< How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother/Headscratchers


How I Met Your Mother. Warning: Potential unmarked spoilers ahead.

  • How come Ted really wants a new place to stay after he & Robin move out and Marshall and Lilly take the apartment. Didn't he buy another house in season 5 as a fixer-upper project?
  • If Marshall had a strict no food/no drink rule for the Fiero, how do you explain the Tantrum (TANTRUM!) and beef jerky binges they embarked on during Marshall and Ted's roadtrips to Chicago?
    • Were they ever shown drinking/eating in the car? I don't remember them being shown doing that, but still, it's a good point, especially since Marshall won't even allow groceries in the car (or bottled water and granola bars, even if they weren't being eaten). The only possible explanation is that... I dunno, those roadtrips are special and exempt from the rules? It's weak but the best I have.
      • Maybe Tantrum messed with Marshall's memory and he had so much of it to drink that he couldn't remember the rule.
        • Alternatively, maybe he and Ted are the only ones exempt from the rule. Or maybe he didn't have the rule then, but decided on it when they were older and more mature (maybe even because they spilled something on one of their roadtrips, and it cost a lot of money to get cleaned.)
          • Well, the rule was apparently made back when Marshall spilt all those coffee cups over the Fiero, back before he met Ted. Maybe he just considers the road trips a special exception? Plus, they were constantly travelling and only seemed to stop to switch drivers and probably use the loo. They probably thought getting out and going somewhere to eat would waste time on their trip.
  • In the pilot, Robin has a group of girlfriends when she meets Ted. Why, after meeting him, does she never see them again?
    • She sees the one who got dumped in the pilot again in Zip, Zip, Zip after she got dumped yet again. As for why she never saw them past the first season though, well, she had only been in New York a short while. It makes sense that once she started dating Ted and his group became her best friends, they slowly replaced those other friends she may not have been all that close with. In short, they probably just drifted apart. And hey, who's to say they don't meet up for some coffee on occasion?
  • How did Robin still have the blue french horn in episode 5.21 "Twin Beds" if it was given back to the restaurant Ted stole it from in episode 2.22 "Something Blue"?
    • Remember that earlier in "Twin Beds," Ted stole the horn again (he and Barney even fight over it briefly). Presumably, they haven't returned it yet, explaining why it was sitting in the corner of that room at the end of the episode.
      • Which explains why it isn't hung up any more like it used to be; Ted and Barney's fight robbed the horn of its sentimentality.
  • Why did Ted not sue Tony for making "The Wedding Bride"? I'm not a lawyer, but Marshall is. Even if it's not illegal to make a ninety minute movie totally taking the piss out of a guy with a wholly fucking biased opinion, there should have at least been a scene where Ted asks Marshall if he could do anything about the film.
    • Wholeheartedly agreed. Plus, didn't one of the actors actually call the character "Ted Mosby" at one point? Pretty sure that counts as slander, and Ted could sue Tony's ass off for that, as he has several witnesses to testify for him, as well as a best friend who's a lawyer.
      • I hate to do it, but I've got to cite Unreliable Narrator here. Ted was listening for Ted Mosby, so he heard it. I really do doubt the actors would say Ted Mosby without asking some questions, and no one else heard it. It makes a lot more sense.
      • Ted still cares about Stella. Suing Tony would mess up the part of her income that comes from Tony. Yes, she has her own, successful, career as a dermatologist, but still, it's just not the sort of thing that Ted would do.
    • What are his damages? Hurt feelings? The suit would get thrown out of court. The movie never claimed to be a true story, and you can't sue somebody for libel over a work of fiction.
      • His damages would be the damage of his character, I guess[1]? If Ted could show Tony had based the film largely on real events involving him, and not gotten his permission to do so, and gone and portrayed Ted is a super-crappy way, it wouldn't just get "thrown out of court".[2] Of course, the above troper was right with Unreliable Narrator, in that the real movie was probably only barely based on events, with his memory noticing and blowing things all out of proportion. This is Ted we're talking about here.
      • Actually you can sue for libel in fiction, if you can prove that the fictional character is so obviously meant to be you or explicitly based on you. It is difficult to prove, and there is the unreliable narrator issue, but if it was as blatant as Ted showed he could have won a suit easily.
    • Also from a practical viewpoint, even if Ted found a lawyer willing to take his case, and even if the case had merit, he'd be putting himself out there in public, claiming that the A-Hole in the movie was based on him, and demanding royalties for a movie he didn't make. Ted wouldn't want to endure that sort of negative exposure. Who would?
      • I think he would probably be able to find a lawyer to take the case on. This was, apparently, the fifth highest-grossing films of all time, and it was, Unreliable Narrator aside, based entirely on Ted and Stella's relationship. You'd have thought that journalists would be asking about the inspiration for the story, and it wouldn't have been difficult to find out that the screenwriter's wife/girlfriend was named Stella and had previously left an architect at the altar. Frankly, the whole thing would have been a much bigger deal in real life.
      • Would it? People write what they know all the time, and the movie was probably a very exaggerated dramatization based around the premise of "Ex-wife is about to marry another guy, I want her back." Everything else can be chalked up to embellishment, coincidence, or Unreliable Narrator.
      • Like someone mentioned above: Ted may be Genre Savvy enough to be aware of the Streisand Effect. If I remember correctly, he initially hopes that everyone will forget the movie pretty soon, and is quite annoyed after it becomes a mega hit and thus small talk topic # 1 for quite some time.
      • It's definitly defemation of character. I literally just saw this episode tonight and it bugged me to no end that Tony felt the need to write the movie even though he and Ted seemed to get on quite well given the situation in season 3/4. Unofrutnately it seems Ted has to simply ignore the film, while the character is meant to be him - the film itself is laughably bad and Rule of Funny is the only thing that makes it popular. I think by the end, as previous tropers have suggested, Ted wouldn't be the guy to sue - and at the episode's finish he's accepted his emotional baggage and no longer cares.


  • In a second viewing of the series, it struck me just how much Lily is kind of a raging bitch... and never gets called out on it. There's the breaking up with him at the end of season 1, sabotaging his date with Chloe, breaking up Ted's relationships (she has a tendency to be incredibly arrogant about relationships), unfairly judging the slap bet, hiding her credit card debt from Marshall, trying to ruin Barney's perfect week... I'm forgetting about a lot, I'm sure, but Lily just comes off as a fridge bitch.
    • In this troper's opinion, this is prevalent in the background of Episode 3.10 "The Yips". Lily is mad at Marshall for picking the hot female trainer... and then picks a hot male trainer herself. Then, when Marshall's trainer Trish turns out to be a hard-ass, Lily yells at her... and subsequently sends Marshall to deal with the consequences. Finally, at the end of the episode, everyone gangs up on Ted because he hasn't gone to the gym... except Lily never really did that much either. She did some stretch work, but that stopped after the "trainer" (who was unaffiliated with the gym) left. Note that she didn't seem angry about this, just shrugging it off as nothing. It just feels like if Barney or Ted did something like that... they would get slapped in the face by the universe.
    • This troper's take on Lily is that she thinks she knows what's best for everyone, and is therefore a bit above everyone around her in terms of value, which also means she has little empathy. This isn't an explanation for everything, but I think it accounts for a lot of the way she does things. (This doesn't excuse her behavior, of course, but it's at least an explanation for why)
      • That... doesn't sound much better. For me, the worst point in the series for her is in the first season... late in the season, she tells berates Robin and Ted for not communicating and tells Robin that "happiness is not that hard, people!" A few episodes later she and Marshall break up... largely because she doesn't communicate with him. She's just so... arrogant when it comes to relationships, and really isn't justified in doing so. Plus, you know, the other stuff.
      • Lily's often been shown to have an idealised version of the world, especially when it comes to her friends. That episode where it was revealed she broke up most of Ted's relationships? She was using some secret test where she imagined the four of them retired and couldn't see Ted's partner in the vision. Then there's the episode about the photo album where, again, she's pissed off at Ted for ruining her "precious memories" by bringing a Girl of the Week to them. What really makes Lily a bitch is that it seems like she doesn't care about Ted at all: she'd be perfectly happy having him be miserable and not ruin the group's dynamic, i.e. "whatever Lily wants, she gets." And let's not even get started on her relationship with Marshall, horribly one-sided as it is - at this point it's like Marshall settled for the first girl that offered to have sex with him, and Lily settled for someone who would obey her every whim.
        • It's not like she didn't let all those other Girls of the Week be in those pictures. It's just that she was frustrated that he expected her to treat this Girl of the Week like part of the group on her birthday, which she happens to care a lot about
    • The worst for me was in "Of Course." Lily was the only one that knew how hurt Robin was by her breakup with Barney. Of course, when the guys find out they are treated as the biggest jerks in the world for not being more sensitive. Marshall even asks why Lily didn't tell him earlier, and Lily's reason was that the Bang Song was catchy. This just bugs me because it seems to me Lily doing nothing to ease her friend's suffering is far worse than the guys innocently discussing Barney's love life... and she doesn't even come close to getting called out on it.
      • Seconded. The worst is that the guys are treated like crap for not noticing that Robin's suffering, but Lily, who had caught Robin crying had done nothing... she saw Robin in pain and ignored it because she didn't want to interrupt a catchy song. Not ONCE is that mentioned. As a contrast, what do the men do once they find out she was hurt? They immediately try to set it right, stop themselves (and each other) from accidentally hurting Robin and really, do everything to keep Robin from being hurt. And they're still the ones called jackasses.
    • The Slap Bet. Marshall prematurely slaps Barney once, then lies about it and tries to hide it. As retaliation, Barney gets two slap (for the slap), then one for Marshall hiding it (really seems like it should be the other way around). Later on, Barney slaps Marshall when he thinks he's right, and then his punishment is either 10 SLAPS or 5 SLAPS AT ANY TIME. At WORST it should be three slaps, two for premature slapulation, and one for Marshall being correct. Lily is an awful commissioner. I'm surprised Barney doesn't make a formal complaint about her bias.
    • Lily's ridiculous credit card debt causes Marshall to have to pay almost triple the amount of money for their house. When she finds out that Marshall is getting a promotion and will have much more money coming in, what does she do? Have a fantasy of her swimming in shoes etc. with the upbeat music normally reserved for genuine triumph playing.
      • Ugh. Imagine what she'll be like when she's pregnant. A raging, psychotic bitch that we're supposed to feel sympathy for I'm guessing.
