Benefits
🎞️ S4 E12 🚫 Hard pass

How I Met Your Mother

Is How I Met Your Mother S4 E12 OK for kids?

Benefits

When Ted and Robin become "friends with benefits" to deal with conflicts they're having around the apartment, Barney tries to resolve the issues so they'll stop hooking up. Meanwhile, "reality" stars get too real for Marshall when they taunt him from the pages of his magazine.

📺 Where to watch

Netflix, HBO or Disney+ — catalogs differ by country.

🛒 Where to buy

Digital seasons or a box set to keep.

Content guide

👊 Violence
💋 Sex
🙊 Language
⭐ Overall

Heavy — skip for under 16

How I Met Your Mother S4 E12, “Benefits”, scores 1/5 for violence, 5/5 for sex and 2/5 for language, for an overall kid-rating of 5/5 — Heavy — skip for under 16. When Ted and Robin become "friends with benefits" to deal with conflicts they're having around the apartment, Barney tries to resolve the issues so they'll stop hooking up. Meanwhile, "reality" stars get too real for Marshall when they taunt him from the pages of his magazine.

Across the episode we counted 16 flagged moments in 3 themes: Sex & hookups (12); Porn / strippers / sex work (2); Alcohol & drugs (2). Every moment below is either a direct quote from the episode transcript or a short description of what happens on screen, so you can decide before you press play.

Watch for — every moment, theme by theme

Sex & hookups 12 moments

How Sex & hookups shows up in How I Met Your Mother S4 E12:

  • So why be ashamed about it? Wait,"reading a magazine" means masturbating,right? I can't believe it.
  • You two hooked up? thanks a lot,lily So,wow.
  • And now that we're hooking up, we're not fighting anymore.
  • You drank all my milk again! We can have sex.
  • Anytime we start getting into an argument, we just have sex instead.
  • Look,Lily,maybe yourindergartners are upset that their friends are sleeping with each other, but not me.
  • So last night,Robin left a pizza box out on the floor, -so we had sex three times.
  • It bothers you that Robin and I a hooking up,doesn't it? No.
  • Now,if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sleep with other girls.
  • What happened? You know what it is? We were having sex.
  • Men and women need sex to live together.
  • I said,Madeline,every single international conflict essentially boils down to sexual tension.

Porn / strippers / sex work 2 moments

How Porn / strippers / sex work shows up in How I Met Your Mother S4 E12:

  • So the crisis in the Middle East could be solved by Gaza Strippers.
  • The woman in this scenario is a prostitute.

Alcohol & drugs 2 moments

How Alcohol & drugs shows up in How I Met Your Mother S4 E12:

  • You have one when you're drunk and you think it's fine.
  • Hey,uh,you want a beer? Okay.

Watch With The Kids · You kids — your rules! · Informal parent guidance, not an official rating.