(no subject)

[fan_eunice]

Right, so at some point in the last few months I downloaded all of How I Met Your Mother. I don't actually remember doing it, but hey, when there is no tv and you discover 5 seasons of something you haven't watched sitting on your hard drive, PARTY TIME. I am now halfway through the fifth season and I have a problem I can't quite puzzle out.

Goes like this. I kind of adore Marshall and Lily, because they are adorable like puppies and who doesn't like puppies? I think I'm more than a little in love with Robin (Sparkles and all, *sporfle*). And then there is the thing I can't figure out.

See, I kind of can't stand Ted. In fact he skeeves me out a bit in ways I can't quite put my finger on. This would not be confusing except for the part where...wait for it (hint!)...I fucking love Barney. He opens his mouth and I think to myself, self, that is repulsive and kind of offensive and gross...and yet, love him. I'll be like, whatever, it's Barney and wave it away. While Ted just acts like Ted and suddenly I'm rolling my eyes and making barf sounds. What the shit is that? I don't even know.

Please explain me to me right now, because what?

Comments

[some_stars]

I don't watch, but everyone I know who does absolutely HATES Ted. Apparently he just has a quality of loathsomeness. It's not just you!

[fan_eunice]

He really does. I kinda want to send a note into fiction land addressed to the mysterious future wife with two words on it. RUN AWAY.

[pocketmouse]

I watched mmm... most of the first season? Then kind of lost interest. Too Friends-With-Whedon-Dialogue. What I've heard it explained as, though, is that Ted is basically that Nice Guy, the one who thinks women owe him something just because he's not overtly an asshole.

Barney, on the other hand, is an overt asshole, and he knows it, and he's not trying to hide it. So we assume there's a better level underneath, or we accept it for the shallow comedy.

[fan_eunice]

Heh, I pretty much just had that exact revelation over on the LJ entry. Barney isn't meant to be taken seriously and he's so over the top that he's...surprisingly sympathetic when he is human and sort of hilarious when he's not.

But yeah, Ted...who hasn't actually met Ted. Ick. Entitled and gives off this vibe that he's not looking for an actual partner, he's looking for a warm body to fill the role of Wife And Mother in The Ted Story. Which is gross.

[sapote]

I call this type of guy the Casting Director. The general sign that you're dating a Casting Director is when they start upping the level of commitment when it's still pretty clear that they know nothing about you - I dated a guy like this for a while. The fact that Ted actually feels like the entire universe is set up to guide him towards his Eternally Prongable Lady just bothers the crap out of me.

The rest of his personality I don't mind, because we're both kind of pretentious and douchey. But at least I don't believe in predestined soulmates.

[deird1]

The general sign that you're dating a Casting Director is when they start upping the level of commitment when it's still pretty clear that they know nothing about you - I dated a guy like this for a while.

YES. I have encountered quite a few guys like this - but never managed to put it so succinctly as that two-word label. Nicely done. :)

[regicidaldwarf]

I think the difference is we're supposed to find the horrible things Barney says horrible but funny - with Ted we're supposed to relate to his hints of skeeviness, and agree with him.

[fan_eunice]

Horrible but funny, that kind of sums it up. And yeah, we have all the permission in the world to laugh at Barney where I think we are supposed to be laughing with Ted. And I'm not?

[skipthedemon]

I think the thing to keep in mind with Ted is - he's the narrator. He's looking back on his friends fondly, with nostalgia , of course they are extra shiny. If he actually didn't show us all the ways that he was kind douchey and an idiot in his 30s? All that makes him immature relative to his present. It would probably mean he is a worse human being.

ETA: Wow, my take is so different from every one else's. Huh.

[fan_eunice]

That makes sense, and I can actually see that take on it..but I think the format actually backfires in that sense for me, because I end up feeling like he's auditioning women for this faceless nameless role so the ones we meet don't count and neither really does the one he ends up with because she is 'your mother' and not an actual person.

Throw in that he is often kind of douchey and entitled in the way he behaves in relationships and my primary reaction to him losing a girlfriend is 'dodged a bullet there' That I'm supposed to be identifying and sympathizing with him just ends up making it worse.

Ah, yes

[tzikeh]

How We Met All Of the Awesome People Who the Guy Who Met Your Mother Knows.

BARNEY! \o/

Have you finished watching all five seasons?

Re: Ah, yes

[fan_eunice]

I am nearly done with the fifth season (have a few more eps to go) and yes, that is an appropriate replacement title :D :D

[jetpack_monkey]

I like Ted, but then again, I've been Ted. I'm not Ted anymore, thankfully. I don't actually see the show as wanting us to agree with Ted's skeevier tendencies -- instead, his friends and Future!Ted usually mock him for them. And let's face it, he gets his ass handed to him emotionally (and literally) on a constant basis because of his unrealistic expectations.

[fan_eunice]

I think it isn't unusual for guys to go through that phase, but I think I don't really see Ted learning from it...rather, the format of the show seems to reward him for it. Both in intending to elicit audience sympathy and in this inevitable trajectory towards the 'wife and mother' he 'deserves'.

I dunno. It is like, it isn't his expectations and sense of entitlement are unrealistic (which they are), but that he just hasn't met the right 'one' yet. Which...yeah, kinda grosses me out.

[bop_radar]

People have explained Ted's lack of charisma well already. I'll just add: he's deeply deeply boring.

[fan_eunice]

Heh, yeah :)

[gelasius]

I will concur with the downthread comments about Barney's in-your-face-ness being more entertaining than the quieter skeeviness of Ted, though let's also not forget the magical charisma of the NPH. Or maybe that's just me. ;)

[fan_eunice]

It certainly helps! NPH does a great job of pushing Barney over the top in his performance in this really entertaining way that doesn't excuse his behavior...which I think is one of the keys to why it can be funny.

[marymac]

Ted is weird for me because he has in his endearing moments all the hapless dorkitude my young man has when Quite Drunk, except, Ted's sober, and um, displays none of the redeeming features of said young man drunk or sober. So I end up wanting to slap him and then poking my young man and lecturing him on not behaving like that ever.

Also I kind of just want to watch the Barney And Robin Have A Deeply Peculiar Relationship Show.

[fan_eunice]

Also I kind of just want to watch the Barney And Robin Have A Deeply Peculiar Relationship Show.

I would SO watch that show. The way they backed themselves into a relationship, which could only occur by not admitting it was happening was VASTLY entertaining.