        • Fourth episode of the seventh season: The episode seemed to be building up to a conclusion of "maybe Lily should take Marshall and Ted's opinions into consideration in regards to the pregnancy" but very swiftly takes a turn to a conclusion of "Lily's right about everything."
        • The episode "Glitter" was interesting... Robin was rightly annoyed at Lily focusing on babies constantly so Lily preemptively broke up with her... it's not like Robin was being unreasonable, but Lily was literally talking about babies nonstop, to the point that it was interrupting their daily life (plan on watching a movie together? Lily rented a video of a waterbirth instead!). Granted, this is the one time Marshall called her out on something, but apparently just for the breaking-up, the behavior leaving up to it was apparently peachy.
      • Hey, another entry in the "Lily sucks" category: the episode where the gang find out Robin and Barney are together. She locks them in a room and forces them to "have The Talk". Despite Barney telling her that he and Robin are perfectly happy the ways things are.
      • And she only does it because she wants another couple to hang around with.
    • I'm so glad this entry is here - this show's good mindless stupidity, but even accounting for that, Lily is an awful, awful person, and she never gets called out on it. How would you feel if one of your supposed-best friends was reshaping your romantic life on how she views the future in her head (the "Front Porch" test mentioned above)? She gets away with it being "cutesy", pulling puppy dog faces and saying "sorry" a lot it seems.
    • You know what? This could all go back to Marshall & Ted being based off Carter Bays & Craig Thomas, with Lily being based off one of their wives. She's a horrible person but because she's based off one of the creator's wives, Lily is portrayed as practically saintly. When you look at it like that, it makes a lot of sense. However, it doesn't change the fact that since the end of season 1, she's become an increasingly unlikable character. For me, she's on the verge of being a Creator's Pet, and may have already gone past that point.
    • I believe that it's worth noting that in the first season, Lily was essentially just a pastiche of what people assumed that a generic Alyson Hannigan character would be. As soon as she started to be fleshed out, she became a combination of Monica Geller-Bing and Pol Pot.
    • This is not entirely relevant but it bugs me and fits somewhat well. Lily seems to be an awful teacher. It borders on Comedic Sociopathy and hinges on Rule of Funny but... every time she gets shown at work she is doing kind of a terrible job. Granted, it would be boring to show a well-behaved kindergarten class, but still.
      • What personally bothered me most about her teaching method was the wishy-washy "everyone's a winner" basketball games she oversees. Marhsall, while harsh, was 100% right about how people do need to work to acheive things, and it is a valuable lesson to learn, but the episode acts as though both methods are equally wrong.
        • Actually, the episode treats her way as being more right. At least, Marshall admits hers has some merit. She says his has none.
      • Best example of her being an actual bad teacher is her sleeping during nap time. Robin asks if that's safe and she says "What're they going to do to me? They're just kids." Other instances could just be showing her at bad times but that's actually pretty negligent.
      • In one episode she leaves her class alone with Marshall. Okay, so he's not a pedophile, but I'd imagine that sort of thing is grounds for dismissal.
        • Especially since he did expose himself to Lily's class that one time. Accidentally, sure, but I feel like the school wouldn't approve.
    • Exploding Meatball Sub actually averted this big time. Lily was about to run away to Spain in order to get away from being supportive of Marshall (rather than, you know, talking to him about it) at a time when money was very tight. But, at the end of the episode she didn't! Sure, it's more of a "she didn't do something awful for once" but we'll accept baby steps.
      • The fact that she actually considered leaving Marshall again because she couldn't handle the financial pressures and other inconveniences brought on by his new job (which is rather hypocritical of her considering the whole mountain of debt thing she was 100% percent responsible for)is full of so many problems that it's hard to take her seriously after she actually packs up her things and makes it to the airport before changing her mind.
      • The fact she was considering leaving was particularly bad considering "Natural History," when she was mad at Marshall for considering staying at a high-paying corporate job rather than saving the planet. Which, as previously stated, was a necessity largely because of her debt.
    • Probably worse than never being called out for her behavior is the fact that the one time she actually was called out for anything was when Ted called her a "Grinch", which he was more than entitled to seeing as she found out from a recorded message where Ted was trying to comfort Marshall, who was a complete and utter wreck because of what Lily did to him. Then in the end Ted raises a perfectly good point about how Marshall isn't the only person Lily abandoned and she never apologized to Ted or any of the other friends she selfishly left and merely assumed they'd be okay with it once Marshall forgave her, but in the end the episode still treats it like it was wrong of Ted to call her a "Grinch" and shouldn't have held a grudge to begin with.
    • And brought back in the Seventh Season premiere with Lily convincing Robin to tell Barney how she feels because Lily senses "chemistry" which led to Robin being hurt when she realizes Barney does still like Nora. Lily really can't keep her nose out of others' relationships...
      • But let's be honest here, every Barney/Robin shippers cheers when she brings that up.
    • In the Season 7 Christmas episode, this plays an interesting role in Robin's refusal to tell Lily bad news... Robin knows that Lily will inevitably feel awful and turn the attention towards her and ROBIN would end up being the one consoling Lily. Other than her frustration that she doesn't have any one to talk to about the issue, Robin doesn't seem to think this is a serious sign of Lily being self-centered.
    • How has Milk not been mentioned yet? She secretly applies to an art program, doesn't tell anyone about her worries about the wedding, and drives off in the night to an interview. Okay, not the best stuff but really pretty reasonable. Then, when she gets a flat, she has Ted, whom she KNOWS is going to a very important date that night, begs and guilts him into coming to change the tire (... never heard of AAA?) when he doesn't even have a car. Okay... that's... actually pretty bad. Then, after promising that she didn't care about the interview anymore, she changes her mind and abandons him on the side of the road. Especially since she was going on about how her situation was "the beginning of a scary story"... it's a lot worse for Ted, stranded and alone. With somewhere important to be. She doesn't even get called out on it. Not even a little bit, other than Ted asking if she got in (side note, she did promise in no uncertain terms to Ted that she wouldn't go but... well... she did. So yay, she's a liar, too).
    • Minor one, Lily fails the Nice to the Waiter test. In "Swarley"/"Crazy Eyes" when she's at the coffee shop, she says the cashier's name, and he corrects her and says he's wearing the wrong nametag. Then she interrupts him and calls him the wrong name again. Granted, she's in a hurry so I don't mind the rushing or even the interrupting, but c'mon. Get the name right.
  • Yes, THANK YOU. Lily has rapidly become my least favorite character on the show. She's bitchy, selfish, arrogant, and we're supposed to sympathize with her because she's... a main character I guess? And the best part is - there's no end in sight for it, because the writers seem to be perfectly content with eltting her get away with all the crap she does. AHAHA, FUNNY!!
    • Since when is this a page for complaining about characters you don’t like? And for the record, Barney seduced the girl Lily was trying to set up with Ted, broke into an unsold house, pretended it was his, and left a girl there, left a girl in the woods, proposed to a woman just to prove a point to Ted, and at one point he even said he sold a woman. And I still like him. Is Lily somehow worse because the “Jerkass” side is on the inside and the “good” part is on the outside? Or because we don’t care about those other 200 people? Lily may have done some crappy things, but she has also...
      • inspired Ted to stand up to Druthers and proceed to have his very first building design go into action. Granted, Ted was within his rights to fire her because it was not her place to shake things up, but without it he probably wouldn’t have had the courage to show the building to anyone.
      • pushed Barney to pursue Robin after he confessed that he loved her. It took a year, but Robin did see a new side of him that night, and he was the first to find out about a potential job she was considering.
      • saved Ted from a “crappy and probably expensive first marriage.” Yes, she should not have been micromanaging Ted, but this is Ted Mosby. This is a man who says “I love you” on the first date, proposes after 3 months without even knowing their allergies, whether they like his favorite movie, and without even thinking about where they’re going to live. Barney and Marshall interfered in one of his relationships when they were afraid he would move too fast, and Ted argues that they were wrong, but he texted serious things about his dad to a girl he met once, thinking he knew her because he was texting her. One wonders why she’s not more worried....
      • took care of Marshall’s mom during his dad’s funeral. She didn’t even care that Marshall’s mom was being rude to her, and even took the blame for Robin giving a teenager alcohol without realizing it. Not to mention she let Marshall stay at his mom’s house as long as he needed to.
      • helped Barney realize what he truly wanted out of life. On his first date with Nora she told him she wanted a family and he told her he did too. Later he told her he’d lied, but Lily knew better.
      • So that’s my take on it. Sorry if I come off as a Soapbox Sadie, but this section of the page, while it does give some good points, is really starting to piss me off.
      • No, I think you're completely right. All of the characters are bad sometimes, but we just have to remember that people screw up and are selfish but still good people. Lily's done a lot - been a Team Mom, for starters - for all of them.
    • The thing that separates Barney and Lily is that Barney is about Comedic Sociopathy and his misdeeds are very upfront, Lily's are hidden (hence the "Fridge Bitch" in the opening sentence... it wasn't until the second viewing of the series that I started to notice her consistent flaws) and the Headscratcher is more about how she never gets called out on it, even a little bit. Barney gets called out on his actions, and the fact that he is quickly turning into The Chew Toy makes people feel like he's paying for his actions.
      • I don't disagree that she should be called out and all. My problem was that in complaining about her some people seemed to forget the good things she's done. In "Tick Tick Tick" Robin and Barney were talking about how they were "messed up," really I think every person in the group is messed up to some degree (hers seems to come out in her "Fridge Bitchery," Marshall with fighting, Ted in torturing his kids with an overly-long story that's 7 years and growing). I think that's what makes the show great. Okay, sorry. Me and my soapboxes. (/end gushing)
    • Ladies and gentlemen, this thing is going too far. IMHO, the original post IS a legitimate headscratcher. We don't complain about the fact that Lily is a Jerkass. We're scratching our head at the fact that it's only Lily who can do assholish stuff without getting called out on it. Lily is a Jerkass, no doubt, everyone in this show is. We're just wondering what the fuck prevents the writers from busting her ass.
