Rabbit or Duck

"Rabbit or Duck"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 15
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Written by	Carter Bays, Craig Thomas
Production code	5ALH15
Original air date	February 8, 2010 (2010-02-08)
Guest stars
Lauren Shiohama (Marissa) Arnold Chun (Waiter) Phil Simms (Himself) Jim Nantz (Himself) Bar Paly (Natalia)
Season 5 episodes
Definitions Double Date Robin 101 The Sexless Innkeeper Duel Citizenship Bagpipes The Rough Patch The Playbook Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap The Window Last Cigarette Ever Girls Versus Suits Jenkins Perfect Week Rabbit or Duck Hooked Of Course Say Cheese Zoo or False Home Wreckers Twin Beds Robots Versus Wrestlers The Wedding Bride Doppelgangers

"Rabbit or Duck" is the fifteenth episode of the fifth season of the CBS situation comedy How I Met Your Mother and 103rd episode overall. It originally aired on February 8, 2010.

Plot

Ted, Marshall, Lily, and Robin hang out at Ted's apartment to watch the Super Bowl, where the camera catches Barney holding up a sign in the crowd asking women to call him. It pays off as his phone keeps ringing with women on the other end. He hires Ranjit as his personal driver. Robin also reveals that she accepted an offer from her colleague, Don Frank (Benjamin Koldyke), to go on a Valentine's Day date with him, while they were on the air. The gang debates whether Robin is attracted to Don using the duck-rabbit illusion. This leads to one of the most intense fights ever among the group, with Marshall supporting rabbits as an object of desire, and Ted, Robin, and Ranjit supporting ducks. Ranjit even falls back into his native language (actually Persian) to yell at Marshall. Marshall eventually concedes the point.

Given the success of Ranjit's arranged marriage, Ted decides to let Marshall and Lily pick the perfect bride for him during a double date on Valentine's Day itself. Ted joins Robin on her date at Don's apartment, as Don said there would be a party. Ted leaves when they see Don on the couch naked and realizes there was no party. Don says he was trying The Naked Man. Robin confronts Don and he admits he is interested in her but didn't know how to say. However, she sees him with a large pair of rabbit ears.

Meanwhile, Barney's having problems with his pickup phone. When he is about to bed one woman, an even hotter woman calls the phone. This causes him to ditch the woman and have Ranjit drive him back to MacLaren's on three separate occasions. On the fourth incident (involving a hot chick named Natalia), Barney throws the phone in the dumpster so he can concentrate on the woman. As he was about to seal the deal, he could hear the phone ringing in the distance (in the manner of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart) and gets it again at the dumpster. Marshall and Lily later hide the phone inside the piano at Ted's apartment. Ted and Robin, who agreed to clean up the place for the day, find the phone and Ted answers.

Ted goes on the double date with Marshall and Lily, who have fixed him up with Natalia. Despite their compatibility, Ted continues to answer the phone, which results in another encounter at MacLaren's, wearing aviator sunglasses and sitting across from another woman. Seeing Ted on the line, Barney tries to get it from him, but Ted passes it to Marshall and Lily, who drops the phone in a pitcher of beer.

Back at the apartment, Ted and Robin lament about their single status, but later agree to clean the bathroom.

While preparing for another episode of Come On Get Up, New York, Don apologizes to Robin for his unprofessional behavior and praises her news anchor skills. He also tries to improve his work ethic by getting coffee for Robin. She realizes that he is wearing pants (which he never does), and the next time she looks up she imagines a duck bill on his face.

Music

• Barney's ringtone is "Turkey in the Straw."
• A fast version of Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" (from Incidental music to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, op. 61) plays while Marshall and Lily hurry to find Ted a wife on Valentine's Day.
• Ted spoofs "Here's comes the groom"; music is from Bridal Chorus, from Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin.
• "Turkey in the Straw" is also heard – in a slower version and played in the piano – in the date that Marshall and Lily arranged for Ted at the restaurant.
• While Ted and Robin are sitting in the couch discussing how bad being single is, the song that plays in the background is from Haroula Rose's EP single Haroula Rose - Someday.

Cultural references

• Ted references Donald Duck's and Don's shared habit of not wearing pants as proof that Don is a "duck." Ironically, it is Don's decision to start wearing pants that makes him a duck to Robin.
• While attending the Super Bowl, Barney holds up a sign saying "Hey Ladies, Call Barney Stinson," with the C, B, and S written in big colored letters. CBS is the network that airs How I Met Your Mother and that also broadcasted Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010. The poster Barney displayed has two versions. One version, with the number 1-877-987-6401, was shown during the actual Super Bowl telecast. When the number is dialed, a message recorded by Harris in character as Barney is played. The number was changed to 1-917-555-0197 in the version shown in the episode.
• Don wonders why Ulee's Gold is in every crossword.
• Natalia, the date Marshall and Lily arrange for Ted, knows all the lines from Caddyshack.
• When the gang breaks out into their biggest argument over which was better: the duck or the rabbit, Ranjit gets heated as well and joins the argument in his native tongue. Ranjit very enthusiastically begins to argue in Persian. He yells out the following argument in favor of the duck being better: "A duck can swim, walk and fly, what else do you want from the poor animal!"

Continuity

• This episode marks the start of Robin's change of feelings towards co-host Don, mentioned by Future Ted in "Last Cigarette Ever" (Season 5, Episode 11). It also can be seen as a reference to "The Mermaid Theory" (Season 6, Episode 11).
• There is a reference to "The Naked Man" (Season 4, Episode 9) and to Barney writing about it in Barney's Blog. Unbeknownst to Don, Robin was a target of Mitch's "Naked Man" move, which brought it into all of their lives.
• Marshall allows Ted to use his "lawyered" put down, first seen in "Mary the Paralegal" (Season 1, Episode 19). This is the first time anyone other than Marshall has used the line.
• In their last-ditch attempt to find Ted a Valentine, Lily and Marshall mention several of his former conquests from the show, including Trudy ("The Pineapple Incident", "Third Wheel"), Blahblah ("How I Met Everyone Else") and Natalie ("Return of the Shirt"). Only Trudy's history is unconnected to the show. While Trudy got married, Blahblah, who the gang noted was crazy, was finally committed while Natalie, whom Ted dumped on her birthday on two separate occasions, still hates him. However, in "Return of the Shirt", Future Ted notes that Natalie is married with 3 kids (Marshall and Lily might not have known that at the time, though).
• This is the second time a Super Bowl is used as a plot point on the show. The season 2 episode "Monday Night Football" was centered around Super Bowl XLI.
• This is the second time that Ranjit speaks Persian in the entire series. The first time was in "The Goat" when he cursed Barney in "Persian" after finding out that Barney and Robin had sex.
• This episode is referred to in "Of Course". After seeing Barney at the Super Bowl, Robin calls dibs on his hot wings which (shown in "Of Course") she took into the kitchen to eat so the gang could not see her crying.

Barney's blog

Barney express his love for his best wingman, his phone, in the form haiku.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The AV Club rated the episode with a grade A.

Brian Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 9 out of 10.

External links

• Rabbit or Duck at TV.com
• Rabbit or Duck at the Internet Movie Database