The Marshall Scene From How I Met Your Mother That Went Too Far

"How I Met Your Mother" excelled at showing the different types of love two people can have. Ted (Josh Radnor) often displays hopeless romanticism, while Robin (Cobie Smulders) prefers to downplay her romantic feelings. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) naturally exhibits how a person can use romance to take advantage of people. The two people on the show who generally have the healthiest attitude toward relationships are Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel). 

The two stay together for most of "How I Met Your Mother," and even though they'll argue, they always come together as a unit. That's not to say the two of them don't have some significant improvements to make of their own. Lily needs to consider Marshall's wants in addition to her own, as best exemplified when she refused to hear Marshall out regarding a job offer he received to become a judge. Marshall wasn't entirely blameless in that argument, and he should've spoken to Lily first before saying he would take it. 

In addition to his communication skills, there's another area Marshall could improve upon, and it concerns how he views Robin.

Marshall's reasonably easygoing, but he showed off a side of himself audiences hadn't seen before in Season 4's "The Naked Man," the infamous episode where Mitch (Adam Paul) attempts to end his date with Robin in sex by getting naked while she's out of the room. According to his plan, just getting nude works out in his favor two out of three times, and even though the gang thinks Robin would never fall for such a tactic, she ends up sleeping with him. Everyone in the group feels surprised, but Marshall takes it a step further by declaring, "I call slut!"

Robin appears visibly offended by the comment, and when Marshall pushes her to see the guy another time to prove she actually likes him, she accepts. Here's the thing: There's nothing wrong with what Robin did. She's a grown woman, and even if she mainly did sleep with Mitch out of convenience's sake, that's her decision. 

Marshall's comment is particularly egregious considering Barney's one of his best friends. Barney constantly has one-night stands where he sleeps with random women he never sees again. Marshall's never attempted to get Barney to go on a second date with his previous romantic partners, yet Barney's viewed as "normal" while Robin's labeled a "slut."

Practically everything about "The Naked Man" episode is problematic. No one seems to recognize how messed up it is to get naked in front of someone without their consent. And after the group hears about the tactic, they try it out for themselves. Honestly, everything about "The Naked Man" probably deserves to be left out of the rerun rotation.