    • you should all remember that the story is being told from teds perspective and he is closer friends with marshall then he is with lily, and therefore is more likely to overlook his faults but with lily he is going to do that less but still doesn't want his kids to treat her bad/ is afraid of what she will do if she finds out
    • In her defense, Lily is a flawed character just like everyone else on the show with her own issues and not the Mary Sue her critiques make her out to be. She does get called out for leaving Marshall and does get her comeuppance with the fact that Marshall does not get back with her immediately and she realizes that she screwed things up. Her life is not perfect either since he suffers from debt, her family is falling apart in stark contrast to the Ericksons, her mother in law hates her, and she doesn't achieve her dream of becoming an artist while her husband and best friends Ted and Robin achieve theirs. The controlling of Ted's love life is not so harsh given the fact that Ted makes some pretty poor decisions in his love life ranging from his actions during St. Patrick's Day to getting back with Karen.
    • You're mistaken. Lily controls Ted's love life is not for Ted's own good, but for hers. The Front Porch, remember? She shapes Ted's love life based on her dreams, not Ted's.
  • In relation to the "Wedding Bride", Ted gets overly upset at what Tony flanderized him to be. Yet, when you look at it Tony's way, Ted is the jerk. In Tony's mind, Ted stole Stella from him, and so he obviously has made Ted out to be the villain, like Ted has made Tony. If Tony was the main character of the story, we would have thought Ted was a jerk instead.
    • Maybe, but still, the fact is this: Stella was no longer involved with Tony. Ted was being a respectable guy and was trying to be nice to Tony, and Tony stole Stella from him. I think Ted should make his own film from his point of view.
    • Nobody "stole" Stella. She's not a blue french horn or a yellow umbrella. Stella made the choice to ditch Ted and go back to Tony of her own free will.
    • Even from the point of view that you can steal a woman (which is pretty prevalent), you can't make the argument that Ted stole her. Tony and Stella had been broken up for at least five years. If it's immoral to date any girl who has had a boyfriend in the last five years then... well that's just stupid.
      • Before someone cites Barney and Robin's relationship angering Ted, Tony and Ted had no pre-existing relationship so it is not as though Ted is betraying Tony by dating his ex...
    • I was just surprised that Tony freaked out and made such a vicious, slanderous, and, yes, incorrect movie the way he did. It seemed rather out-of-nowhere given his previous characterisation as a pretty nice guy.
    • You also can't escape the fact that Stella walked out on Ted the day before their wedding. As romantic as it may seem, nothing Ted did before that can even be comparable in jerkassery.
    • All of this makes sense when you see it from Ted's point of view. Imagine if Tony had met Robin and wanted to marry her, and seeing Robin with someone else made Ted realize how much he wanted her, and he made the grand romantic gesture of confessing his feelings to her before it was too late and she married Tony. There are always two sides to every story, and from Tony's side Ted is the villain. That makes perfect sense. Doesn't mean Ted can't be angry about it, but it's not outrageous from Tony's point of view.
      • Hrm. That is exactly what happened when Robin was dating Don (for both Ted and Barney). And they were portrayed as huge jackasses. Granted, a large part of it was the way they were going about it but they were portrayed as in the wrong just for wanting Robin back because she was dating someone new.
      • It is outrageous, however, when you remember that Ted saved Tony and Stella's relationship. One would think that meant Tony would give Ted some respect. There's also the previously mentioned fact that, up until that point, Tony was portrayed as a decent guy who harboured Ted no ill will.
    • Is everybody forgetting its a movie. How much do you think came from Tony and how much was Executive Meddling ?. Come on, bigwigs with a romantic comedy accepting a story where the hero isn't so heroic and the lovable 'bad guy' gets his heart broken for a feel-good summer movie? Try again Tony.
      • This would make sense if the movie wasn't filled with incredibly specific, personal slights against Ted that only Tony & Stella would've known, like Ted falling asleep during sex or the orange kangaroo.
      • So...less Executive Meddling and more Tony writing to the Lowest Common Denominator. Tony started out with a pretty accurate script, and no one would buy it. So he revised it a couple of times until it became absolute (sellable) crap. He probably never "rewrote" his script, just changed it, therefore, his mostly accurate script ended up buried under the schlock.
      • The biggest issue for This Troper was that neither Tony nor Stella, despite both being on apparently good terms with Ted, called him to warn him that this film was coming out, and that he didn't come out particularly well in it. In that episode, Ted refers to Stella as a "horrible woman", but in the time we've seen her, Stella - while clearly a selfish person - doesn't come across as the kind of person that would let Ted's life be ruined like that.
    • And let's not forget how it's implied Stella didn't want Tony at the wedding because she already had feelings for him and knew she wouldn't be able to resist leaving Ted if Tony was there. If Ted didn't go against Stella's "no exes" policy then Tony would've never gotten his second chance with Stella and Stella probably would've left Ted after getting married anyways given how serious her lingering feelings for Tony were, so they should both be grateful for Ted, and yet this movie thing still happened.
  • Vicky Mendoza's progress on the Hot-Crazy Scale. Why do losing ten pounds and getting a boob job make her less crazy but not hotter? It's really not very important, but it's such a basic mistake.
    • Also, stabbing him with a fork make her crazier... and hotter? Never knew Barney was such a masochist...
      • Really? You clearly haven't been paying attention. The dude's got problems.
  • In "Spoiler Alert", everyone realizes they have crazy bad habits. These habits have all disappeared again by Slapsgiving. You even see Lily eating, with absolutely no ridiculously loud chewing. What happened?
    • Unreliable Narrator. Those habits only showed up in that episode because that's what the episode was about. And, honestly, didn't the loud chewing seem to be a bit of an exaggeration?
    • Actually, wait a minute... Right at the end, Future!Ted says something about how they're all such good friends that they can forget the habits again. Since they've forgotten them, they don't actually appear again - just as they didn't appear before everyone realised they existed.
    • Lily and Marshall I'll not defend, but Ted still corrects people, Robin still misuses 'literally', and Barney uses Catch Phrases and goes high-pitched and sing-song. It's nowhere NEAR as prevalent as in that episode, make no mistake, but that's because those idiosyncrasies were the point of the episode. It would be really annoying if they continued to use their habits to that degree in normal, run-of-the-mill episodes.
      • But that makes it worse. Everybody's habits still make an appearance, when you think about it... except for Lily's. Why doesn't her habit remain when everybody else's do? (Marshall also did the singing thing in Sweet Taste of Liberty)
        • The other's traits all show up again because they're funny and non-intrusive. Keepling Lily's around would shoot eating scenes dead.
        • More importantly, Ted is telling a story. He's not going to pause his story in the middle to say, "and then Lily continued chewing really loudly." It was a part he hadn't mentioned yet in the wierd narrative that is the show, and so he backtracked to fill it in, just like he does in almost every other episode.
    • I think the reason Lily's habit wasn't recurring (everyone else's habit came from earlier and showed up in later episodes) is because her real bad habit is too negative. She's a raging bitch. That's not a good story.
  • Why does Barney never mention his brother James or his nephew? He seemed really excited to be an uncle, and then was again when Marshall and Lily were considering having a kid. So why does he never mention the kid? Show the gang some photos or something? NPH's Twitter implied Wayne Brady is going to make an appearance in Season Six, so hopefully this addresses it.
    • Because they are not an active part of Barney's life. Barney spends most of his nights going to bars while his brother has a husband and a baby with whom he spends his time. It isn't unusual for real-life adult siblings to spend months or even years away from each other, especially if one of them is married. This doesn't mean that Barney doesn't care for James or his nephew--Barney would be at his brother's side at a moment's notice if something bad happened--but there's little reason for him to bring up his brother in public.
  • Keeping in mind I've only just finished Season 3 so maybe this has been answered - are we ever given a reason as to why Barney is so fanatically invested in being Ted's best friend? Now I'm not doing this to roundabout bash Ted, who I think is a pretty good guy in the context of the show, but Barney repeatedly goes above and beyond the call to secure and keep their friendship. Considering it all started because they met randomly at the bar and Barney proceeded to latch himself onto Ted like a Barnicle[3], Barney's put a lot of emotion into it.
    • Barney is needy and has abandonment issues.
    • It's actually a semi-common sitcom trope for men to place really weird importance on the title "best friend." That and best man. Do we have this one yet?
  • A minor complaint: Future Ted always talks to his children about "Aunt Robin, Uncle Barney, Aunt Lily, and Uncle Marshal", yet they aren't his brothers and sisters and therefore, wouldn't be the childrens' aunt or uncles. Maybe it's different in some parts of the US but the only times I've heard people being referred to as an uncle or aunt is if they were really biological uncles or aunts.
    • Well, while not an American, This Troper calls his mother's friends "Aunt" and "Uncle", and we're not related at all. It's a term of affection used for very close friends. At least, over here, and I would assume that there are people in America and, indeed, all over the world who do the same.
      • The East Coast perhaps?
      • This troper is American, and will confirm that "uncle" and "aunt" are indeed used as terms of endearment in this fashion.
    • Actually an official trope: Honorary Uncle.
    • Godparents are often referred to as "Aunt" and "Uncle". Considering that, judging from some of Future Ted's comments, the group stays close in the future, it's pretty reasonable to assume that Ted would bestow such titles on them.
    • There are theories that Barney and Robin marry, and that Ted marries one of their sisters (both Barney and Robin have college-aged sisters), thus making them his children's aunt and uncle. And it's incredibly likely that Lily and Marshall would be their godparents.
  • When Barney was nearing his goal of 200 women, Ted (and the rest of the gang) reacted with disgust saying that this was 'too many'. Yet in the latest episode when Barney mentions his updated count (236) Ted responds "Really? Respect!". When did this become okay for him?
    • I think they disapprove of Barney's absurdly high number, and should be dipped in bleach a couple of times a day, but (the guys, at least) still respect that he's actually managed to sleep with that many women.
  • (Just a note, I'm just finishing season 3.) Wait, so...the realtor left out dealbreaking information like a floor at that extreme of an angle and refused to explain what "Dowisetrepla" meant, and they stick with the apartment? Something about that has to break the law. Marshall never thinks of suing the realtors?
    • For what? The realtor didn't "refuse" to tell them. In an attempt to not look like idiots/to look cool, Marshall and Lily pretended to know what "Dowisetrepla" meant. And they were physically in the apartment when they bought it. If they didn't notice the floor, it's their fault.
    • What I want to know about the apartment is how did Lily, who has a degree in Art, not notice that there is that much slope in the room. I know that this is played for laughs, but with that much tilt, either the furniture that was in there was shimmed or legs shaved to counter the angle, or it is just a convenient plot device/hole.
