From: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Television
Who said it?: Lily Aldrin
The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (abbreviated as HIMYM). The premise of the series is that the narrator, the future Ted Mosby, is telling his children the story of how he met their mother. However, he just doesn’t tell them the story about how they met (that would be a very short sitcom). Rather, he sits them down and relates the events in his life that led to him meeting his mother. Ted says it’s important to tell them all of that since, because of everything he went through, he became the man their mother fell in love with.
Anyway, the quote comes from the episode “Slap Bet.” Barney Stinson makes a bet with Marshall regarding why Robin hates going to the mall. Barney thinks it’s because Robin has done adult videos in the past. When Barney finds a video, thinking it proves him correct, he slaps Marshall. However, Robin continues playing the video, showing she was actually ashamed of being a Canadian teen pop star known as Robin Sparkles and, because of her hit song “Let’s Go To The Mall” and having to tour various malls, she hates going to those kinds of places.
Lily (played by Alyson Hannigan) chastises Barney for prematurely slapping Marshall before confirming the result. As punishment, Lily delivers the quote and, strangely, Barney thinks the former is the better deal.
Geek wisdom: Always think of the circumstances before making a decision. While five slaps is less than ten, the idea of five slaps until the end of time is generally much worse than receiving ten slaps in succession. At least, with the latter, it’s over quickly. Basically, look before you leap.