Named after Danny Glover’s character in the “Lethal Weapon” movies, this Season 4 episode of sees Ted and Barney go head to head over whether, in their 30s, they are too old for certain … activities in their lives. After Barney is banned from laser tag for his aggressive enthusiasm, Ted says that they’re too old for laser tag, prompting him to take out his “Murtaugh” list of things he has stopped doing since turning 30. Barney then challenges Ted, saying he can do everything on the list in a single weekend. Later, Ted decides that he’ll try doing everything on an opposite list of things they’re arguably too young for. It ends with Barney exhausted and Ted bored, both have learning lessons, and concluding that it’s best to do what makes them happy regardless of age. The B-story also shows Marshall coaching Lily’s kindergarten class basketball team and taking it a little too seriously. Fun and satisfying throughout.
In “How I Met Everyone Else,” Ted brings his new girlfriend to meet the gang at their regular hangout: MacLaren’s Pub. Because the narrating future Ted can’t remember the name of the girlfriend, everyone just refers to her as Blah-Blah throughout the episode. Before Blah-Blah — played by Abigail Spencer — arrives at the bar, Ted confides in his friends that they met each other online, but that Blah-Blah is embarrassed by this and will make up a meet-cute in its place.
To distract his friends from revealing that he spilled the truth, Ted has everyone recount how they met each other preceding the events of the pilot. What ensues are a series of funny and memorable vignettes, from Barney randomly making Ted his wingman one night at MacLaren’s, to Marshall tricking Barney into thinking he’s a maverick, to Marshall mistaking Ted for the Dean when they first met as college roommates. Things get complicated when its revealed that Lily and Ted share a false memory of drunkenly making out on one of the first nights in college — a story that would jeopardize her sweet story of meeting Marshall. Likewise, Blah-Blah fells threatened when she learns how Ted and Robin met in a romantic gaze across the bar. All is more or less resolved by the end, though Blah-Blah storms out before revealing that she and Ted met not through an online dating site, but while playing “World of Warcraft.” The episode also introduces the series-running gag of the characters “eating sandwiches” as an innuendo for smoking marijuana.
“How I Met Your Mother” could make audiences cry just as easily as it could make them laugh, and Season 7’s “The Symphony of Illumination” is a prime example of the show dipping into some hard-hitting drama. Conspicuously, the episode opens not with Ted narrating the story to his future kids, but Robin narrating to her future kids. The story follows how Robin and Barney shared a pregnancy scare, and though they’re relieved when they learn that the test is negative, Robin is shaken when the doctor tells her that she will never be able to have children. Robin has never wanted kids, but learning that she’s unable to sends her into a deep depression, especially as Lily is going through her own exciting pregnancy. To make matters even sadder, the episode takes place at Christmas. When the rest of the gang is going home and celebrating with their families, Robin is dealing with this heartbreaking news alone. In the episode’s penultimate scene, she is drinking eggnog alone in Central Park, revealing that the children she’s telling the story to aren’t real … and never will be. Luckily, when she returns home, Ted cheers her up with a Christmas-light show made especially for her. It is a heavy episode, but it ends on a sweet note while deepening Robin’s character.
A wedding gone wrong has become a bit of a cliché in sitcoms. It happened when Monica and Chandler got marred on “Friends,” when Turk and Carla got married on “Scrubs” and when Jim and Pam got married on “The Office.” Marshall and Lily’s wedding in “How I Met Your Mother” is no exception, but the show pulled off the trope with humor and heart. The longtime couple became engaged in the pilot episode and the series’ first two seasons largely lead up to this moment. In “Something Borrowed,” Marshall and Lily’s big day is interrupted by the arrival of Lily’s ex-boyfriend (played by NPH’s real-life husband David Burtka) before the ceremony, some questionable hair choices from Marshall, the harp player’s unexpected childbirth, a tearing of Lily’s veil and more. All appears to be a hopeless mess, but the gang rallies together to make it a sweet and memorable affair. Before the proper ceremony, Marshall and Lily decide to marry under a tree outside the venue. Barney officiates, while Robin and Ted bear witness. Ultimately, the wedding was never about the event, but the love between Lily and Marshall, which they are able to celebrate while surrounded by their friends. Sure, it’s a cliché, but it’s satisfying all the same.