      • Broad Strokes / Unreliable Narrator, as usual. The stench from the waste treatment plant is never mentioned again. Nor is the crippling debt Marshall and Lily should be in, either.
        • Sure it is, it's just retconned to be less dire. Marshall and Lily's financial troubles and Marshall's ensuing job hunt make up a good number of season three subplots.
  • Is it just me, or is Ted/Robin a massive Shaggy Dog Story? We're told in the first episode that they don't end up together, yet all of Season One is devoted to Ted pining over Robin, and then Robin pining over Ted, and then having them both get together. Then Season Two is focused on their relationship which, of course, doesn't last: they break up in the last episode. Then they have this weird on-again/off-again thing were they hook up, think about restarting the relationship, and decide they're better off as friends. The worst example is the "Benefits" episode, where they try to have a friends with benefits type thing, which of course doesn't work out, and they go back to being friends with no benefits. As we all know, it was a bold and original idea, that no TV show has ever tackled. At this point it's basically Future Ted bragging to his children that "yeah, your Aunt Robin was once really hot, and I had sex with her so many times. It was awesome." I wouldn't be surprised if they still hooked up occasionally.
    • In reference to the "Benefits" episode, he's clearly trying to teach his kids the lesson that a no-strings attached relationship doesn't work, and they should look for something meaningful.
    • This troper does not agree. It's clear from the end of the first episode that although Robin and Ted don't end up married, Robin becomes an very important woman in Ted's life, comparable to Lily. Whatever ups and downs their friendship-lives, sex lives, and romantic lives go through Ted and Robin will stay close. That's important to establish. Pairing off Robin and Ted in their doomed romantic relationship allows the characters to understand why they're not good for each other, rather then having the two of them ignore their feelings. I do, however, agree that it's odd for the children to know that their dad and their Aunt Robin had a wild, firey affair.
    • This troper still finds it a Shaggy Dog Story sometimes bordering on Shoot the Shaggy Dog since the entire point of the series is to allegedly tell the kids how he met their mother. Spending what amounts to a large part of the story talking about how many times he's hooked up with and pined after their aunt would be a weird thing to tell your kids (especially if they know her), and from an audience standpoint, why should we care at all about the storyline since the outcome has already been spoiled by the narrator? It's a bad idea to dedicate multiple story arcs to a canonically doomed relationship if you don't want your audience rolling their eyes and checking their watches.
  • Is it just me, or is Ted kind of inconsistent about what he tells his kids and what he self-censors? For example, he disguises his dropping the c-bomb on Lily as calling her a "Grinch," but he tells them about the time that he may or may not have had a threesome (and another time, depending on your interpretation of "Woo Girls.") He uses "sandwiches" as a euphemism for smoking pot, but tells them all about the kinky shit that Aunt Lily has inadvertently admitted to being into. (Admittedly, it is funny in a meta way; if Bob Saget were really narrating the story, pretty much every other word out of his mouth would be, ahem, "Grinch.")
    • He's perfectly consistent, in that his self-censorship is "what would be allowed on a prime-time block of a 'family' channel circa the year of the anecdote he was telling". Also, maybe having kids just gave him a hangup over cursing in front of them or mentioning using drugs aside from alcohol and, once, with many disclaimers, cigarettes, but people in the future (or just Ted) are less prudent about talking about sex, a biological thing that every ancestor in existence normally does.
      • The Threesome episode starts with Sagat saying this is a story he'll never tell his kids. Don't remember Lily's kinks, but if it's not a voiceover it probably isn't told to the kids.
    • Perhaps he's a little more self-censoring when the mother's in the room listening than when she isn't.
  • How does Anna make it to the Top Four in the bracket? Sure, the gang didn't realize that she didn't know he had lied about his identity, but even with that added layer of deceit... this is pretty standard for Barney. I mean, he lied about his name and occupation and left a form letter. The fact he has a form letter implies that he uses it with some regularity, and lying about his name and occupation isn't even slightly new. At all.
    • The rest of the gang may still have had some hard feelings over that incident, skewing the vote in her favor. Ted probably wasn't happy about someone else using his name when one-night standing someone, and Barney's lying about his identity inadvertently caused Robin to freak out and Lily to lose a bunch of money bribing a bouncer to track him and Anna down.
  • In the episode As Fast As She Can, Ted is asked to design what is described as a "murder room." The psychopath who is requesting Ted's help even leaves and causes somebody off camera to scream bloody murder. Ted talks to his friends about this, but their is no indication that he went to the police. I know, it's a sitcom. And yes, on it's own it's a very funny scene. But it's a black comedy joke. How I Met Your Mother is not a black comedy. It's a romance. And the rest of the episode is about Ted finally being able to forgive Stella and Tony and admit that he really wants to be married and be loved by someone. It's a very emotional episode, which just makes the darkly comic serial killer jokes even less funny. It's so not in the style of the series and all the character's lack of concern over the matter is possibly more horrifying than the killer. For the rest of the episode, even though Ted is making life-changing decisions, all I could think was "Lord, when did Brett Easton Ellis start writing for this show?"
    • At least in the Spanish dub, it was suggested that the psycho wanted a hard S&M dungeon, so it was gross enough but not illegal.
      • I'd be interested to see how they redubbed the "OH MY GOD IT'S A MURDER HOUSE" freakout at Mc Claren's in relation to this...
  • The show is on its sixth season. Exactly how long have Ted's kids been listening to him talk? And why doesn't their mother ever interrupt him?
    • It's become obvious that the show has much more detail than what Future!Ted is actually telling the kids. It's (somewhat) plausible that that expansion is actually ludicrous and that telling the story to the kids hasn't been going on for very long.
    • Comic Book Time is probably the best answer.
    • Maybe it's been divided into multiple sessions? As for why their mother never interrupts, it's probably because Ted, being his obsessive, pedantic self, has asked her that he be allowed to tell the entire story by himself. She'll probably finally get her turn to talk in the last episode.
  • In "The Mermaid Theory" (season 6, episode 11), Future!Ted mentions how Robin and Marshall never hung around alone together. The question is, didn't they hang out, just the two of them, in "Little Minnesota" (Marshall introduces her to the theme bar he goes to, gets her kicked out for being Canadian, then introduces her to the Canada-themed bar)?
    • That doesn't mean Marshall kept going to the Canadian bar. However, I think a bigger point would be drinking together and having dinner together are two extremely different situations, and you will likely find one easygoing and the other very awkward. Notice that they seemed to have a less awkward time when they cut from dinner discussion to getting drunk.
    • It's weird; in the fourth season, the writers were making a distinct attempt to push the two characters together simply because they had the loosest connection (see: "Little Minnesota", "Three Days of Snow"), and it worked, and it was funny. But with the failure of Barney/Robin, I guess that they felt that they had too many Robin-centric episodes and needed to rein back?
  • Barney's personal tailor. In season 1, it was a Ukranian dude. Did he go and change tailors between seasons (his talior in season 5 is Tim Gunn)?
    • I suppose. I see no reason why he couldn't change tailors. Besides, if you had the opportunity to have Tim Gunn as your personal tailor, would you say no?
    • Fridge Logic: he orders so many suits that the Ukrainian dude couldn't keep up with it, so he needed another tailor.
  • Can someone explain to me why Ted was so angry at Barney for sleeping with Robin in season 3? Maybe this is something culture specific, but to this non-American troper it didn't make any sense. Ted and Robin were no longer together at that point, so why would Barney even have to ask Ted for permission to date her? Yes, this rule is in the Bro Code, but still.
    • Sleeping with Robin made Barney a hypocrite. The Bro Code is his thing, and Ted bends over backwards to uphold it (there's even a montage). And then Barney goes and breaks it anyway. Notice how Ted is angry at Barney, but isn't mad at Robin. It has nothing to do with them sleeping together, it's the principle that was broken that is the problem. By sleeping with Robin, Barney is basically saying that his friendship with Ted doesn't matter.
    • Also, Robin is Ted's ex-girlfriend, so he has no right to tell her who she can and cannot sleep with. On the other hand, Ted has every right to ask his best friend not to sleep with his ex-girlfriend. Keep in mind that Ted and Robin only broke up because they wanted different things, not because they didn't get on or because they didn't love each other any more. Ted probably is upset at Robin for sleeping with Barney, just as Robin admitted to being upset that Ted was marrying Stella.
    • Barney's entire shtick is that he's a terrible person but a great friend. Ted mentions that he's seen Barney do awful, short-sighted, immature things to people over the years and that he's always tolerated it because of their friendship. Remember that when Robin tells Ted that Barney slept with her, she says that she was in a vulnerable state of mind when it happened. Ted may have assumed that Barney had treated her the same way he treats the many--shall we say--less intelligent women he typically one-night stands (we even see Robin in season 5 worrying that she was just another "number" to Barney). So, somewhat hypocritically admittedly, Ted is willing to put up with Barney pulling his antics on others but not on someone Ted cares about. Also remember that Ted is alright with Barney pursuing Robin at the end of season 4, since by this point it's clear that Barney has genuine feelings for her.
    • Ted flat out says, "You think this is just about Robin?" Ted had spent the entire episode thinking about how he had grown too old for certain things, and Barney breaking his own friendship code made Ted realize that he was too old for Barney's shenanigans. It was really just the straw that broke the camel's back.
  • "False Positive" bugs me for a few reasons. Marshall&Lily and Barney's stories make sense, but it seems way out of character that Robin would seriously consider being a "coin flip bimbo" over taking a stepping stone towards her dream job. It feels like she was written to do that so that Ted would look better when he tells her to take the news job. Speaking of Ted, when everyone else was freaking out over their life situations, shouldn't he have been doing so as well? The whole premise of the show is a retrospect of Ted trying to find a woman to marry and have kids with, and five years after he first set out to accomplish this he's still nowhere close. Where's his crushing life reevaluation?
    • I thought they did a good job of establishing a reason for Robin's behavior in the episode; she was just having a little minor crisis that almost made her make a vain decision, which Ted helped her realize. As for Ted, are you saying he hasn't had enough life changing reevaluations? Plus I feel like the characters here didn't so much all make a huge leap as they all had their own little crises, which Ted was able to help with.
