How I Met Your Mother: Funniest Storylines, Ranked

How I Met Your Mother was released in 2005 and ran for nine seasons. The show was a huge success, so much so that eight years after the finale aired, a spin-off show, How I Met Your Father, was released. The spin-off has two seasons and is yet to be renewed or canceled. With the current writers and actors strikes, it might take a while before any confirmation regarding new seasons of television shows are made.

How I Met Your Mother is a funny sitcom that tackles adult problems such as relationships changing over the years, changing careers, and similar things, but always with a hilarious twist. Ted (Josh Radnor), Marshall (Jason Segel), Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), and Robin (Cobie Smulders) had great chemistry that many tried to emulate later. The ensemble cast of friends that couldn’t be more different from one another experienced some of the funniest things throughout the seasons. Here are the best storylines on the show.

10 The Pineapple

The Pineapple Incident from How I Met Your Mother — CBS

The strange appearance of the pineapple in Season 1 was a mystery the characters tried to solve: where did it come from? They created a lot of theories on it but ultimately gave up on understanding what happened. However, in the last season of the show, the incident is brought back. The answer was found in a deleted scene released online by BuzzFeed, where The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan) has the fruit on his porch as a “symbol of hospitality."

9 Jed Mosley

Ted Mosby had a great deal of girlfriends before finding his kids’ mother. While the search was fun (mostly for the audience), there were some relationships that even after they ended impacted Ted’s life. One of them is Stella (Sarah Chalke), who left him at the altar for her karate instructor, Tony (Jason Jones). A season later, Ted found out that Tony made a whole movie about their relationship and had a villainous character called Jed Mosley, who Stella's character also leaves at the altar.

8 Bad Habits

Cathy and Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother — CBS

In Season 3, Ted presents to the group his new girlfriend, Cathy (Lindsay Price), and they are quick to point out a bad habit she has that deeply annoys them: she talks too much. With an actual glass-shattering sound effect, they are quick to realize a lot of each other’s bad habits. Before one of them pointed it out, the person and the others didn't realize they did it. The episode ends with all of them continuing on their bad habits while accepting their friends as they are — pet peeves and all.

7 Laser Tag

Laser tag is one of Barney’s favorite things to do. He quickly finds a partner in Robin, and they team up against the children that play there. It is comical seeing Barney not wearing a suit but a laser vest and how intensely he and Robin play. Barney, at one point, even plays with Robin’s dad, his future father-in-law. He is so passionate about the game he plays it a bit too rough and ends up banned for life.

6 Patrice’s Advice

Robin works at a news channel and has a colleague that really gets under her skin: Patrice (Ellen D. Williams). During the last three seasons, Patrice is constantly being yelled at by Robin, as Patrice always tries to chime in and give her advice or simply comment on something that is happening. Robin’s catchphrase is, “Nobody asked you, Patrice!” And while she is a bit too rude to her coworker, the laughter these scenes erupt is substantial.

5 Barney’s Playbook

Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother — CBS

Barney is what some may call an eccentric person. He has a lot of rules on how to live his life that he most of the time likes to impose on his friends’ lives as well — even if they explicitly told them they are not interested. All these rules are written down his Playbook, also known as The Bro Code. There, there are all the bro codes he swears by — and he mentions it a lot during the whole show.

4 Robin Sparkles

What Robin describes as something that started as an “innocent modeling job” makes her become Robin Sparkles, a teenage pop star in Canada. The eighties attire combined with the catchy songs appears a few times in the show. It always makes the characters and audience laugh, especially due to the contrast with Robin’s adult, more serious persona that's opposed to stereotypical girly things.

3 “Legen… Wait for it… Dary.”

Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother — CBS

Barney had numerous catchphrases he uses from the very first season all the way to the end. From trying to be a good wingman for Ted and asking girls at the bar, “Have you met Ted?” to trying to make everyone dress nicely, "Suit up!," there’s no shortage of catchphrases for the character.

However, the most famous one has to be “Legen… Wait for it… Dary.”. It sums up the character perfectly and creates funny moments as he tried to do something different every time, such as waiting a ridiculous amount of time to complete the phrase.

2 The Interventions

What started as a serious affair for a friend with alcohol problems became a way for the group to let the other know they were stepping out of line, even in regard to the abuse of pyrotechnic magic tricks or how they mistakenly pronounced a word. This running joke lasted seasons and always resulted in good comedic moments. They even had one intervention for the whole group for too many interventions.

1 The Slap Bet

One of the storylines that continued throughout the seasons is the infamous Slap Bet between Marshall and Barney. After winning a bet with Barney, Marshall is given five future slaps he can use whenever he wants or ten slaps right then — Barney chooses the five future slaps option. While most of them Marshall uses to terrorize Barney, his last slap is to his benefit: Barney starts to freak out during his wedding, and Marshal slaps him to calm him down.