r/HIMYM

She’s so hot.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

I'm making this up as I go, but humour me pls lol

So I was thinking about this the other day while rewatching, and I noticed something about these big white ensemble sitcoms such as Friends, Seinfeld, TBBT, HIMYM etc.

They all seem to balance these three themes:

· Sex/relationships

· Friends/family

· Career/hobbies

Like every show has a different mix of these three, right? That's the formula.

Here's the thing though, with Friends and TBBT I never really felt like one was drowning out the other two. All three categories equally got their moments. We see rachel go from waitress to fashion executive throughout the series, we see chandler and monica fall in love and start a family, it just feels more even, y'know?

But HIMYM? I swear it's like 80% just Ted pining over someone or Barney trying to sleep with someone or Robin being weird about commitment. The career stuff is basically non-existent. Ted being an Architect is super cool but I feel like it comes up only once in a while. Marshall's law career gets a few eps but I feel like it could've been so cool to actually see him in action working a case as opposed to just sitting behind a desk.

Not saying it's bad that the show is so relationship-centric but I'm on like my 2nd rewatch now and I'm honestly so bored with all the hookups and short-term girlfriends. Every episode is just "who is Ted dating this week" and which barney "sex play" is up next?

Still love the show obviously. I sweear this isn't criticism, just an observation. I'm fully aware that the whole premise is the evolution of Ted's relationships that eventually lead to him meeting the 'mother'

But with all that being said...I would love to know what percentages you would give this show, do you feel like it's equal between all three categories, or do you also feel like sex & relationships massively overtakes them?

Me personally?

75% sex & relationships

15% career & hobbies

10% family & friends

Thoughts?

What would it be like?

Would Ted move to another European country or maybe even farther with no Tracy? Or accept Robin's child free life and eventually adopt assuming writers didn't refer to her as aunt Robin in earlier seasons? Or any other possibilities how he would have kids? Or maybe divorce from Tracy because she's not that perfect as he imagined?

Tracy being perfect and her death is just wrapping up the story and too convenient or smth, just doesn't feel realistic.

In lobster crawl, the gang is at McLarens and Barney has a burger. Marshall goes to steal a fry and Barney smacks him away, with a growl, “mine.” Marshall tries again, “delicious and mine!”

Idk why, but this moment is one of my favorites

What moment or quote gets you every time?

Have you ever been out and could've kept going but you went home/to sleep because nothing good ever happens after 2am?

Hello everyone,

I'm currently experiencing mild food poisoning from a place I love to each from, it reminded me when Robin hesitated to tell Ted where she got sick from because he loves that place. He ended up listing a lot of questionable places that I think the gang tried before which got me thinking maybe a lot of folks saw some questionable places in real life too.

So lets all name questionable places that serve food you would believe I got food poisoning from, have fun LoL.

I rewatched the episode where Victoria and Ted split up for good and whoa did I just realize *how* much of a jerk Ted actually is!! He isn't even heartbroken when she leaves. If anything he is sad, and this is probably more due to being single than losing a great potential wife. I'd have felt soooo betrayed if I was Victoria. She deserved so much better, and I really hope she found her lebenslangerschicksalsschatz in the end. Especially because she was discarded by Ted not once but TWICE and for the exact same reason both times 😱

The worst part is that it's not the first time Ted exploited a woman several times. He did the exact same thing to Natalie and Henrietta, and that's just the women we hear about. Who knows how many hearts he got to break until Jeanette scared him to never do it again 😅

I feel like a lot of people misunderstand the ending of How I Met Your Mother because they judge it like a traditional sitcom, when the show really isn’t structured like one.

Once you rewatch it with this in mind, a lot of things that seem like “plot holes” or “bad writing” start to feel intentional.

The show is basically a long retrospective of Ted Mosby’s emotional patterns — not a neutral story, but a memory filtered through his own perspective.

That changes a lot.

For example, the idea that Victoria is the only one who explicitly calls out that Ted’s relationships keep failing because of Robin doesn’t feel like a writing inconsistency anymore. It feels more like selective awareness — something Ted only fully understands later, even though others around him likely saw it earlier.

Even the Victoria vs Robin conflict reads differently. Ted doesn’t lose Victoria because he “chooses a villain over a good partner”, but because he’s still emotionally not fully detached from Robin — and Victoria is the only one self-aware enough to actually leave that situation.

And that’s kind of why the ending hits so differently depending on how you interpret the show.

If you expect a standard sitcom ending, it feels like a betrayal.

But if you see it as a long-term study of Ted’s inability to fully let go of one emotional anchor in his life, the ending feels almost inevitable rather than random.

Not saying everyone has to like it — but I do think a lot of the hate comes from expecting closure in a story that was never really about closure in the first place.

The daring is craazzzyyyy

This was so random??? Barney and her hooked up, he knew that and saw Barney with the roses (after she chose Kevin).

Then he’s like “I love you Robin”?!?!? So unnecessary. They also had reached a great place as friends. Bad writing. Never noticed before this rewatch.

Thoughts?