    • On Ted not freaking out: everyone else was freaking out because they had big, life-changing decisions (or, in Barney's case, had a sudden windfall of money) going on in their lives. Ted, on the other hand, has a job that, much as he loves it, isn't leading anywhere and no love-life to worry over. Basically, Ted has no reason to freak out because there's nothing going on in his life. Which, if you think about it, is actually kind of sad.
    • A key difference between Ted's situation and the others' is that Ted has been consciously trying to achieve his goal of finding his dream woman for over five years by this point. Ted knows exactly what he wants from life and hasn't wavered from it, so he's content even though he's seen so little success. The other four were giving up on goals they set for themselves because they were either afraid, frustrated, or lazy. It's the difference between losing a game and not showing up for a game.
  • In "As Fast as She Can" Stella says that she was 19 when she got pregnant. Her daughter is stated to be 7 (maybe 8 by the time of the episode). So that would make her somewhere around 27 or 28. Wouldn't she be a bit young to already be a successful dermatologist with her own private practice?
    • Maybe not. She could be part of a small partnership. Also we don't know much about her early life; maybe she has family money. Or she could just be that good.
  • Okay, exactly WHAT does Barney do for a living?
    • Oh, please.
    • He has a lot of keys.
  • How many full drinks have the gang left on the table in Mac Laren's Pub? Every time they sit down with a full drink, they leave before it's finished. EVERY EPISODE! Bar drinks aren't cheap. They must have wasted a fair bit of disposable income over the years. just sayin'.
    • Oh, they probably finish them. It's just less time-consuming to the narrative if they don't stick around for the whole amount of time it takes to finish a cocktail.
    • They also leave quite a bit of food uneaten. It seems like they're always getting up and leaving a restaurants before finishing the meal, or in some cases after taking one bite. "Best Burger in New York" comes to mind as one of the most egregious examples, but it happen a lot.
      • "Best Burger" is a special case where Marshal was looking for a specific burger and wouldn't let them finish their meals. Every other occurrence is a common

Acceptable Break From Reality in television.

  • The fans constantly make speculations about characters turning out to be the mother. They completely ignore the fact that no character with an established name can be the mother, because the kids or Ted logically would have pointed it out.
    • The kids haven't actually spoken since season two (well, except for that one bit in season five…). It's possible that Ted just didn't mention someone's name to the kids. Recall that if it's not in the narration, the kids don't necessarily hear it.
      • Besides that, most of the fan speculations involve extras in the background of a scene.
  • The Murtaugh List - how is Robin able to do the stuff on the list with Barney, if she's supposed to be their age, and thus, too old to do the stuff on the list?
    • Robin didn't actually do all the things on the list. She was just along for the ride. Aside from "helping someone move/robbing someone" and going to a rave, she didn't do much else on the list. Also Robin's the youngest of the gang. The Murtaugh List was supposed to be things you're too old to do once you turn 30, Robin's only 28 or 29 at that time and Barney is around 33. Those five years must make a big difference.
  • In flashbacks during "Miracles" and "Little Boys" young Robin is wearing a dress. But, she mentions in "Happily Ever After" that her being a girl never stopped her dad's plan on raising a son. So why exactly would she be wearing dresses if she was being raised like a boy?
  • What ever happened to Korean Elvis after Lily kicked him in the nards?
    • He probably makes a point of avoiding the group now, for obvious reasons.
  • Funeral, Last Words, season six. Why in Haruhi's name is Barney wearing a suit to the funeral?
    • The last time the gang went to a funeral, in "Monday Night Football" it was for someone none of them could even remember. In "Last Words" it was Marshall's father. Someone probably took Barney aside before they left and made sure he wore a suit out of respect for Marshall.
    • It's also possible that he did it on his own. Barney's actions throughout the series show that, as much as he says it's Ted, his best friend is actually Marshall. All of the times Barney is seen acting selflessly, it's to help Marshall. It wouldn't be out-of-character for Barney to do something completely opposite to what he would normally do if it was for the Eriksens' benefit.
  • Does anyone else think its secretly horrifying how Ted started the story by how he met "Aunt Robin"? Think about it: Ted describes her in a lot of detail, making the kids believe she was their mother until the reveal at the end of the episode. Then he spends the rest of the first and second season telling them how he tried to date her, how they ended up going out, how they broke up, and how they got back together and broke up again. Now, he may have never outright said that he slept with Robin, but he implies it a lot and the kids look like they are old enough to assume they did. How exactly do they both feel about knowing that "boring ol' dad" Ted slept with "Aunt" Robin? More importantly, how does the mother feel?
    • He didn't "make the kids believe" anything. And since when was it impossible for exes to remain friends: you know that was addressed within the show, right? And why would The Mother have a problem with Ted remaining friends with his ex?
      • It's possible that the Mother is either Robin's sister, or her sister-in-law (through Barney and Robin marrying).
    • No, I mean is she okay with him telling the kids about all the sex he had with other people up until he met their mother.
    • Considering he is currently 32, and has not met their mother yet, everyone probably assumes that "Dad had sex before he met Mom."
    • Teenage kids being vaguely aware that their Dad had a sex life before he met their Mom is very different from teenage kids being told in excruciating detail about their Dad's sex life by their Dad himself.
      • Oh, please. The catch is that Ted is telling his children that he sexed up, not "someone", but Aunt Robin. They know Robin. She hangs up with Ted's family. Things between her and the kids will never be the same (sort of personal experience talking here, no questions).
  • Exactly what did Blah Blah whisper to Ted that made her shoot up the Hot/Crazy Scale so fast?
    • Something including the words "Sexy Empire State Building Costume", I think.
  • In "Honey", Robin catastrophically burns a whole dinner because she thought the oven displayed degrees Celsius. Wouldn't the food being catastrophically undercooked make more sense?
    • That being said, maybe because she thought it was in Celsius and overcompensated immensely by adding another 200 or 300 degrees. Just my opinion.
    • That or just the same old tired durr hurr hurr Canada!
  • In "Three Days of Snow," Marshall and Lily always meet as soon as possible, before the baggage claim. So how did they get their respective six-packs on the plane?
    • I've gotten beer on a plane lots of times, rum too.
      • There's now the TSA rule against carrying liquids on a plane. If you can't get on a plane with a bottle of insulin you certainly can't get on with a six-pack.
  • Ted says in the fifth season finale that his blonde hair stopped him and Robin from doing something they would both regret. But... they've relapsed before. At least twice. The first time was a bit awkward, since Robin was dating someone (she didn't get called out on that as much as I would've expected) but the second (extended) time was downright amicable and they only stopped because Ted was feeling bad for Barney. A one-night drunken hookup between the two doesn't seem to be the worst thing in the world. They're obviously not uncomfortable around each other (to the point that Robin is fine flashing Ted just to prove that he has a "boob giggle").
    • The only thing I can think of is that Ted would feel bad because Robin's emotionally vulnerable. Which is fairly reasonable.
  • I'm sure it happened off-screen, but one thing that bothers me is that Barney's brother James finally meets his father (Sam), and produces a photo of his own son, but it doesn't come up that he's gay and the child is adopted. Sam seems like a nice enough guy, and presumably is accepting of these facts, but he's of a generation for which homosexuality is still an issue. Not only that, he's a priest, and if there's anybody that has some friction with gay people, it's the church. I don't really know how they would deal with it, but this just bugs me.
    • Seeing as James's son, Eli, is white, I think Sam can probably assume he's adopted. Religion is not necessarily homophobic, many churches are gay friendly. Besides, Sam might just be so happy he's got a grandson he doesn't care about James having a husband (like Barney did).
      • Being a priest, Sam really shouldn't have any kids at all so does he really have room to judge him?
        • Judging by the robes he's wearing in "False Positive" when Barney comes to donate the money, I'd say he's an evangelical pastor, not a priest. It's only priests in the Catholic church who are supposed to uphold a life of celibacy - as far as I'm aware, no other denominations of "mainstream" Christianity ask the same thing of their ministers.
  • It's small, but in the episode "Jenkins" when Ted and Barney are participating in the Robin drinking game, she is shown interviewing a kid. It has been numerously stated that her show takes place at ridiculous hours of the morning, so why would a child be participating in a show that runs so late?
    • Not really a headscratcher: all parents are different and some would have no problem with having a kid get up that early especially to be on the news.
      • Interview segments are also frequently taped in advance. News portions of a program have to be shown live, but interviews on the kind of nothing topics Robin covers can be shown as "live on tape" (previously filmed but not edited).
  • This one isn't really a biggie, because I get that they can't show every little thing on a show. But remember that episode where they all decided to quit smoking, and Future Ted said that none of them quit properly until later? Why didn't any of them ever smoke on camera after that? Or mention smoking at all, for that matter.
    • They didn't really smoke before that episode, either. There are lots of other little things that should logically be demonstrated, like everyone's annoying habits, but aren't. As numerous people have put forth, a good blanket explanation for such details not showing up is that since it's a narrative being told by Ted, those details don't "exist" in the story unless Ted draws attention to them.
      • You'll figure out that the brilliance of the show is that since Ted is "narrating" what happens, they can get away with a lot of potential Plot Holes.
  • In the pilot, what was so wrong with Ted telling Robin he loves her? It couldn't have been that bad.
    • Are you really going to tell me that you wouldn't feel incredibly awkward if your first date with someone, after only meeting a handful of times, ended with a confession of love?
      • This troper got a text from someone a few days after their first date saying, "I think I'm in love with you... BOOM, you've been Ted Mosby-ed" and it pretty much ruined the rest of the relationship, so yeah, it is that bad.
  • In the episode 'The Platinum Rule', Barney quotes the Golden Rule wrong, and Ted seems indignant that Barney doesn't recognize the real Golden Rule, because it's from THE BIBLE. Yet, in "How Lily Stole Christmas", Ted doesn't seem to know even one single verse out of the entire Bible.
    • Knowing something is from the Bible and being able to quote something from it are entirely different things. Truth in Television, really. I knew it was from the Bible and I couldn't quote a verse. Closest I can come to quoting something is actually Corinthians... which I only know from HIMYM.
      • True, and a good point - there's plenty of stuff from the Bible (and from many other books I've read) that I would recognize if someone else quoted it, but I couldn't quote correctly myself. However, Ted corrects Barney's version by quoting the verse correctly. And from the way he says it, he insinuates that it's embarrassing that Barney quoted the Bible wrong.
