How I Met Your Mother: Yeah, I'm on Board

As I watched How I Met Your Mother Monday night, all I could think about (when I wasn't laughing at Barney) was why the hell I wasn't watching this totally hilarious show last season. I mean, I love comedies, I love Neil Patrick Harris (from his work on Broadway, not Doogie), and I didn't have any conflicting shows in that timeslot. So what the hell, self?

Best I can figure is that I was in mourning for Arrested Development (not to mention the fact that Scrubs has been on Deathwatch for years), and wasn't ready to accept a new comedy into my life. Especially a sitcom with a laugh track. Oh, and the possible fact that I assumed it wasn't funny because it was on CBS. Oops. My bad.

How I Met Your Mother is actually really, really funny. Not like Arrested Development, not like Scrubs, not like The Office (come on, it does have a laugh track), but definitely funny all the same. And it managed to surprise me twice this week, which is impressive for a conventional sitcom. First, when it used unreliable narrators to fool us into thinking that Ted was cheating on Robin, when it was actually Barney that we were following around all night. Second, when Barney's "Dear Resident" goodbye letter to his one night stand (a funny enough joke in itself, and one that most sitcoms would have left at that) said that he was actually a ghost, materialized for one day to spend it with "Resident."

Congratulations, How I Met Your Mother. You're now on my regular viewing schedule. (You're going to have to raise your game a bit, The Class.)