It’s well established by Season 6 of “How I Met Your Mother” that Barney has some complicated feelings about his estranged father. In “Legendaddy,” he finally reconnects with the man himself, Jerome Whittaker (played by John Lithgow). Jerome shows up at Barney’s door after receiving a letter from his long-lost son and attempts to reenter his life. To Barney’s disappointment, however, Jerome is not the wild party animal that Barney hoped he’d be: He’s a driving instructor, raising a new family in the suburbs. The gang convinces Barney to go have dinner with Jerome and his new family, and Barney can’t help acting confrontational. Ultimately, he tries to steal the basketball hoop from Jerome’s driveway, and when he’s caught, he berates Jerry for being a lame suburban dad for his new family, but never giving Barney that comfort. Jerry then helps Barney take down the hoop and lets him go, but not before extending an open invitation to try reconnecting again whenever Barney feels ready. Though Barney doesn’t accept the offer in the moment, he and Jerome do make amends later in the series. Lithgow delivers a stellar guest performance in the episode, and it succeeds in showing Barney in an uncharacteristically vulnerable light.
“Game Night” opens with the gang playing a new board game that Marshall created, with rules slanted to learn details about Ted’s new girlfriend, Victoria (Ashley Williams). Partway through the night, Lily mentions that she met a girl named Shannon (Katie Walder) who claimed to know Barney, and that she gave Lily a videotape. Barney freaks out and destroys the tape, only for Lily to reveal that it was a decoy. She then puts on the real tape, which shows a younger pony-tailed and goateed Barney, crying and playing a sad acoustic guitar for Shannon. It’s a far cry from the clean-cut, suit-wearing, smooth-talking Barney the gang knows. Embarrassed, Barney storms away, and when he later reappears in MacLaren’s, the gang pressures him into sharing the full story behind the tape. He agrees to tell it, but only if everyone else also shares their most embarrassing stories.
Barney reveals he was once a coffeeshop barista who planned to enter the peace corps with his girlfriend, Shannon. Right before leaving, however, Shannon dumped Barney for a suit-wearing businessman. The experience inspired Barney to change his lifestyle into what it is today. The story ends with him reconnecting with Shannon in the gap between the game night and MacLaren’s and having sex with her. To Barney, this is seen as a victory. He also gets Ted to admit to Victoria that he used to date Robin, exposing a story about how he threw up on her doorstep the night after they first met. By the end of the episode, Victoria is over this revelation, teasing Ted with a flower on his doormat. However, Ted also buys Robin a new doormat, suggesting that he’s not entirely over her. It’s a sweet and funny episode emblematic of the first season, with Ted and Robin figuring out their feelings for each other and Barney teasing a bit of vulnerability before doubling down on his typical shenanigans.
“The Time Travelers” might be “How I Met Your Mother”‘s most emotional episode. By Season 8 of the show, Marshall and Lily are parents, Barney and Robin are engaged, and yet, Ted is still single. In this episode, he’s sitting at MacLaren’s, debating with Barney about whether or not to go to an exhibition called “Robots Versus Wrestlers.” Things take a surreal turn when future versions of Ted and Barney start showing up, trying to sway the present Ted into going or not. Meanwhile, Marshall and Robin engage in a dance-off over having their name on one of the bar’s drinks. In many ways, it feels like a classic, early season “HIMYM” scenario, and that’s the point — Ted soon realizes that all of these events occurred years ago, and he’s all alone at the bar. In an emotional climax, the narrator Ted says all of the things he would have done if he could go back to that night: He would have visited his old apartment, hung out with Marshall, Lily and their baby, and enjoyed the company of Barney and Robin debating their wedding plans. Most importantly, though, he would have raced across town and met the mother 45 days early. In one of the show’s most dramatic speeches, Ted imagines himself knocking on her door, introducing himself and professing his love just for the sake of having those extra moments with her. It is a heart-wrenching episode, and it astutely captures Ted’s loneliness being the last single friend in his mid-30s.
