Marshall and Lily try to keep Ted from contacting his ex-girlfriend Karen, who's moved to New York and whom they've always hated.
This episode provides examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Ted manages to give Karen the talking to she deserves... but immediately gets back together with her.
- Berserk Button: While Lily and Marshall slightly tolerated Karen's presence, Lily decided that she hated Karen after she lingered on Marshall's junk.Lily: Cheat on Ted, criticize my painting, whatever, that's your business. But I catch you peeping on my man's junk and you linger? You gots to get got.
- Call-Back: The painting Marshall is seen posing for is the one that the gang discovered in "Columns".
- Marshall keeps wearing his shredded pants because he's proud of his calves.
- Comical Overreacting: The Marshall-forgot-his-pants story is amusing, sure. The humor comes from Barney insisting it's the funniest thing ever.
- Exact Words: Barney told Lily that he would give Marshall his pants, which he did. But he made some "alterations" to them first...
- Framing Device: Robin hasn't been spending much time with the group, in preparation for her early-early morning talk show. She asks them what they've been up to, which branches off to Ted and Karen, and the pants story.
- Fridge Logic: In-Universe. Ted says that he broke up with Karen and hadn't spoken to her since. Later, he says that Karen finally broke up with her boyfriend face-to-face; it takes Lily a second, but she realizes that he shouldn't know this if he really hadn't spoken to her since then.
- Heavy Sleeper: Robin is surprised that Ted and Karen had been hooking up in the apartment for three days and she didn't even notice. Ted tells her that the sleeping pills she had been taking to adjust to her new schedule were so strong that she didn't even notice Karen was there.
- Insufferable Genius: Karen is more of the "Insufferable Snob" kind, which is one of the main reasons Marshall and Lily can't stand her. She can't help showing off that she is very cultured and refined at every chance she gets.
- Metaphorgotten: Marshall insists that Ted and Karen's relationship will end the way it always does:Marshall: Ted is Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, and Karen is Lucy who pulls it away at the last second and has sex with it.Everyone else:
Ew! - One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Lily shows up to give Marshall his pants, Barney thinks she's there to give him something. Then she offers to give it to Barney, and he's in. Then she asks him to give it to Marshall... and Barney could be okay with that if hers is really good.
- Pun: Marshall predicts that Karen will cheat on Ted with some "meathead", but it turns out that she was actually cheating with Ted.Future Ted: So the meathead Karen was cheating with—
Present Ted: —was me, Ted! [starts waving his hand to see if anyone's paying attention] Me... Te— Remember the time Marshall forgot his pants? - Relationship Revolving Door: Despite Karen repeatedly cheating on Ted, he keeps forgiving her every time, even after Karen cheats with her other boyfriend with Ted.
- Rewatch Bonus: During one set of flashbacks, college Marshall is seen on his bed, eating an abnormally large amount of fruit. Later, Lily reveals that Karen let her gaze linger on Marshall's junk when Lily was painting him nude. Ted asks why she was painting Marshall in the first place, and she says it's because he had eaten her bowl of fruit.
- Also, the tie that Barney is wearing in the frame story appears to be the one Wendy tried to return to him.
- Sequel Episode: While Ted and Marshall's storylines are new, Barney and Robin's explore the aftermath of previous season's "The Platinum Rule". The episodes also have a similar Framing Device, in which the episode takes place at McLaren's where the gang tells stories in order to dissuade Ted from making a mistake, except this one happens over a single night.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Ted and Karen only kissed the one time in the restaurant. Then they didn't kiss in a tree.
- Title Drop: The title comes from what Karen's other boyfriends say when Ted caught them together. Later becomes an Ironic Echo when Ted says the same thing to Karen's current boyfriend, who she was cheating on with Ted.
