Date: March 21st, 2016

Reviewer: Chandler

 

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There's something about Mary...

Don't let that skin-tight pink dress (or Barney) fool you - she's a paralegal.

 

The reveal of Mary’s actual occupation however is left until the final minutes of this episode. It’s a gag that How I Met Your Mother uses often in its clever comedic format: the audience is often tricked alongside the characters in order to create a bigger reaction. It’s a ploy at the expense of Mary, and its impact is felt throughout the entire episode.

 

The comedy in HIMYM is quick, witty, and often times a touch offside. This is usually thanks to Neil Patrick Harris' character Barney Stinson: he's the prototypical bro who loves sleeping with women and hates monogamy. Naturally, when his best bro Ted is in a sexual slump and needs to make ex-girlfriend Robin jealous by bringing a date to her award ceremony, Barney has the ultimate idea: Ted should get an escort.

 

Ted: "By escort, you mean prostitute?"

Barney: "Why not?"

Ted [slowly]: "Because gross?"

*laugh track*

 

And that is the ultimate joke, isn't it? That 'prostitutes' are dirty and diseased, and it's absolutely hilarious that a nice guy like Ted would stoop so low as to taking an escort to Robin's event, right? The writer’s could have had Ted use the term ‘sex worker’, but it wouldn’t generate a laugh like the term ‘prostitute’. The term 'prostitute' carries with it negative connotations of sex workers as "verminous" (Strega et al., 2014). These constructions are rampant in media outlets such as newspapers which sensationalize stories about sex workers in order to support their subordination. 

 

This type of humour is easy. It plays up a stereotype that is all-too familiar to our society and thus excuses the viewer from having a real critical thought as to why they are laughing. The sad truth exemplified by the audience laughter is that it is funny to people to hear these stereotypes reiterated by characters on TV. The even sadder truth is that the voice of reason in this episode comes from the very man who exploits Mary as the joke of the episode: Barney.

 

Barney suggests Ted takes Mary to Robin's event. Mary is beautiful, fun, and totally cool. One problem (for Ted): she's also totally a prostitute.

 

Ted: "Oh she sounds great, and who knows, maybe we'll get married one day. You know, if we can get a blessing from her pimp"

*laugh track*

Barney: "You want to judge a fellow human being based solely on one external characteristic?"

 

Thank you, Barney, for arriving at this blatantly obvious point (albeit with completely backward intentions). Mary is more than her occupation and thus deserves the opportunity to not be judged as though this is her entire identity. The reality is that occupational stigma is a significant barrier for sex workers to access services such as health care out of fear of being chastised or ridiculed (Lazarus et al. 2012). However, since rationality isn't exactly a winning punchline, Mary's status as a 'prostitute' is used continuously throughout the episode to gather laughs.

 

Ted of course takes Mary to the event, because what better way to get back at your ex than to bring a conventionally hot blonde to her big event? When Robin inquires about Mary's occupation, Barney frantically shouts out that Mary is a paralegal. The audience laughs because of course a woman as conventionally attractive and blonde as Mary could never actually be a paralegal. At another point in the episode, Mary and Ted's friend Lily return from the washroom together where Lily kisses her fiancé Marshall on the lips. He asks her what they were up to in the washroom at which point Lily explains that they merely chatted a bit and then Lily borrowed Mary's lipstick.

 

Marshall, believing that Mary is a sex worker, subtly wipes his lips with his napkin. The audience laughs - because Mary is a 'prostitute', and all 'prostitutes' are diseased, remember? In case you forgot, later on in the episode Marshall confides in Lily about Mary's occupation, causing Lily to dramatically wipe her mouth and cry. The audience laughs again. When Robin finds out that Mary is a 'prostitute', she asks whether Ted is having a nervous breakdown - because only mentally unstable individuals would ever hire an escort/sleep with a sex worker. The audience, once again, laughs.

 

But then the big reveal comes via Barney: Mary is not really a prostitute.

 

That mischievous Barney let Ted think that Mary was a prostitute because he wanted to teach him a lesson. Poor Ted takes Mary up to the hotel room where he gets cold feet and sighs that he just “cannot have sex with a prostitute.” Mary, of course, is beyond offended.

 

At the episode’s closing, Barney tries to justify his prank to Ted so that Ted will stop being mad at him. The exchange between them truly is remarkable:

               

Barney: “All you have to do is be that confident with every woman and your [sexual] slump’s over!”
Ted: “So you’re saying I should treat every woman like a whore?”

 

And there is truly the last dagger to human decency. Rather than concluding with Barney’s earlier statement that Ted should not have judged Mary based solely on her occupation, the writer’s chose the easier option that would generate laughs at the expense of an extremely stigmatized and marginalized group of people.

 

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Safety

• Mary and Ted did not engage in sexual activity [and she’s not even a sex worker]

Word Choice

• Throughout the course of the episode, Mary is referred to as a hooker, prostitute and whore

• At one point, Barney refers to escorts as professional fornicators

• When Ted was surprised at Mary’s conventional attractiveness, Barney scoffs and assures Ted he would never stick him with “some toothless tranny from the port authority”

Inclusiveness

• Mary is included as a punchline and a woman to be objectified

Facts

• Majority of the jokes aimed at Mary poke fun at her diminished health status due to her occupation

• Both Ted and Barney incorrectly assume that Mary, as an escort, is obigated to sleep with Ted at the end of the date

Type

• All of the characters in the episode assume that Mary is a “dirty prostitute”
   

Overall SWIFT Rating: 0

• This episode does not earn a single red umbrella as the entire 23 minute run time was dedicated to making as many jokes at Mary's expense as possible

• Any positive reference to sex work made in the episode was immediately devalued by a subsequent ill-timed joke