A Viking Bar

Tonight's 'How I Met Your Mother' featured a Viking bar in New York City. It was weird. One of the main characters is supposed to be from Minnesota and his part is regularly written as if the writers have only vaguely heard of the state.
As a service, I'd like to offer some tips to help them in case they try to do this again:
  • Minneapolis and St Paul are collectively referred to as 'the Cities' by anyone from the state. Calling them 'the Twin Cities' sounds as odd as obsessivly referring to New York as 'the Big Apple'. It's a small error and perfectly understandable but it tips you off as outsiders.
  • You were very close with this one but the game that haunts Viking fans is the 1998 NFC Championship game. The game happened in January of '99 but it was part of the '98 season. The '99 one had St Louis hosting Tampa Bay. Check with your football guys, they'll set you straight.
  • Your bar has people ripping on Canadians. Any bar filled with people from 'the Cities' and featuring border animosity would show hatred towards Wisconsin. (Is there Canada bashing up north? Seems kind of pointless. Anyone help out here? Carrie?)
Overall it was sweet of you to include us. And it was a valiant attempt. Do me a favor, next time, check with some of your affiliates here. They'll set you straight.

Comments

Alfred T. Mahan said…
All good points. Frankly, it's kind of fun watching Hollywood try to write about the Midwest, because they generally get the details wrong (although, as you said, it's nice of them to include us). I think my favorite was watching an episode of That '70s Show, where not only was it an amazingly snow-free winter in "Wisconsin", but the Packer-fan main character managed to mispronounce "Green Bay".

My Cheddarhead friends had great fun with that.
9:23 PM
Test said…
Dang, I wish I would have seen that so I could have picked up on the interesting misses on the part of Hollywood.

Having not watched any television (other than MN sporting events) did they also give him the wonderful MN accent? And does he say pop instead of soda?? :)
9:19 AM
carrster said…
Oh no, no Canadian animosity up here. But you're dead on with the WI rivalry. Yeah, the soda/pop thing would be a really nice character bit. People in LA would seriously LOOK at me when I said 'pop.' (ie: at the grocery store - "i don't need the pop in a bag." they were like...wha??? Weird)
10:00 AM
Kate said…
Well, they definitely like to make fun of Iowans.
11:44 AM
MommyLisa said…
reminds me of when Coach was headed to the Shakespeare Festival in "Shake" o pee, MN.

Or when Brenda and Dylan said they were from WAY - zata.
1:24 PM
Anonymous said…
If you live up north and are close enough to walk to Canada, you definitely make fun of the Canadians. Especially the girls from Canada (if you are a girl...I know catty) You don't ever see people from Wisconsin. That is so far away!
3:54 PM
Unknown said…
I think they did get one thing done very well- the Character from MN in the show is named Marshal and he was wearing a jim Marshal jersey- I thought that was neat
8:50 PM
Hans said…
Don't you have some actor friend from High School in Hollywood in a Soap Opera? Get a hold of him - ask him why he let this one get through.
11:48 PM
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