        • Maybe it was embarrassing that he was trying to quote something that is well known to a lot of people (mainly church goers) and got it wrong. It was like trying to quote something from the first paragraph of the Canadian national anthem when he was in Canada getting Robin back, in the US only Robin would had known the mistake, in Canada close to everyone would had known the mistake.
        • It's a case of being Dan Browned. Ted didn't make up a rule based on a verse of the Bible and then proceed to get it 100% wrong. And really, remembering one line like that is a bit different from remembering a full verse. That would be like expecting someone to be able to quote a full scene from a movie just because he remembered a particularly memorable quote.
          • Just to clarify, when people say "Bible verse", they mean a single line or short passage. Like "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is a "verse". Ted not being able to recite a Bible verse on cue is more like someone jumping in your face and demanding that you quote a line from a movie off the top of your head. Given time, you'd be able to, but on the spot it's hard to think of anything good.
  • In The Leap, they all jump across the alley to the other roof, a jump of five or six feet, to a roof that is clearly lower than their roof. How exactly did they get home? Did they just walk through someone's apartment?
    • This one is on the Fridge Logic page too. No real explanation though other than the people in that apartment must have been really cool to allow five strangers to jump across the alley onto their patio, (maybe) use their jacuzzi and then leave through their apartment without calling the cops and having the gang arrested.
    • Duh, they climbed down fire escape. No Fridge Logic necessary. This troper has even done this, having gotten locked out on the roof of a four story building. (And, for those now asking, well why didn't they climb up the fire escape instead of jumping from roof to roof, low rise buildings in the city usually have retractable ladders from the second floor to the ground. So when descending to escape a fire, you can extend them and reach the ground; but strangers on the ground can't access the ladder to climb up at will.)
  • The whole clichéd "you left me when I was little" bullcrap Barney's giving his father. It's flat-out stated that Barney's mom made Jerry leave; it wasn't his choice. So what's the deal?
    • Barney's always had a fairly childish mind, perhaps he doesn't care his mum made him leave and just blames his dad for not fighting harder to stay (not to mention Jerry forgot the last thing he said to Barney when he was small). It's similar to in 'Landmarks' where Barney thinks Ted is voting to save the Arcadian because he hates him. Barney's also always loved his mother a whole lot; he'd probably be more inclined to forgive her more easily as she's always been there for him... when she wasn't off whoring it up, I mean.
    • Not to mention that she had good reason to make him leave. The rant that he made in Legendaddy seems less childish in that light; he'd just seen that the hopeless rocker dad that he thought he had was actually capable of pulling himself together and that he had been living a responsible life for years, making sacrifices and beoing there for his other kids, but never once returning to Barney. In short: "If you were going to be a normal dad (if you were capable of being a normal dad), why couldn't you be that for me?"
    • Cliched bullcrap? People in real life can be really hurt by a parent who wasn't there when they grew up, why should Barney act differently? And just because he knows rationally that his father was forced to leave, that doesn't mean he won't feel hurt. Besides, his dad was forced to leave because he was a wreck. Then he cleans up, never bothers to check on Barney, and raises another kid. Damn right Barney would be hurt by that.
      • It's not cliched in real life, but in fiction it's a bit overused.
        • How old do you think television is? what isn't overused by now. Besides I think that the problem is that something that it's said is that when parents divorce each other, they shouldn't also divorce their kids. Even if his dad didn't get his act together, he could still be a part of Barney's life, the fact that he got his act together and instead of trying to raise Barney (while still divorced, shared custody yaddayaddayadda) he went and started another family, although starting another family is not a bad thing, forgetting about your old one is.
  • In 'The Wedding Bride', Ted's Girl of the Week talks to her friends about the movie, and about "how funny it was when Jed got beat up by the goat". However, Stella and Tony left before Ted got beaten up by the goat on his 31st birthday. The only excuses I can think of are it being a contrived coincidence, Tony reads Barney's blog (Marshall sent him an email about Ted getting beaten up by the goat) or Future Ted is remembering it incorrectly. Or it was overlooked by the writers.
    • It was only after Ted's 31st birthday that he decided to take the job as an architecture professor. He would have had to speak with Tony to get it, since Tony was the one pulling the strings there. Ted may have said something like, "Hey, I know I turned down your offer before, but getting beaten up by a goat made me change my mind." Thus, Tony gets the idea for his movie.
    • Alternately, this can be considered another example of Ted being an Unreliable Narrator. After he convinces himself that the movie is about his personal life, the floodgates opened.
  • At the end 'The Exploding Meatball Sub', Barney tricks Marshall into eating the sub in the year 2021. But, if Barney gets married before the show ends (which Word of God have said he definitely will), why isn't he wearing a wedding ring? Or Robin for that matter, if he marries her? Or if he marries Nora or another girl, where are they? I've been told this could just be Barney's imagination, but then why is Ted wearing a wedding ring? Yes, I know I've thought about this too much.
    • The imagine-spot makes sense to me, because Barney didn't plan on getting married when he made up his meatball-plan, but knew that Ted would have married someone by then.
    • Getting married doesn't necessarily mean he'll stay married.


  • In one episode Robin mentions that she wants to get another dog, and Ted says no way, claiming that he'd have to clean up after it after Robin gets bored or something, the usual thing that, say, a parent would tell a child begging for a puppy. But, um, dude. First, Robin is a grown woman who owned FIVE dogs, all of them healthy-looking and well cared for. Why is she all of a sudden completely incapable of caring for one? And two, the only reason she doesn't have those dogs any more is because Ted made her get rid of them, since he couldn't date her if she kept things belonging to her ex boyfriends. And just to salt the wound, the relationship didn't even last! So she gives up her dogs, who are her friends and family, for something that lasts a few episodes and fizzles, and then the guy who made her give them up says she can't get another dog in the most condescending way possible. What the hell!?
    • Why is Ted so opposed to having a dog all of a sudden anyway? He's supposed to like dogs. In the Pilot "she likes dogs" is one of his requirements for the perfect woman.
      • Let's get one thing correct - Ted did not "make Robin get rid of her dogs since he couldn't date her if she kept things belonging to her ex". Ted pointed out that it was hypocritical of Robin to tell Ted to get rid of every single thing associated with any of his exes while not applying the same standard to herself.
        • Let's get another thing correct: there is one hell of a difference between sentimental trinkets and a living animal. For lots of people, especially dog-lovers like Robin, dogs aren't just things to be cast aside, they're part of your family. Robin DID get rid of all the little trinkets her ex boyfriends gave her, which is why it was a big deal that Ted kept his. But you don't just abandon a dog! She's lucky she had family with a big farm or whatever she could send the five dogs to, because her other option would have been just dropping them off at a shelter where they very possibly could have been destroyed. I like Ted, I really do, but in this episode he was being unreasonable. She was not being hypocritical by being a responsible pet owner, he was being irresponsible by expecting her to get rid of her pets and her friends because he was uncomfortable. If the boyfriend-gifts she wanted to keep were stuffed animals, or decorations, or anything else I would be on your side, but animals are a completely different story!
        • Let's get yet another thing correct: the things Robin made Ted get rid of weren't the "sentimental trinkets" she made them out to be. They were important parts of his life and identity and had many fond memories which had nothing to do with Ted's exes. It's not as big as a living breathing dog, but it's still hypocritical of Robin to force Ted to get rid of an entire apartment full of things that were clearly more important to him than a couple of ex-girlfriend memories. Remember, Robin's argument was that she didn't want to constantly be reminded of Ted's past relationships and this was enough reason to make him get rid of his stuff, but then she has no problem with Ted going through the exact same problem of being reminded of Robin's ex-boyfriends. It was even worse for Ted because the thing he had to put up with was a group of living dogs he had no hopes of ever getting rid of while Robin couldn't put up with a couple of inanimate objects around the apartment she didn't like (and one plant).
    • Yeah, it was definitely just for the sake of having Robin date some guy that acted like a dog. I think it was supposed to be Rule of Funny but they absolutely did not pull it off.
      • How can someone even claim to like dogs, yet keep five of them scooped up in a tiny apartment, with a job, dating-life and circle of friends that prevent them from getting home quite often? That gets the animal rights groups up in real life.
      • Yeah, it's a bit hoardish. But this is a romantic comedy TV show. It's a quirk. Unless your quirk is murdering the homeless or setting churches on fire, it's winsome and charming.
      • All the dogs seemed fairly happy and healthy-looking to me, they weren't overweight and all seemed calm and well-socialized. Maybe she got home more often than it seems on the show, or she paid somebody to come take care of her dogs when she was at work.
  • In "Mary the Paralegal", Barney sets Ted up with a paralegal and tells him that she's a prostitute. So why does Mary, when Ted asks her if she's done Barney, say that "there's not enough money in the world"? It may have just been an expression, but that is one hell of a coincidence.
    • It's just an expression. I've heard similar expressions before, so it can just be down to coincidence. It'd be like saying "not in a million years".
    • On a similar note, why does Ted keep insisting she's a prostitute instead of continuing to play along or tell her that Barney said she was a prostitute? I mean, he seems to like her and once she starts getting upset about it you'd think he'd know to stop pushing the issue.
  • Alanis Morissette, a Canadian musician who defined a lot of 90s music, actually exists in this universe (Marshall bought tickets to see her), yet according to Robin's own recording career, the 80s only happened in Canada in the 90s. The hell?
    • Well, one, the eighties thing was just a gag, and two, how do you know Alanis Morissette made the same kind of music in this universe? Or perhaps she debuted later than she did in ours, or she didn't have as big an impact.
    • Or maybe the 80's and 90's took place at the same time in Canada.
  • Zoey frees several rabbits from an animal testing facility and is part of an animal rights group. She is later seen egging Ted's window. What?
    • Maybe she made sure the eggs were unfertilised? Most eggs you can buy from a supermarket are not fertilised.
    • Being part of an animal rights group doesn't make someone a vegan. Hell, Zoey eats hot dogs in Oh Honey.
    • Also, Zoey is a fucking stupid dilettante piece of shit bitch. I mean, that was her entire character! Maybe it's Fridge Brilliance. Of course, we had to put up with Zoey for 12 episodes, so the writers deserve no accusations of brilliance. Still bitter!
  • Couldn't Barney claim sabotage and get to see them again and not wear the tie? Or would this always be something like Slap-bet, with Marshall doing the worse thing (Slaps Barney once in error, and tries to cover it up and gets 3 slaps then, but when Barney does slaps once in error and DOESN'T try to cover it up and he either gets 10 slaps then or 5 spread out), but Barney getting the worse end of the deal.
