WHAT IF TED IS THE MOTHER!

[zelempa]

I love How I Met Your Mother and I would rate "Slap Bet" and "Arrivederci Fiero" as two of the best episodes (if not the two BEST; Sandcastles is up there, though, along with Slapsgiving, World's Greatest Couple, Miracles). However after watching them both yesterday one after the other I noticed that they both have odd little transphobic moments.

• Barney: How's the Fiero?
  Marshall: She's still in triage.
  Ted: She? I thought it was your little boy?
  Lily (sympathetically, rubbing Marshall's shoulder): Oh, it goes back and forth. It's sort of a tranny car.

  That's... that's really not what that means. Possibly this is some kind of transgender/transmission joke, but it doesn't work.
  
  
• In Slap Bet, Barney advises Ted that it would be better to find out any dealbreakers with Robin sooner rather than later, and Ted imagines standing at the altar on his wedding day and when he pulls back the veil Robin says, "I used to be a dude." That's the worst thing he can think of. That's the worst thing he can think of, given that even in this hypothetical scenario he's been friends with, dating, and sleeping with Robin and he hasn't noticed. It's a cheap shot, and not even character-driven.
  
  It's a small moment, but it's really noticeable because otherwise "Slap Bet" is notable for being a remarkably tight episode: not only does it contain the best scenes/gimmicks (the slap bet, Robin Sparkles), but also a lot of the best incidental dialogue ("Porn--wait for it!--ography." "He went there for business!" "I'm not afraid of Sasquatch. I just think we should all be on alert" etc.)

In general, HIMYM is great when it's great and it's usually pretty good on gay stuff (the episode centering around Barney's gay brother has nothing to do with him being gay, for example), so this is just weird to notice.