'How I Met Your Mother': The great burger search

Sometimes the small episodes of a sitcom are the best. It's the episodes where very little happens from which the most humor can be gleaned. Such was certainly the case with tonight's How I Met Your Mother, which revolved all around Marshall's search for the best hamburger ever created.

As you may recall, last season Marshall left his job at a soul-sucking corporation in order to pursue his dreams of becoming an environmental lawyer. That wasn't so much panning out for him, and by this week he had taken to sitting around in his underwear. And going out to get the mail in his underwear. And going out to restaurants in his underwear. The man needed help.

He wasn't too depressed to go to the bar with everyone else though, where the waitress informed them that they had just gotten a new chef who made the best burgers. Everyone -- save Robin, who was the hungriest and consequently not served -- tried their burger, and only Marshall found it lacking. It was not, he said, the best burger he'd ever had in the city.

We quickly flashbacked to Marshall's first days in New York City. He was, understandably a bit nervous. Okay, it wasn't understandable, as he was completely over-the-top nervous. It took Ted practically forcing the man out of the apartment for Marshall to dare venture into the city.

Once out, he loved the city I like to think of as home, he even found a hole-in-the-wall burger joint that served the best burger ever. I can't tell you how badly I wanted one. Of course, Ted wanted one too. Sadly, they couldn't find it again, and apparently Marshall and Lily tried every burger place in town, including the Corner Bistro. They tried to ask Regis (who, apparently eats at every burger place in the city too, including Marshall's mythical burger joint), but while Regis dreamed of the burger, he didn't know where to get it. Stupid guys, they never asked Robin about it. She knew exactly where the place was and they were off just as Robin's burger finally arrived. The hunt was on!

Unbelievably, ridiculously, not only was Robin correct about the look of the place (green door, small neon sign that said "Burger"), it was still there and it was open. Everyone, save Robin, was served, and everyone who was eating, save Marshall, thought it was the greatest burger ever created. One small meltdown later, Marshall stormed out and it was only then that the waitress confirmed that the restaurant they were in was modeled after a different one, one that was uptown (they were downtown). The hunt was back on!

One look at the block uptown confirmed for Marshall that they were, finally, in the right neighborhood. There was but one small glitch -- the place wasn't there anymore. Instead, there was an ATM for Goliath National Bank, a bank Barney's company had just bought and about which Barney had been singing the praises of all evening. Lily was rather perturbed with Goliath for sucking away her husband's possible merriment at having the most delicious burger ever created and noted to all who would listen (even if they didn't want to), that Goliath was an horrific bank.

It came as quite a shock to poor Lily when she learned that her Marshall had secretly taken a job at Goliath which Barney had first offered weeks earlier. Were there a burger to be had, it would have been Goliath's money with which Marshall could have fed his wife (not that she needs it as she has a job, but that's far less semi-poetic).

Actually, as it happened, the nice man from the XXX store right next door to the ATM informed the gang that the restaurant had just moved and for a mere hundred bucks he'd tell them its new location. Thank goodness for the FDIC insured Goliath National Bank and its conveniently located ATMs -- the hunt was on for a third time!

Finally at the new burger joint, Marshall confirmed that it was everything he ever wanted in a burger. At first Regis wasn't so sure, but eventually he did realize it was the burger he too had been searching for.

And all was right with the world (save the fact that I've had a burger hankering for weeks).

Quotes and questions:

• There were tons of funny quotes tonight, but I'm going to give you my personal favorite, Barney on the burger he had at MacLaren's -- "I love this burger so much I want to sew my ass shut."
• Here's what I really want to know, wouldn't it just have been faster to drive to Louis' Lunch in New Haven for the best burger?
• Seriously though, Regis. I thought the recurring Regis stuff funny at first, but kind of taken too far by the end. What do you think? Too much Regis, too little, or just right?

The TV and Film Guys Reviews -- Where we've wanted a good burger for so long.

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