Slapsgiving 3: An Analysis Of How I Met Your Mother

In the widely popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother, an episode exists in the ninth season entitled “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra,” which is a continuation of the running gag in the series where Barney, losing a bet, allows Marshall to slap him without resistance at any three times during the series. Greeted with controversy, the episode involves the all-white cast in yellow-face in a seemingly innocent gag with potentially detrimental social consequences. While the entire episode raised questions about its racial contexts, there will be specific focus on minutes 7:45 to 17:45. Centered around learning the ultimate slap, the “Slap of a Million Exploding Suns,” Marshall Eriksen composes a false story of the year he lived in Shanghai

Perhaps because the Hollywood images of Asians were so prominent prior to the production of the episode, the creators thought it not inappropriate to air this installment; they themselves were socialized into viewing racist portrayals as acceptable by previous encounters with socialization institutions, such as the media or older family members who grew up with racist attitudes as the norm. At the surface, viewers accept “Slapsgiving 3” as satire and thus may not appear offensive. However, the underlying racism that established the stereotypes in the first place make the images explicitly offensive, especially in the make-believe children’s novel that Marshall insists exists, the “The Slapping Tree.” Arguably, in the most useful frame for analysis, the cover of the book shows the title written in yellow, oriental style text (not unalike Asian characters) with a child depicted in red and yellow traditional chinese clothing with slanted eyes. Accompanied with oriental music in the background, the author of the book is “Pai Mei,” who either inadvertently or purposefully shares the name of a well-known and explicitly racist and sexist character in the movie Kill Bill (2003). As an example of Social consequences of this underlying racism allow the effects to appear less obvious to public-- viewers may view the scene as satire for this reason. Yet, the social consequences, because of its subtleness, is dangerous because it does not raise any feelings of alertness in the audience-- the feel indifferent toward the material, they think little of it, perhaps chuckling once and moving on. The dangers of feeling indifference toward the underlying racism gives the impression of the images being commonplace and thus reinforces the negative clichés. As a result, the subtle but simultaneously racist attitudes and ideologies become difficult to eradicate from