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Cobie Smulders: It’d be an honor to get GIF’d

Not since Jerrica Benton fronted the Holograms as Jem has TV introduced a neon-crusted singer as amazingly addictive as Robin Sparkles. But unlike that 80’s cartoon creation, we’d much prefer to spend time with Sparkles’ alter-ego, Robin Scherbatsky.

Luckily tonight’s third installment in the Sparkles-saga allows us to do just that as the mall-mythology gets kicked into present day making for the most unusual Robin Sparkles episode yet. It’s also the funniest of “How I Met Your Mother’s” somewhat uneven sixth season.

In anticipation of “Glitter” — tonight’s installment, which is named after Robin’s then-BFF Jessica Glitter (played by Nicole Scherzinger) — I rang up Cobie to talk about Sparkles’ super-filthy kids show, what’s ahead for Scherbatsky’s news career and why she would be honored to get GIF’d.

PopWrap: What’s your first thought when told Robin Sparkles is coming back?

Cobie Smulders: I love it! They’re always my favorite episodes to shoot because it’s out of the comfort zone and you’re just being silly. It’s like a cartoon version of myself. In the 80’s [laughs]. It’s something I don’t do in my day to day life. I’m not laying down tracks normally. So it’s always fun when they come up. I like that this time it’s a little different because of the TV show.

PW: And because you have Nicole Scherzinger as Robin’s bestie/sidekick Glitter.

Cobie: Yes, it was great having her there. Normally it’s just me being silly by myself but now I get to have a cohort I could play off of as well.

PW: Right, this way you’re not singing the new Sparkles song alone — which is filthy by the way.

Cobie: I know! You should have seen the original version of the TV show. We had to keep scaling it back because we couldn’t say a lot of things, but it was so much fun to toe that line. “What can we get away with?”

PW: Wow, there was more scandalous stuff than tight t-shirted turbulence?

Cobie: Yes.

PW: You know there’s a good chance that scene is going to get GIF’d, right?

Cobie: Yes, yes … No worries. I am fine with that – someone else actually said that to me and I had no idea what it was. “GIF?” Girl I’d like to .. no, that’s not right. [laughs] I was spelling it out. But I would be honored.

PW: Can you give me an example of what was too hot for TV?

Cobie: We do this bit where we’re using a joystick during a multiplication lesson and we’re doing lots of fast multiplication questions and we’re jerking the stick [laughs] around. And I think Nicole had a line like, “boy it’s getting harder” and they wouldn’t let us do that. I think it’s because she did it so well [laughs] being a big ol’ sexy pot.

PW: You’re no slouch there Miss. Maxim cover girl!

Cobie: [laughs] Ooookay. Easy there buddy. That was fun. It was an interesting day.

PW: Did you ever anticipate saying, “Hi, I’m Cobie Smulders and you’re behind the scenes of my Maxim photoshoot?”

Cobie: I didn’t think I would ever, ever, ever, every do it. Mainly because I don’t think I’m hot enough. But it was one of those things where they asked and I said, “hell yea!” If they want to put a new mother on the front of that magazine, I should embrace it.

PW: As for the new song, how does it compare to the other two for you?

Cobie: It’s hard to say because it’s so different. The other two were Robin Sparkles music videos – they were more complete in a way. This one doesn’t have a video, you’ll see what it is, but it’s different. I think my all time favorite is still “Let’s Go To The Mall.” It’s not just the first one, but the lyrics are amazing, it’s a feel good song. The second was a ballad. This one is also sweet — there’s lots of double entendres – but it’s meant to be a song about friendship.

PW: You guys keep raising the bar with these episodes, going from James Van Der Beek to Nicole Scherzinger — what are you gonna do for the next one?

Cobie: I think there was talk of trying to get Alanis for the next one, a real Canadian tet a tet. I guess we have to get her or Celine Dion to make it a big Canadian thing.

PW: Maybe it’s Canada Diva’s Live with all three — I mean, Robin would have clearly been invited?

Cobie: [laughs] I agree with that. Her mall tour did so well.

PW: Your creator recently said that a big change was coming for Robin professionally, anything you can add to that?

Cobie: I know that she’s finally going to get the job she deserves – a serious journalist job that will see her get taken a little more seriously professionally. I don’t know how it’s going to happen but I feel like her life on really bad morning shows is over. Although I will miss them because those are really fun to play. But she’s going to have some integrity now.

PW: So when I was preparing for this interview I stumbled across the “HIMYM” bloopers again and I have to know, who do you have the hardest time keeping a straight face around?

Cobie: That’s easy, it’s Jason. We’re hardly in any scenes alone together and that’s for a very good reason – we just can’t do it. Last week we shot a scene where our characters were like, “hey, we never hang out – let’s hang out!” and there was all this hoopla about no one wanting to shoot after us because it would take so long. I’m probably the worst out of the five of us. I break so easily. But it’s not my fault, I’m around a lot of funny people.

“How I Met Your Mother” airs Mondays at 8pm on CBS

Photo: CBS