After Robin falls for a move called "The Naked Man", Ted and Barney attempt to try it while Robin tries to save her dignity.
This episode provides examples of:
- At Least I Admit It: Mitch is fully aware that his reliance on "The Naked Man" to get laid doesn't speak very highly of him, and he points out to Robin that at least he's honest about that, unlike her, who pretends to have feelings for him to make herself feel better about falling for his move.
- Badass Longcoat: Mitch wears one in the end as a way for the show to make a The Dark Knight Shout-Out.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ted's Girl of the Week turns out to be a Jerkass sociopath bitch.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Marshall is wrong for slut-shaming Robin after she had pity sex with Mitch, but he is right about love being an important factor in a sexual relationship, while Lily is right about people having more reasons to have sex asides love and none of that being wrong or reproachable.
- Call-Back: The main premise of the episode is Ted getting back in the dating game after being left at the altar.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Mitch lectured to Ted that "The Naked Man" strategy only works two out of three times came to bite Barney's ass in the end.
- Continuity Snarl: In Ted's flashback of 2004 (one year before Season 1), Lily has long darker hair, but in other flashbacks of that year and in Season 1, Lily had her hair bright red and above the shoulders. It’s most likely Lily dyed her hair before turning it back to normal.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: Marshall uses it to slut-shame Robin.Marshall: Oh, no, no, Robin. I just had a bad cough. [Coughing] I don't really have a cough. We all know "college roommate" is really you, slut. [Beat] Does anyone have a lozenge?
- Double Entendre: How Barney gave Lily her reason #46 in her 50 Reasons to have sex list.Lily: Wow, this is getting a little hard.Barney: 46!
- Double Standard: Marshal slut-shames Robin, despite Barney having far less standards and his own wife listing 49 reasons why people have sex unrelated to love.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to the Naked People Are Funny ploy for one-night-stands and its innovator, Mitch.
- Fanservice: While Naked People Are Funny is still in play, it's still an episode featuring Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan showing skin, so audience of all gender will be happy.
- Jerkass: Ted's date Vicky turns out to be an awful human being. She's rude to the waiter after a mistake so she can get freebies from the restaurant, tells Ted how she laughed at an old man falling to the ground, and trash talked Ted's favorite poem from Pablo Neruda.
- Kavorka Man: Mitch, and he knows it. The only thing he has on his favor is the 2 out of 3 possibility of getting laid with "The Naked Man" stunt.
- The Long List: Lily's 50 Reasons to Have Sex list.
- Meet Cute: Ted and his Girl of the Week. They started by getting in the same elevator every day for a week until Ted started to talk to her.
- Naked People Are Funny: The whole premise of "The Naked Man" strategy. Even more so behind the scenes with the show’s season four gag reel showing Cobie Smulders hugging a naked Adam Paul (Mitch) and slaps his butt afterwards, resulting in the crew getting a good laugh out of it.
- Naked People Trapped Outside: Barney after he fails to pull off "The Naked Man".
- Oh, Crap!: The gang initially starts making jokes about Robin's possible reactions when she finds Mitch naked on the couch, until they get to the possibility of Robin getting a gun and shooting him, so they rush back to the apartment. They realize that she fell for "The Naked Man" when the "Mr. Wang sign" is on the doorknob.
- Rule of Three: According to Mitch, "The Naked Man" has a success ratio of 2 out of 3. Ted nails his date after he realizes that she is an awful person, Lily gets Marshall to forget their fight, but Barney gets chased away by his latest conquest, who didn't even let him get his clothes back.
- Scenery Censor: Every time someone pulls "The Naked Man", objects are conveniently placed to cover their private parts.
- Shout-Out:
- The ending of the episode is similar to that of Christopher Nolan's 2008 film, ''The Dark Knight, where Commissioner Gordon provides a narration of how Batman is the hero Gotham deserves, but doesn't need.
- When Ted is standing around naked in Vicky's apartment, he opens a book of love poems by Pablo Neruda and discovers it is bookmarked to his favorite poem, which appropriately is Desnuda Eres ("Naked, You Are..").
- Some of the poses they used referred to the Captain Morgan rum logo, Superman, the Heisman Trophy, Mr. Clean, the Coppertone Baby pose, Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, and actor Burt Reynolds.
- Barney describes "The Naked Man" as being like a superhero, the Superman to Barney's Batman, contrasting the Barney complicated approach, gadgets, gimmicks, secret identities and suiting up, to the simple very opposite idea of taking it all off.
- Since there's a lot of Superman references made, the actress playing Ted's Girl of the Week being the wife of Superman Returns actor Brandon Routh may or may not be an Actor Allusion or/and Casting Gag.
- Slut-Shaming: Marshall to Robin after she slept with Mitch. Played for Laughs of course.Marshall: I'm sorry, Robin, but you sleeping with this guy makes it seem like the only thing standing between you and sex is clothes.
- Straight Man: Mitch is aware that he has become a weirdo, has no appealing qualities, and only relies on "The Naked Man" stunt to get laid, but he is straight with Robin about what happens after, pointing out to her that he knows the date is her "I'm not a slut" date, and she owes him nothing.
- Weirdness Magnet: Future!Ted tells his kids that he has encountered really weird stuff just arriving home.
- November 26, 2004. Lily was painting two acrobats in the living room before deciding to just do the bowl of fruit.
- July 16, 2007. The rest of the gang are watching Barney trying to nail the Water Tank escapism trick, with Robin and Lily ready with axes. Marshall registers twelve minutes.
- December 15, 2006. Robin is holding two burglars at gunpoint, one of them holding the TV, while Lily and Marshall are cowering in the couch.
- May 8, 2009. The goat is in the apartment.
- March 2008. Ted has his first encounter with Mitch, The Naked Man, while Robin is outside answering a phone call.
