When Doug, an employee at MacLaren's, drags Ted and Barney outside to fight a couple of guys who took their usual booth, Doug knocks the guys out by himself, but Ted and Barney decide to lie and say that they took part in it.
This episode provides examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Robin is attracted to men who get into fights (and win). Ted also seems to feel this way, as, when Lily says him being a Nice Guy is his best quality, he retorts, "Really? ’Cuz I seem to recall this Nice Guy getting left at the altar for a taekwondo instructor."
- Ax-Crazy: Doug the bartender. He is short tempered and is constantly looking for a reason to get into fights.
- Bald of Evil: Doug, which he covers with a toupee, though he is more of Ax-Crazy than downright evil.
- Berserk Button: Don't stare at Doug's toupee. Or let him think you are.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Future!Ted: Kids, don't get into a fight with your Uncle Marshall. That guy is crazy.
- Brick Joke: Earlier in the episode, Marshall mentions that there will be real lightsabers 3-5 years from now. The Flash Forward in The Stinger shows him wielding it.
- The Brute: Doug is as tall and as huge as Marshall, but is Ax-Crazy.
- Call-Back/Continuity Nod:
- Ted being left at the altar is mentioned at the beginning of the episode, and later becomes a plot point.
- Future!Ted recounts being punched at St. Patrick's Day in the previous season.
- Missy the goat is foreshadowed by Future!Ted once again.
- Condescending Compassion: How Ted views the constant stream of pity he has been receiving since Stella left him at the altar. In his defense, Wendy does go a little overboard in her attempts to show him sympathy.
- Et Tu, Brute?: How Doug felt for the gang when they "sold him out and abandoned him" during an assault charge that he solely did anyway.
- Event Title: The episode is about Ted (and Barney) getting into a fight.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Barney and Ted rode along Doug's claim that the two of them "helped" him beat some guys outside the MacLaren's. That's until the other guys sued them for assault.
- Foreshadowing:
- A Flash Forward in The Stinger shows a Thanksgiving dinner in the Ericksen household 3-5 years from now where Marshall thanked members of his family except his father. Two seasons later...
- Missy the Goat got a Call-Back again, with Future!Ted saying that he'll fight her eventually.
- Green-Eyed Monster: When Robin suddenly becomes interested in Marshall after hearing about his fights (due to All Girls Want Bad Boys), Lily replies with, "bitch, don't even."
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Ax-Crazy Doug has an exceedingly short fuse, even aside from his Berserk Button about his toupee.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Robin propositions Barney with a pair of hockey tickets when she thinks he was in a fight. She retracts when Marshall spills the beans, and is so humiliated that she can't even come up with a plausible excuse, saying that she has to go to "the, uh... the, uh...".
- In Love with Your Carnage: The episode reveals that Robin is turned on by violence. A big reason why Barney pretends he got in a fight is so she will sleep with him again.
- Kick the Dog: Doug just had to give Ted the Wham Line below at the worst possible time.
- Lady in Red: At the beginning of the episode, Barney is attracted to a girl with a red sweater.
- Lovable Coward: Barney ran away during the fight with Doug.
- Martial Pacifist: Appropriately, Marshall.
- Miles Gloriosus: Ted and Barney go along with Doug's claim that the three of them got into a fight with the booth stealers and won. They capitalize on their "heroism" in the bar…until they get indicted for assault. Then, they start pleading with Marshall to help them prove they weren’t actually in the fight.
- Remember the New Guy?: Doug can be seen in flashbacks of past episodes, digitally inserted a la Forrest Gump.
- Sarcastic Confession:Marshall: You two got in a fight. Really.
Ted: Uh, no, Barney punched me and himself in the face to make it look like we got in a fight. Come on, Marshall. - Shout-Out:
- Barney uses the names of sitcoms from The '70s and The '80s to fake a conversation, specifically using Good Times, Gimme a Break!, What's Happening!!, Diff'rent Strokes and What's Happening Now!!.
- Before going out into the alley to fight, Ted says "It's clobberin' time," referencing the catch phrase of comic book character the Thing from the Fantastic Four and (former) WWE Superstar CM Punk.
- The scene where Marshall is actively brawling with his brothers (especially the angle of his punching shot) is reminiscent of the brawling scenes from the movie Fight Club. It's also discussed in the Eriksen's Fight Club featurette in the Season 4 DVD set. Similarly, Barney punching himself and then Ted is reminiscent of the narrator's first fight with Tyler Durden in the same film.
- After Barney punches Ted in the nose, he says that Ted's nose will swell up and references actor Owen Wilson, who is known for his crooked nose, which he broke in a fight.
- At the end of the episode, Marshall uses a lightsaber to carve the turkey.
- When Marshall is trying to explain to the kids not to fight, he compares the titular Kung Fu Panda and the character's Old Master Shifu to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King respectively.
- Ted says that in college, he "studied Kung Fu".
- When joking about Marshall's femininity, Barney and Ted mention Sex and the City.
- Testosterone Poisoning: The episode discusses, deconstructs and even mocks the macho mentality that says "real men love fighting".
- Training from Hell: The Ericksen brothers' rough house can be considered as this for Marshall (or all three of them in general).
- Undying Loyalty: Doug to the gang, which crosses Unwanted Assistance levels.
- Wham Line: "No wonder your fiancée left you!"
