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Much Ado About Sitcoms
Introduction
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that has been airing on CBS for the past eleven years. The popular show follows the lives of five friends as they seek to settle down in their lives and marry. The show is narrated from the perspective of one of the main characters, Ted, as he tells his children the story about how he met their mother. As such, Ted narrates most of the story in past tense and a key focus of the show is his own love life as he explains the process of courtship that he went through before finally getting married. One of Ted’s love interests in the show, Robin, is another main character and one of the five friends that How I Met Your Mother revolves around. Two other characters, Marshall and Lily, are a couple right from the start and eventually marry halfway through the show. The last main character, Barney, is a rich, womanizing bachelor that provides most of the comic relief in the show. His promiscuous exploits with different women in the city of New York regularly act as side plots within the show.
How I Met Your Mother and Much Ado have several similarities. Both of them revolve around multiple couples that are all connected by virtue of being friends. Additionally, a key theme in the show and the play is the complicated nature of courtship. Because of this, courtship is the theme that this script will address using some of the characters from the play in roles that were in the show. Applying characters from How I Met Your Mother as reimaginations of several parts from Much Ado can help show that the complexities of courtship are quite similar as expressed in the play and the television show.
Reimagined Scene
INT. MCLAREN’S BAR – NIGHT
McLaren’s Bar is fully packed as a storm roars outside. Lily is seated alone at the usual table sulking because of a fight she just had with her fiancé, Marshall, over their wedding. Barney enters the bar dressed in a tailor made pinstriped suit. He sees a girl seated at the bar and hands her his phone as he whispers something into her ear. The girl promptly drops his phone into a jug of beer and leaves the bar in a huff. Barney looks around the bar and notices Lily seated alone at the table. He approaches her as he dries his phone off with his jacket sleeve.
BARNEY
Well hello Lily!
LILY
Ugh! Not you. Please go away Barney, I need to be alone.
BARNEY
Yes, of course. That’s why you came to McLaren’s on a stormy Friday night.
LILY
Please Barney. This is not the best time for me.
BARNEY
Why? What’s wrong? Are you feeling a bit under the weather?
Haha! See what I did there, the weather’s terrible right now,
and I asked you if you were feeling under the…
LILY
[Interrupting Barney] Barney! Not today!
BARNEY
Jeez! Way to lighten up. Anyway, what’s wrong?
LILY
Marshall and I had a big fight and I’m not sure if the wedding is on anymore.
I really thought that things would be great; I thought the planning would be great.
BARNEY
Now see that’s why I like to keep things simple. Meet a girl, take her home, know her well for an hour…but if you’re Barney Stinson, you know her really, really well for about two or three…
LILY
[Interrupting Barney] Could you please just shut up!
BARNEY
Okay Lily, I’ve got the point. So you don’t know if the wedding is still on?
LILY
I’m not really sure whether Marshall wants to get married anymore.
Ted enters the bar casually dressed and drenched from the rain. He looks around and sees Barney and Lily before joining them at the table
BARNEY
Well I have an idea about that.
LILY
Really? And I suppose you would want me to sleep with you, or something along those lines?
BARNEY
Exactly!
TED
What are you two talking about?
LILY
Well, Marshall and I are going through some problems and Barney thinks the solution is for me to sleep with him.
BARNEY
Lily? Scientific research has proven that the woman sleeping with the object of her deepest desire can solve every woman’s dreams.
TED
What! Why would you even suggest that? This is a new low for you Barney.
LILY
This is a new low for me too
TED
What do you mean?
BARNEY
She’s considering the offer Ted. The Stinson never fails.
LILY
I’m not considering it, I’m just…[faints off]
TED
Barney, Marshall is my friend. He’s our friend. I thought there was a bro code about this?
BARNEY
Well yes, but section nine, clause two of the code says, and I quote, “an exception can be made where sleeping with your bro’s girl saves him from the abyss that is marriage”.
TED
I’m calling Marshall, I cannot let this happen [pulls his phone out and walks out of the bar dialing. Lily also gets up from the table and leaves the bar with Barney following her]
INT. LILY AND MARSHALL’S APARTMENT
Lily and Barney are in the apartment watching television. The sitting room is untidy and messy and the air around them is tense over their previous discussion. Ted and Marshall enter the room. Marshall is dressed in a wet suit carrying a soaked newspaper.
MARSHALL
What the hell is wrong with you?!
BARNEY
I’m feeling a bit cranky, I haven’t bought a new suit in days.
Marshall starts moving towards Barney in a threatening manner.
LILY
[yelling] Marshall, stop! We weren’t going to do anything!
TED
I had to tell him Lily, I had to.
MARSHALL
It was wrong for him to even suggest what he did. I’m going to kill you Barney.
LILY
I know it was but I was never going to do anything and we just sat here and watched TV.
BARNEY
Before you hit me Marshall, you should realize that if you’re angry enough to storm into the room to fight me then you do care about Lily and you two should probably get married. Also, please don’t hit me in the face, its all I have…and a lot of money, and suits…
TED
[Interrupting Barney] Is that why you did this?
BARNEY
Well yes, contrary to what you think I do care about you guys
LILY
I never thought I’d say this, but you are one of the best friends I’ve ever had Barney.
Conclusion
The reimagined scene is similar to Act II Scene I from Much Ado in that a deception by one the characters plays a role in bringing a couple together. This brings out various issues around courtship such as the uncertainty that people have and the question of trust. Similar to Much Ado, the scene sees love prevailing and the whole process of courtship ending in happiness for all.