    • Concerning the slap bet, Barney does think it's unfair (he wrote a "letter" of complaint about the unfairness of the slap bet comissioner on his blog after the second Slapsgiving), but probably just not enough to actually call them out on it in person. He is really good friends with Marshall and Lily, so I think even he can agree that their little bets aren't worth jeapordising their friendship. Secondly, even though she most likely hasn't, if Barney ever found Robin doing porn he'd be able to slap the hell out of Marshall, like he almost did in Glitter, and Lily didn't stop him (because she'd really have no right to, she's not so unfair that Barney couldn't slap Marshall at all). Finally, in Ducky Tie Barney did at least get to see Lily's boobs, so he probably considered it a win-win in that regard.
    • I'm hoping the Ducky tie either stays for the season, and is integral to Barney getting married (it would tie in nicely to his decision in the first episode of the season), or just disappear between episodes (with the implication that Marshall and Lily decided not to be mean and hold him to it).
    • Marshall's mistaken slap was with commissioner approval. Barney's was not. Hence his harsher punishment.
      • Not true, we see it occur. Marshall slaps Barney before Lily has a chance to approve. Would she have approved it? Almost definitely (especially given her bias), but she definitely didn't approve it.
    • See the "Lily is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing" entry above... she's just an awful person, in addition to an awful commissioner.
      • Oh, for Christ's sake. This one is addressed above - if we look only at their flaws, they're all awful people. But they all, including Lily, have a lot of friendship moments to make up for the not-so-good ones. And, yes, she kept making the bet more dramatic, but she was plainly not totally biased - she did, after all, tell Barney when they found out that Robin wasn't married. And frankly, hating fictional people this violently is something everyone should reconsider - it's a comedy show, everyone's something of a sociopath.
    • The Ducky Tie bet was bad for multiple reasons. First, Lily changed the terms unilaterally. Second, she sabotaged the event. Third, the bet was never that he would succeed first try, merely that he was able to do the tricks after dinner. He should have been given the opportunity to do it again after the sabotage and would have succeeded at both seeing and touching Lily's boobs.
    • Heck, the bet was that he could do it at all, his demonstration so far had proven that.
  • In Baby Talk, during Ester's show, she shoots a deck of cards at Barney. One of them sticks to his forehead. He then removes it, never turns it around and says "That was my card!" However... he didn't actually see it. How would he know?
    • Why would him seeing it matter? There was no card that was "his card" - that was the first time the deck of cards had shown up in that act. He was just making a silly comment.
  • Can it be that Barney has two conflicting "origin stories"? In one episode we learn that his motivation to sleep with as many women as possible stems from a boy he knew back in school who claimed that he Really Gets Around. In this episode's flashback, Barney is played by a child actor, possibly meant to be in his early teens. In another episode, young Barney is portrayed as a Granola Boy, only changing to his now current lifestyle after his first girlfriend dumps him. This time he is played by Neil Patrick Harris himself, which means that, even taking Dawson Casting into account, he must be definitely older than in that other episode. Furthermore, a later episode did a follow-up with Neo Hippie Barney, set between the break up with the girlfriend and Barney's "transformation", wherein we learn that he was still a virgin at this point! Granted, continuity errors can happen from time to time, but in a show that otherwise seems to put some effort into being internally consistent, this one here is particularly jarring.
    • What's so jarring about it? Before he met his first girlfriend he was just regular ol' Granola Barney, but after his transformation he remembered the bet with the kid, and because suits make him AWESOME he thought he could pull it off (,and he did).
    • In this troper's opinion it actually fits pretty well. As much as it may be reading too much into a simple gag, for naive, hippy Barney to become his later sex-addict self, he would have to already have some deep-seated issues. Also, I don't think there's any way you can slice it where Barney's lead motivation in life was impressing that kid from school; it, like many other aspects of his character, is simply a way for him to duck his underlying emotional issues.
      • Yeah, there's no conflict here whatsoever. The "early teens" Barney you reference (who actually looks more like 9 or 10 years old) clearly didn't have a transformation into a womanizer in elementary school.
  • The season 6 finale poses some issues for me. How can the gang get away with what is, in effect, corporate espionage by tearing down the lion's head? An investigation would surely point to them or GNB. Also, how can they justify this act of vandalism anyway as what Ted said about the Lion's Head appears to be true?
  • Did the writers forget about the last one of those five word phrases all men (and specifically ted) say at some point from "three days of snow"? When will Ted say "I'm gonna win her back" or has he already? It seemed like something they intended for season 4.
    • For some reason, I just assumed it was from the first episode, when he decided to "take the jump" and win Robin after missing the signal. Now that I think about it (and googled it) I guess that's not the case. Huh. The only subplot that it would really fit in with would be Robin, when Ted and Barney were drunk and wanted Robin back.
    • Future Ted never said it would be brought up again. Just because "I can jump that far" was, doesn't mean this one was a future plot. It could have just been random funny example #132.
    • Similarly, what about the Flash Forward from "The Naked Truth" when the next time Marshall got raging drunk was shown, with him going nuts at a casino. That hasn't occurred yet, even though Barney is shown with the Ducky Tie, which has since been removed. Given the Anachronic Order of the episodes it's probably just a matter of time, but I thought it was worth noting since that one Ted expressly said he'd explain.
  • When Zoey and Ted first meet, he designs GNB's HQ to incorporate the Arcadian's facade. When he learns she's married, he scraps the design. And when they begin dating again, that design is never mentioned as an option again. What?
    • I wondered this too, but on a second time through it made more sense to me. This was a compromise that wasn't ever what Ted really wanted and was not the design that GNB had agreed upon to build meaning that the chances of the board going for it were very slim. The point being, it was an effort that would make no one really happy and probably was never much of a possibility. Ted just really wanted to impress Zoe before he found out she was married.
  • Why did Doctor Sonya do tests on Robin that led to her finding out that she's infertile when she was only a week late and there to find out if she's pregnant or not? It doesn't make any sense.
    • On a related note, why would Robin tell anyone she's pregnant just because her period was late? Why wouldn't she at least take a pregnancy test first?
      • Rule of Drama (more like Rule of Cliffhanger... that should be a trope). I understand why she would tell Barney she might be pregnant (given that he would be the father) but... I can't imagine her actually being melodramatic enough to phrase it so resolutely. They just needed a Wham! Line to end the episode.
    • Also a related note, I'm surprised they didn't mention the possibility about speaking about the issue with Kevin. I can see reasons why she wouldn't (given that she's not sleeping with him yet, she may not want to rush into telling him that) but I would imagine she'd want to disclose this to him as it could... directly affect him.
  • So, why does Ted never threaten to play the "Barney was grinding with his cousin" card when Barney gets out of line? I can think of lots of opportunities, most recently when Barney was blackmailing him with the thermos incident to get Ted to speak highly of him to Nora.
    • This is firmly in WMG territory but its possible Barney has since gotten dirt on Ted that is far worse. It wouldn't be surprising if Barney knew something about him that he wouldn't exactly be willing to let his kids know about.
  • I've only seen up to season 2, but in Slap Bet, why does everyone act like Robin being married would not be a big deal. The general consensus is that it is wrong to push Robin on the subject, even if they want to know, because it's not any of their business. I can understand if Ted and Robin were not dating at this point, but they are. Ted should absolutely have the right to ask if his serious girlfriend is married to another man. And when the secret does come out, everyone acts as if Ted has betrayed Robin in some way. It's never even considered something that could cause Robin and Ted to breakup, just a minor inconvenience. It's not as if they don't believe in marriage, like Barney. Lily and Marshall are engaged at this point and the entire show kicks off with Ted realizing he wants to settle down. What is the deal here? I mean as much as the gang seems to concede that it's an unfortunate situation for Ted, why are Robin's actions never viewed as wrong?
  • How do Marshall and Lily have any money? They live in the most expensive city in the country, and seem to live quite comfortably. This was odd enough when they appeared to just be two people, apparently living off of student loans and a kindergarten teacher's salary. Then it turns out Lily has obscene credit card debt. She also spent a summer in San Francisco, which couldn't have been cheap. Then they buy a very expensive apartment, and then have to pay to have the floors straightened. On top of that, Marshall has spent multiple extended periods unemployed (albeit between very lucrative jobs). It just boggles my mind that they can have enough money that they can be living so comfortably. I'm not saying they need to be living in squalor, but they take last minute flights (Lily, to and from Marshall's home during "Desperation Day") and were planning a trip to Spain while Marshall was unemployed. Hell, Lily still almost took that trip (... which was insanity, considering that part of her rationale for taking the trip was the pressure that Marshall put on her by not taking a high-paying job). With them getting Lily's grandparents' home, this is less of an issue, but still, their finances baffle me.
    • Maybe they do live in squalor, but this story is told in Ted's perspective to his kids. Ted's probably too nice a person to reveal that truth. Otherwise, Friends Rent Control.
    • They don't... the previously mentioned expenditures are plot-specific and thus can't be handwaved by Unreliable Narrator. And Friends Rent Control doesn't really apply (except for the beginning of the series) since they have an explicitly expensive apartment, and several other expenses. Friends Rent Control implies that they inexplicably don't have expenses, whereas they have the expenses but no explanation as to how they pay it.
      • I always got the feeling Dowisetrepla wasn't a highly up-market place? Its entire name comes from where it's situated, and apparently it smells pretty bad quite often. And the apartment floor was crooked, so that would bring the price of the apartment down. Plus, there's the whole thing in The Rebound Girl when their apartment shrinks; it's plausible it really was that size but Future Ted "makes" it bigger (never mentions it before that point) for convenience sake. And along with that Marshall worked at GNB for a while and he apparently made good money from that, at least to help them through his unemployment and work down Lily's debt. The money from GNB is probably also what paid for their flights to places. Not sure if this clears much up, though.
        • This really doesn't fly. Manhattan apartments are ridiculously expensive, even ones in less than desireable neighborhoods. Also take into account the amount of time they spend at Mc Larens. A single beer in a Manhattan bar can cost $8. Unless Ted, Robin, & Barney are always picking up the tab, there's no way two people with that kind of debt could afford to go out in Manahattan as much as they do.
