The gang race to a downtown restaurant while Robin tries to convince them that she is a real New Yorker.
This episode provides examples of:
- The B Grade: Ted's reason for needing to win the race is an inversion. He's told about a website where students can rate their teachers and checks it out. He sees dozens of glowing reviews for himself, but the one he notices calls him "boring".
- Brick Joke: When saying the bus is the best way to cross New York, Barney says the only problem is that one crazy guy you always see. While Ted's actually riding the bus, he tries to prove he's not boring by discussing things with the other passengers. He eventually notices them trying to keep their distance from him.Older Ted: Kids, I learned a harsh lesson that day. If you can't spot the crazy person on the bus, it's you.
- Butt-Monkey: The woman with the grocery bag can't seem to catch a break. First she jumps in front of the cab Robin stole from her, and when she takes the bus while walking with a limp, Ted starts to bore her with architecture rambling.
- The Cameo: Maury Povich appears all over New York.
- Chekhov's Skill:
- Lily's ability to understand the garbled voice of the announcer which allows her to trick Robin when she takes the subway.
- Barney's ability to tell when a woman has been crying makes him let Robin win when he notices she's been crying.
- Cool Teacher: According to "grademyteacher.net", the 63 reviews Ted got were outstanding. Only one called him "boring".
- Didn't Think This Through: Barney's original plan involves having someone call an ambulance for him and telling them to take him to the hospital near the restaurant. The paramedic promptly informs him that ambulances will take you to the nearest hospital, which in this case is the opposite direction.
- Foreshadowing: One of the historic buildings Ted mentions during the bus ride is The Arcadian. The very next episode, GNB announces that their building is going to be built in its place.
- Heroic BSoD: Robin finally breaks crying in the subway after she sees a poster of Becky literally eclipsing her (Becky's face was literally Photoshopped over a sun, ten times bigger than Robin's picture), and when she tries to tear it down, the poster underneath is Don's.
- Incredibly Long Note: Parodied in the final verse of "Marshall vs. the Machines", where the narrator holds the note as Marshall waits for a pedestrian crossing signal to (supposedly quickly) change.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: The reason both Marshall and Lily want to win the race is because both of them are blaming themselves for not being able to have a baby yet, and the race is a way for them to vent.
- Man Versus Machine: Marshall tries to beat everyone else's methods (taxi, subway, bus, ambulance, and limo) on foot.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lily later realizes that she abandoned Robin when she needed her the most, all because she wanted to win the race.
- "No Rules" Racing: Premise of the episode - whoever gets to Gregor's Steak House first wins, doesn't matter what route they take, what form of transportation they use, or what dirty tricks they pull along the way (Barney tries to misappropriate an ambulance, and Lily is prepared to just run over Ted).
- Offscreen Teleportation: Played for laughs. Early in the episode, one of the gang notes that Maury Povich sightings are nothing special; he then appears in almost every scene, even though it's physically impossible for him to have gotten from place to place so quickly.
- Shout-Out: When Barney fakes a heart attack, he cries out "ELIZABETH!"
- To encourage himself, Marshall recounts (in song) some times when he had bested machines, including fixing a jukebox "with his Fonzarelli arm".
- What's a Henway?: Barney gets in an Airplane!-style version of this joke.Barney: I got a way to get there so fast, I could beat all of you. Even if I sat down and ordered a big, juicy steak first.
Marshall: How?
Barney: Medium-rare, but that's not important right now.