Another emotionally weighty “How I Met Your Mother” episode, the tear-jerking ending of “Bad News” is preceded by 20-some minutes of comedy, as Marshall and Lily try to get to the bottom of their infertility issues. When their fertility doctor bears a striking resemblance to Barney, it puts them both on high alert. Meanwhile, the real Barney tries to recruit Marshall for laser tag while Robin starts a new job with her old boss. As Marshall and Lily await updates from their doctor, Marshall avoids phone calls from his dad, not wanting to pick up until he has some good news. However, just when he learns that their fertility is not an issue and tries calling back, the call goes to voicemail. Lily then arrives and breaks the news that his father died of a heart attack. It’s a shocking twist in the episode’s final moments, and Marshall’s emotional reaction showcases a strong performance from Segel.
In this Season 4 episode, Ted starts a private architecture film from the apartment living room that he shares with Robin. While Ted is excited about the new venture, he keeps procrastinating on calling potential clients. The procrastination peaks when he hires an assistant named PJ (Ryan Sypek), and things get doubly complicated when Robin starts sleeping with PJ. Meanwhile, Barney is trying to help Marshall cultivate an identity at his new job as the office “Sports Guy.” Both stories are filled with laughs, and it ends with the touching revelation that Barney is in love with Robin. Marshall then hires PJ as a paralegal to help manage his fantasy teams, alleviating stress for everyone as Robin then gives Ted the confidence he needs to start picking up the phone. Also, the episode introduced the show’s elusive peanut butter and jam joke, which has a punch line too dirty for Ted to reveal to his kids.
As the title suggests, “Last Cigarette Ever” focuses on the gang’s smoking habits, something that Ted’s kids are shocked to learn that they all partook in. Each character has their own reasons for taking the occasional smoke breaks. However, they all reach their tipping points, and eventually decide to quit. Of course, they don’t actually quit at the end of the episode as agreed upon, but Ted narrates that everyone had their real last cigarette years down the line after reaching a milestone. It’s a relatable story, touching on a taboo, but authentic vice that many young adults engage in, and the episode creates meaning around it. Also, Bob Odenkirk makes a return guest appearance as Marshall’s evil boss, Arthur Hobbs, perhaps in the guest character’s funniest and most endearing incarnation.
The ninth and final season of “How I Met Your Mother” is a bit of a drag, but it’s impossible to resist the charms of Cristin Milioti’s Tracy McConnell (aka, the long awaited “Mother”). “How Your Mother Met Me” introduces Milioti’s highly anticipated character for the first time in depth, chronicling her time in New York City throughout the events of the previous eight seasons and showing Ted’s near-intersections with her from her point of view. Milioti plays Tracy in spades, and it’s immediately evident that she is the one for Ted. The episode also does an exceptional job at condensing the entire series’ storyline into 22 minutes. Characteristically, it runs the emotional gamut, making audiences fall in love with Tracy while also breaking their hearts. The final scene where Tracy wistfully sings “La Vie En Rose” on a balcony next to an eavesdropping, lovestruck Ted is one of the show’s most beautiful moments.
“Girls Versus Suits” is a triumph in several ways. First, it’s a big moment in Ted’s emotional journey, as he starts dating Cindy (Rachel Bilson), a PhD student where he’s teaching at Columbia University. As it turns out, Cindy is the Mother’s roommate. While Ted doesn’t meet the Mother in this episode, they’re both in the apartment at the same time, and he catches a glimpse of her heel coming and going between rooms. To Cindy’s chagrin, Ted unwittingly starts to fawn over everything in the apartment that belongs to the Mother, and they ultimately break up because of the school’s teacher-student relationship policies. The more memorable part of the episode, however, emerges from Barney’s conflict when he starts to pursue MacLaren’s new “hot bartender” (Stacy Keibler) who has a vendetta against men wearing suits. Barney then begins dressing casually, but his suits beckon to him. When the bartender insists that he choose between her and suits, he chooses suits in the most memorable way possible: a full-fledged musical number featuring choreographed dances through the streets of New York. The song “Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit” was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for original music and lyrics. Ultimately, the scene is a dream sequence before Barney lies to the bartender about choosing her. However, the song remains in the heads of “HIMYM” fans to this day.