        • In the second season in episode "Moving Day," after Ted moves out we see how much Marshall and Lily own which is not alot. Ted seems to be responsible for purchasing most of the daily necessities such as food and toilet paper, probably because he has more disposable income than both Lily and Marshall. Marshall probably saved his money from GNB and Ted probably continued to pay the average amount which is why Marshall and Lily have some spare expenses. Didn't Lily also settle on her debt in a past episode?
        • Her debt kinda got swept under the rug, but it certainly wasn't settled as of season 4. While Marshall was looking for a job, the fact she still has a lot of debt was mentioned. Claims that the apartment wouldn't be that expensive because it's flawed doesn't really work since, even if it's cheaper than most, it's still explicitly draining everything they have. And then some.
  • Hasn't Barney won the Slap Bet? The bet was that Robin had done porn. In "Rebound Bro," Barney convinces Robin to come to the bar by mentioning a tape of their night together. This is very plausible since we KNOW he has video cameras in his apartment, and I wouldn't be surprised if he and Robin filmed themselves when they were together. I'm surprised her didn't try to at the very least make this claim (even if it's not true, it's plausible, and he obviously has no problem lying about the existence of such a tape to get his way), considering how much he loves winning bets.
    • Because it wasn't a job that Robin was paid for. A sex tape isn't porn. And the two times Barney mentions there being a tape (the episode you said and in Tick, Tick, Tick) Robin was unaware they had been filmed. Also, Barney is genuinely aware of Robin's feelings in particular, and he probably figured telling Marshall about any tape would upset her.
    • Still seems like something he'd try, given the lengths that he goes to in order to win bets. He loves technicalities like that. Side note: There is at least one more time, when Robin mentions finding a camera in his headboard in "Bagpipes."
  • Why didn't Robin bring up the cheating and pregnancy scare to Kevin when he proposed, since the infertility thing is low on the priorities list after that? It would have driven Kevin away faster, and was much worse. None of her actions make any sense in "The Drunk Train".
    • Because she didn't want to drive him away, she wanted him to stay in spite of not wanting kids. What she didn't want, however, was him staying with her out of niceness for having proposed without knowing all the facts. Honestly, she didn't seem to really care about the cheating itself after "Tick tick tick." She'd moved on, per Kevin's request.
      • It does seem like she was trying to drive him away - She kept bringing up the "no kids" thing multiple times. But she should have been honest with him about the cheating and pregnancy scare - It wasn't fair to Kevin to lie to him about that, despite the fact that he requested they move on.
      • She wasn't. Hence the whole "being upset afterward" thing. She didn't want him to marry her out of obligation, she wanted him to marry her because he understands the situation, and accepts it honestly. She explicitly says she actually wanted this and finally was ready. As for not being fair to Kevin about the cheating thing... I understand it. It was a one time thing, they moved on, and he didn't want to go there. Why WOULD she bring it up? As far as either of them are concerned, it's in the past and a non-issue. Unlike the kids thing, which WILL come up and would be contentious. Bringing up kids is logical and nipping it in the bud, bringing up the incident with Barney is just creating conflict for the sake of conflict.
  • Why did Marshall ask Robin to move out? Is it a bet thing, or is it a "he knows Ted better than he knows himself" thing? Either way it's a dick move, if unintentionally, because future!Ted is fairly confident he was fine with him never ending up with Robin (and it's generally fairly easy to tell when he's lying about stuff.) It feels like a "the writers want Robin out of Ted's apartment" thing, honestly.
    • It's a combination of "knows Ted better than he knows himself" (or at least believes that he does) and the fact that, even if he does know she has to go, Ted wouldn't up and kick Robin out for not dating him. The fact that Robin agrees demonstrates that he probably wasn't completely wrong, or even alone in his thinking.
    • Future!Ted says his past self was happy in some way that he'd be able to move on, but that doesn't mean he was 100% alright immediately or that having Robin around wouldn't torture the part of him that wasn't happy with her decision.
  • Ted is so terrible at building simple home furniture that everything he makes falls apart. How did he get so far in his career as an architect to design skyscrapers if he can't even make a coffee table hold the weight of Robin's purse? Or a baby's crib hold the weight of a piece of paper?? I know it's supposed to be Rule Of Funny but it didn't work with the character at all.
    • He probably got everything in the designing of the furniture right (the chair looked especially nice, if plain) and was just terrible at putting it together. Maybe the screws weren't in tight enough. That's nothing to do with the design.
    • Ted's an architect. His job is to design things, yes... but on paper. His job is to make a design that his contractor likes, and run all the numbers to prove that it will stay standing. He's not supposed to worry about how it will be put together, that's someone else's job. Even if he knows how something is supposed to turn out, he apparently doesn't have enough experience to put it together. There's a big difference between getting something to work on paper and getting it to work in real life.
  • Why is Robin (Cobie Smulders) the most popular character in the show over in the United Kingdom? This troper is from the UK, but doesn't get it.
    • Where did you get that? I'm also from the UK and I have a few friends who also like HIMYM, but they usually seem to prefer Barney the most (especially if they're casual fans; he IS the most popular character in general). Otherwise, maybe it's because she's Canadian?
    • This probably isn't an answer, but I guess the Ms. Fanservice aspect of this DVD cover [dead link] is one reason - if that's her on the cover.
  • What happened to James & Tom's adopted son? We saw him at James & Tom's wedding, a year after James' introduction (so... roughly 2008ish). Yet he's completely absent when James & Tom show up for Thanksgiving in Rebound Girl. Another instance of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome?
    • He is in The Rebound Girl. He's the little fair haired kid. Barney says hey to him before talking to Ted.
    • ... boy is my face red. I'll have to go back and check.
  • This might seem minor (and probably something nobody knows the answer to), but i'm gonna ask it anyway. Why is it that this show ALWAYS gets the worst ratings of everything that airs on CBS' Monday night comedy block? Two and a Half Men I understand, but do people just change their channels to CBS and 2 Broke Girls after this ends? I can guarantee that show is NOT even close to as popular as this one. Mike and Molly, too.
    • We can't be completely sure, but this troper has always assumed that shows that rely heavily on pop culture references and Continuity Porn, such as HIMYM and Community, are more popular among groups of people who are more likely to watch them on the internet (HIMYM in fact is listed as the most popular show on a number of websites like Watch Series and Sidereel). Therefore, much of the fanbase is not included in those ratings. I might be wrong though.
      • The Continuity Porn actually probably is a good explanation for this. Casual TV viewers might not watch the show as much as they watch ones that aren't so continuity-based since they might not find a lot of the jokes funny if they've missed quite a few episodes. And since HIMYM is in season seven and very dedicated to continuity, there's a lot that it can go through in just an episode. It's actually quite surprising HIMYM has lasted as long as it has (and it's been closed to getting cancelled quite a few times) and the production crew were very shocked when season seven saw its highest ratings in the show's history. Although the show is good at explaining its continuity jokes for the more casual viewer also.
  • Marshall never won the Slap Bet... if you go back to the original episode, the bet was "Did Robin do porn vs. is Robin married?" Robin never did porn, but she obviously wasn't married, either.
    • Marshall slapping Barney isn't because he won. Barney got to slap Marshall three times because Marshall was wrong: Robin never got married. However Marshall could slap Barney 5 times whenever he wants (on account of Lily's bias) when Barney slapped him again after thinking he'd won by finding porn of Robin when it wasn't. No one has won the bet, Marshall has just been dealing out his slaps over the years (along with the other three for letting Barney take off the ducky tie). The bet is actually still going on because when Barney found Space Teens and thought it was a porno, he almost slapped Marshall until Robin corrected him. Lily didn't interfere because she knew that since no one had won the bet yet then it was still very possible if Robin had indeed been married or done porn.
    • Good point. So basically... if Lily were fair, the slap countdown should have been two slaps then and there, since that was the already determined punishment for an early slap.
      • Here's a big difference: Marshalls had good and sufficient reason to slap Barney - it wasn't his fault that Robin lied and they had no way of knowing this, so from their perspective, he didn't really prematurely slap Barney, he just turned out to be wrong for reasons outside of his control. Barney slapped Marshall without reason since he hadn't actually gotten evidence that Robin did porn.
  • When Ted moved in with Robin, why would he take his microwave? Even if it was his in the first place, it would've just gathered dust at Robin's since she presumably has her own. That's a pretty common courtesy for someone moving out... leaving things that are necessities for some and worthless to you.
  • Why does Little Minnesota put 100% of the blame on Ted? Sure, his outburst at the bar was over the top, but it's not like he did anything wrong by being suspicious of Barney's morals nor by refusing to be an enabler for his sister until she had proven herself.
  • Are Robin's dogs still at her aunt's? In one episode of the first season, she says she is sending them to her aunt's farm in the country for a test run. Did she decide that it was better for them in the long run? How come no one ever brought it up, not even once?
    • Maybe they did, it's not like we see 100% of everyone's interaction. Ted wouldn't really need to tell the kids "I asked Robin where her dogs went" if there wasn't some funny or meaningful story behind it.
  • In "The Playbook" Lily has had, apparently, the perfect girl on hold for Ted. She took her to meet him, but he was doing something stupid so she never introduced them. Three years later, she randomly declares "Yep, now you're ready!" Why then? I can understand not setting her up with Ted for most of seasons 1 or 2 because of Robin, but what about the rest
    • Ted was still getting over Robin through most of season 3. Then he met Stella. Then he spent almost all of season 4 getting over Stella.
  • In a flashback in the season 7 finale, Ted mentions how at one point, they all decided to go as the entire Breakfast Club, but all of them ended up going as Bender. While Rule of Funny probably applies, I get how Barney, Ted and Robin ended up all going as Bender, but wouldn't Marshall or Lily ended up going as someone else (I figure, one of them would've tried to go as Bender, but the other one would've seen that and gone as someone else)?
    • Given that Barney's favorite character was explicitly the Principal ("He's the only guy in a suit!"), and Marshall and Lily's propensity for group costumes (you'd think Lily would go as Molly Ringwald's character), the fact everyone went as Bender is surprising.
  • How come, in the one after Barney and Robin cheat on Nora and Kevin, Robin didn't text Barney to let him know she didn't go through with it, rather than hurt him at the bar?
    • Rule of Drama, most likely.
  1. ↑ Not a defamation lawyer, duh, cause it's a nasty area. Yeck
  2. ↑ Especially considering Tony apparently made a nice pile of cash from it
  3. ↑ So sorry
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