Does 'How I Met Your Mother' Have a 'Star Wars' Obsession?

Last night's How I Met Your Mother was about the concept of incomplete projects; from Gaudi's unfinished Sagrada Familia and Ted's lingering itch to build the GNB headquarters, to Robin's inability to delete Don from her phone and thus her life. The message was essentially "finish the darn project already," and it was pretty corny.

But the best moments of the episode were the Star Wars moments where Ted and Marshall earnestly discuss on the architecture of the Death Star across two scenes. Here's Ted continuing the conversation in the first few seconds of the clip.

Star Wars is a comically overused reference in television shows, and from 30 Rock to Lost, if your show has any levity at all, you can bet that a Star Wars mention will be made at some point. And yet, although Star Wars gags are mean to imply some kind of cultish nerd credibility for a particular character, we must remember the movie is ultimately, extremely mainstream. So why do it? Because 33 years later, the nerd patina lingers, thus these shows can get away with making extremely specific references that still enable the audience to follow along as insiders. The key to maintaining the humor amidst all of the references though is to play it straight. The more serious the reference, the more comical it is.

How I Met Your Mother doesn't always get it right, and have let lines like this sneak in across the seasons: "Instead of being little and green, I wear suits and I'm awesome. I'm your bro'. I'm Bro-da." Here are the top three Star Wars moments in How I Met Your Mother history:

On Ewoks

On Liking Star Wars as a Criterion for a Serious Relationship

On Stormtroopers (or just rage against Stormtroopers)