How I Met Your Mother/Slutty Pumpkin

Slutty Pumpkin
Season 1, Episode 6
Airdate	October 24, 2005
Production Number	1ALH05
Written by	Brenda Hsueh
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Stream
← 1x05 Okay Awesome	1x07 → Matchmaker
How I Met Your Mother — Season One

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Slutty Pumpkin is the sixth episode of the first season of How I Met Your Mother.

Starring: Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby), Jason Segel (Marshall Eriksen), Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky)

with Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson)

and Alyson Hannigan (Lily Aldrin)

Guest Starring: Jeremy Gabriel (Mark), Lyndsy Fonseca (Daughter), David Henrie (Son)

Co-Starring: Joe Nieves (Carl), Chad Lindsey (Angel), Krizia Bajos (Hula Girl), Scott Allen Rinker (Host), Crispin Barrymore (The Shagarats), Randall Bills (The Shagarats), Eric Bradley (The Shagarats), Andy Brown (The Shagarats), Ryan Goessl (The Shagarats), Kevin St. Clair (The Shagarats)

Uncredited: Bob Saget (Ted of 2030 (voice))

Plot Overview

Halloween hijinx are afoot as Ted makes his annual trek to the same lame party in search of a girl he met there years ago, while Robin joins Marshall and Lily for a double date.

It's Halloween night and the five pursue their own rituals. Marshall and Lily attempt to win the costume contest dressed as, respectively, Captain Jack Sparrow and a parrot, Robin dismisses the entire holiday, Barney attempts to convince Ted to go along with one of his schemes and Ted stakes out the party on the roof in hopes of finding the slutty pumpkin.

The slutty pumpkin is a woman he met one night in 2000 who was "carved in strategic places." The two hit it off instantly; she laughs at Ted's topical "hanging chad" costume, Ted admires her root beer and Kaluha cocktail invention and her love of Star Wars (and ewoks). Eventually he gets her number written on a Kit-Kat bar, but loses it after he returns to his apartment to tell Marshall and Lily.

While Ted goes to the party with a dejected Barney (who was going to get the two of them into a Victoria's Secret party), Marshall, Lilly, Robin and her boyfriend go to the pub. While Marshall and Lily act like the archetypically perfect couple, Robin and Mike don't have as much luck because of Robin's complete obliviousness to Mike's advances. Lily advises Robin to "put on the girlfriend costume" and meet Mike halfway. Unfortunately for her, she can't seem to do that and gets dumped as a result.

On the roof, Ted continues to wait for the mythical slutty pumpkin to little result. Meanwhile, at the same party, Barney gets shot down by a girl once, so he changes costumes in order to get a second first impression only to get shot down again. He leaves once again, fed up with how lame the party is and, just when Ted was about to give up as well, he spies a person in a penguin suit who makes the root beer and kaluha cocktail. Unfortunately for him, it's Barney screwing with him.

By the end of the episode, Marshall and Lily won first prize in the costume contest and Ted didn't meet the slutty pumpkin.

Arc Advancement

Referbacks

• 1x02 - Purple Giraffe: Robin rejected Ted at the end of the second episode. He references this and says that she clearly has abysmal taste in men because of it.

Trivia

The Show

• Music: The song that plays at the end of the episode is "Inside of Love" by Nada Surf.

Allusions and References

• The Great Pumpkin: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is an animated television featuring characters from Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. In the special, Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin to rise from the pumpkin patch to dispense toys and candy. This is similar to Ted waiting for the slutty pumpkin every night at the party.

• Ewoks: In Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, the rebel forces set up camp on the planet of Endor in order to take down the Death Star's shield generators. On this planet, the native population is the Ewok, a race of fuzzy teddy bear looking creatures who help the rebels against the Empire. They are typically known as the most hated characters of the original trilogy.

Marshall: The rebellion would have failed without ewoks.

• Hanging Chad: The hanging chad was one of the most maligned components of the 2001 presidential race recount between Al Gore and George W. Bush. There was much confusion in Florida about paper ballots who didn't have their selection completely punched and were thrown out as a result.

Lily: But that was four years ago! Nobody remembers what a hanging chad is now!

• Top Gun: Top Gun is a 1986 film directed by Tony Scott about students in a school for fighter pilots. The movie is notable for cementing Tom Cruise, who played Maverick, as an action star. In the episode, Barney initially dresses up like and quotes Iceman, Val Kilmer's character.

Barney: Oh, you're dangerous, Maverick. Your ego's writing checks that your body can't cash.

Memorable Moments

• Barney, dressed as the devil, and a man dressed as an angel standing over Ted giving him advice.
• Ted and Robin sharing a moment on the roof after everyone's left.

Quotes

• Ted': We can get rejected by supermodels any night of the year! Tonight, I'm going up to the roof, I'm going to have a few beers, I'm going to wait for the slutty pumpkin. It's just what I do.

Barney" Hm. (weighing the decisions with an imaginary scales) Victoria's Secret models prancing around in bras and panties... or Yale preppies reuniting their stupid accapella group. What's that left hand? Right hand sucks? Word.

• Host: Ladies and gentlemen, the results are in. And the winners of this year's costume contest are... Lily Aldrin as a parrot and Marshall Erickson as a gay pirate!

Marshall: Oh yeah! Wait, what did he say?

Lily: Who cares, Marshall, we won!

Marshall: Gay pirate, where're you getting that from?

Host: Dude, you're wearing eyeliner.

Marshall: Ok, I just want everybody here to know I'm not a gay pirate, I have sex with my parrot all the time.