If “Girls Verses Suits” has the most theatrical sequence in “How I Met Your Mother,” “Ten Sessions” might have the sweetest. In this Season 3 episode, Ted develops feelings for his dermatologist Stella (Sarah Chalke) over the course of 10 sessions he has with her to remove a tattoo. Stella, however, claims that she is too busy as a doctor and single mother to date anyone, saying that she gets only two-minute lunch breaks in the middle of her day. At the end of the episode, Ted capitalizes on those two minutes, taking her on a 120-second date that features dinner, a movie, dessert and a walk all along the same block as her office. It’s Ted Mosby at his most romantic, and he even leaves her conceding that the timing might not work now, but if she ever wants to pursue something, he’ll be there. Ultimately, Stella and Ted do date later in the season, and even become engaged. However, she tragically leaves him at the altar in the Season 4 episode “Shelter Island.” Though the relationship has a sad ending, it has a sweet debut. Plus, “Ten Sessions” features guest star Britney Spears as Stella’s receptionist.
This is the one that started it all 20 years ago, and the “How I Met Your Mother” pilot is a masterclass in introducing a sitcom. The episode opens with future Ted setting up the story for his kids, saying “This is the story of how I met your mother.” It begins with Marshall preparing to propose to Lily as Ted goes to MacLaren’s to meet Barney. While Barney just wants to help Ted get laid as per usual, Ted expresses his desire to find the woman of his dreams. Fatefully, he then makes eye contact with Robin across the bar, takes her on a date, and becomes immediately smitten. When he doesn’t kiss her after the first date, Ted goes back to the restaurant, steals a blue horn off of their wall, and brings it to her apartment. While they slow dance in the living room, Ted admits that he’s falling in love with Robin, which immediately scares her off. He goes home alone as future Ted narrates to his children’s surprise, “And that’s the story of how I met your Aunt Robin.” The kids protest that they thought it was the story of how he met their mom, to which he explains, “It’s a long story.” The episode sets up each of the characters and their relationships to one another while also leaving the audiences with a mystery that would run for the next nine seasons. It’s a skillful debut, as it laid seeds for the series to come while also standing as an exceptional episode of television on its own.
“Slap Bet” introduces two of the funniest running gags in “How I Met Your Mother” — the titular slap bets and the revelation that Robin used to be a teenage popstar in Canada named Robin Sparkles. When Robin refuses to go to the mall with the gang, everyone develops theories about why. Marshall speculates that Robin was secretly married at a mall in Canada, and that going to them brings back bad memories. Barney, however, disagrees, and thinks that Robin’s reasons relate to pornography. The two bet that whoever is right can slap the other as hard as possible, with Lily serving as commissioner. When Barney uncovers an old videotape of Robin with a suggestive title and opening, he assumes that he is right and prematurely slaps Marshall. However, the video progresses and its revealed not to be a porno, but a music video for Robin’s teenage alterego: Robin Sparkles, singing her hit song “Let’s Go To the Mall.” As punishment for Barney’s early and unauthorized slap, Lily issues a ruling that Marshall is allowed to slap Barney five times at points of his choosing between now and eternity, creating a dynamic that would last the rest of the series. Likewise, Robin Sparkles would become a recurring joke, as more of her music and paraphernalia would show up in later episodes the further unpack Robin’s background.
“How I Met Your Mother” explored Barney’s daddy issues long before Season 6’s “Legendaddy” brought him and his real father face-to-face. Season 2 first introduced the concept of Barney’s estranged father in “Showdown.” When Barney was a kid, his mother offhandedly told him that Bob Barker from “The Price Is Right” was his father. Barney believed this all throughout his childhood and, in this episode, he’s finally preparing to meet Barker as a contestant on the show. The sequences of Barney training for and participating in the show — all while behaving giddy around his presumed celebrity father — showcase Neil Patrick Harris at his funniest. The episode ends with Barney deciding not to tell Barker about their relationship on-air, saying that he didn’t want to upset him in a veiled rationale for knowing it isn’t the truth. Meanwhile, Ted prepares his best man speech for Marshall and Lily’s wedding, while Robin helps Lily gain weight for her dress. The gang also challenges Marshall and Lily that they can’t spend the two weeks leading up to their wedding sleeping apart from one another. They accept the challenge, and seem to be dealing with it quite well, until it’s revealed that they’ve been sneaking out to see each other at night. Everyone brings their comedy chops to the episodes, but they also offer sentimentality.
Four years before “The Hangover” came out, “How I Met Your Mother’s” 10th episode explored the drama and comedy that comes with trying to piece together the events of a forgotten night the following morning. In “The Pineapple Incident,” Ted gets blackout drunk and wakes up the next morning with a mysterious woman in his bed and a pineapple on his nightstand. Through Marshall, Lily, Barney and the Bartender, he retraces his steps, which include singing Cheap Trick on top of tables in MacLaren’s, hooking up with a girl named Trudy, and making a slew of embarrassing phone calls to Robin. By the end of the episode, Ted has greater clarity and realizes that he’s not fully over Robin. The pineapple, however, is only ever explained in a Season 9 deleted scene, where the Captain (Kyle MacLachlan) says that he keeps a pineapple outside his door as an old sailor’s tradition, but that the one he used to have outside of his New York condo mysteriously went missing some years back. Whether one wants to take that as canon is suspect, but the pineapple remains an amusing and enduring mystery from this memorable early episode.
“The Best Burger in New York” takes a classic New York City sitcom premise and executes it delectably. When the gang orders hamburgers at MacLaren’s, Marshall explains that no burger can satisfy his appetite ever since he ate the best burger in New York. He had the burger years ago, when he first moved to the city, at a restaurant that he could never find again. The gang spends the rest of the night trying to track down the joint together, coming up on a number of false ends to Marshall’s increasing frustration. It soon becomes evident that Marshall’s angst is not just tied to the burger, but more so to the fact that he’s been out of work for several weeks and is starting to languish. He eventually admits that he recently accepted a job with Barney’s company: Goliath National Bank. Though Marshall wants to be an environmental lawyer and sees the role as selling out, he needs to compromise to stay afloat. It’s an earnest conclusion and one that many young adults have experienced. Luckily, by the end of the night, they find the elusive burger and all agree with Marshall that it’s an unparalleled meal. The episode also guest stars Regis Philbin as an erratic version of himself who is even more obsessed with the burger than Marshall is. It’s a mouth-watering episode, and so much more.
While “The Best Burger in New York” has elements of a love letter to “How I Met Your Mother”‘s New York setting, “Subway Wars” might offer the show’s most endearing and entertaining representation of the city. When the gang hears that Woody Allen is eating at a restaurant across town — and that Robin is yet to have had an Allen spotting, therefore jeopardizing her status as a true New Yorker — they start to debate about the quickest way to get there. It soon escalates into a race across Manhattan. Lily hails a cab, Robin gets on the subway, Ted takes the bus, Marshall sets out on foot and Barney fakes a medical emergency to get an ambulance escort. They all experience the challenges of their preferred transportations and let competition get the better of them, but their drive is tied to more than just pride. Each character is experiencing something in their lives that make them in need of a win, but just steps from the restaurant, Barney trips himself and Ted so that Robin can win. The man at the restaurant, however, ends up not being Woody Allen, but Maury Povich— a fortunate mix-up, as Povich’s cameo on the show has aged with far less contention. Nevertheless, future Ted narrates that Robin did see Allen later that month. Along with crying on the subway and smashing a cockroach with her bare hands, both of which she does throughout the episode, Robin solidifies herself as a true New Yorker.
“Monday Night Football” tops the list in-part because of its simplicity and in part because its themes encapsulate so much of what the series stands for. In this Season 2 episode, the gang misses the Super Bowl for a Sunday funeral, and decides to watch a recording of the game the following night. They all agree to avoid learning the outcome of the game so they can experience it for the first time together. They each struggle, and eventually fail, to get through the day without hearing the score. Despite brief disappointment, though, they still decide to watch the game together, enjoying the snacks, commercials and one another’s company. Ted’s narration explains that all these years later, he doesn’t remember who won or even who played in the game. What he remembers is the people he watched it with, and the time they spent together. As a series, “How I Met Your Mother” dealt with a lot of topics and issues, essentially chronicling the early adulthood of five complex and distinct characters. However, more so than even Ted’s romantic arc, the show is about friendship and all of the little serendipitous, seemingly unremarkable moments that become lifelong memories, and “Monday Night Football” epitomizes this.