Top 10 How I Met Your Mother Jokes That Will NEVER Get Old

In this season two episode, the gang becomes suspicious when Robin reveals a mysterious fear of malls. They speculate wildly as to what the source of her fear could be, even creating a particularly violent bet about what the truth is (more on that later). But in the end, no one possibly could have anticipated the reason Robin never goes to malls: she was a teen pop star in Canada who went by the stage name Robin Sparkles. And her big hit? A song titled “Let’s Go to the Mall” that you won’t be able to get out of your head - no matter how awful it is.

We all know how much Barney cares about his sense of style, so it was understandable that he was offended by Marshall’s new duck covered tie. Simultaneously though, he wanted to get a glimpse of Lily’s breasts while she was pregnant, so he risked it all and made a bet that could result in him being stuck wearing the offending tie. Though Lily and Marshall started to doubt whether he was bluffing about his teppanyaki skills, in the end he lost and took a major sartorial hit. Luckily his punishment didn’t last for an entire year!

Just like the audience, Ted’s friends had their doubts about his relationship with Stella. In season four, they stage an intervention to try to stop him from moving to New Jersey to live with her (which was obviously a terrible idea). This part of the episode isn’t particularly funny, but what is hilarious are the flashbacks we get to see to all of the past interventions that the gang has thrown. They threw them to stop Marshall from wearing an absurd hat, stop Robin from fake tanning, stop Lily from speaking with a British accent and stop Barney from setting things on fire with his magic tricks. That banner sure got a lot of use!

Considering the fact that the entire premise of the show is that Ted is telling this story to his children, we’re a bit shocked by the mature content that he regales them with. But one way he protects them is by using a euphemism whenever he talks about him and his friends smoking marijuana. He says instead that they were “eating a sandwich”, which is then visually represented on screen. This running gag was introduced in season three and came up again and again throughout the series, making us snort with laughter every time.

In the show’s first season, we learn that Robin is Canadian, and her heritage becomes an important part of her character. But as much as they love her, Robin’s buddies can’t help but mock her and other Canadians constantly throughout the series. Robin’s turn as a small time Canadian celebrity doesn’t help her cause very much. Barney is particularly vicious about his views on Canada, until he has to actually go to the country and finds that it’s not so bad, what with its friendly citizens and universal healthcare.

Ted and Marshall’s apartment isn’t exactly the classiest place, and they do live in New York after all so it’s no surprise that there are some unwanted critters sharing their abode. What is surprising however is the form that this particular vermin takes. Lily and Marshall can’t seem to agree on whether what they saw scurrying around their house was a cockroach or a mouse. When they finally get a closer look at it, they’re still unsure, claiming it has characteristics of both an insect and a mammal. They dub it the “cockamouse” and by the episode’s end learn that on top of everything else it also has the ability to fly. Yikes!

“How I Met Your Mother” is known for its running jokes that span several seasons, and one of the best ones has to be the gang’s doppelgangers. According to their personal lore, there are strangers who look like alternate universe versions of each of them living in New York, and they’re constantly on the hunt for them. First there’s Moustache Marshall, then Lesbian Robin, Stripper Lily, Mexican Wrestler Ted and a whole host of Barney doppelgangers (some real and some fake). Though they feature prominently in the plot of the show’s fifth season, they make us laugh every time they crop up.

One of the best storytelling devices that “How I Met Your Mother” employed throughout the show’s run was telling stories out of order, keeping audiences guessing along with the characters. They do this to great effect in the episode titled “The Pineapple Incident,” where Ted decides to stop overthinking everything and gets spectacularly drunk in the process. He wakes up in bed with a girl he doesn’t know as well as a sprained ankle. Most notably of course, he’s also in possession of a pineapple that he doesn’t recall procuring. How in the world did the creators never give us an answer to this one on the show??

Are slap bets actually a thing? We had never heard of them before seeing Marshall and Barney engage in one on HIMYM, but hey maybe it’s a regional trend. Regardless, when these two make a bet about why Robin is afraid of malls there are serious consequences. And things escalate quickly, with additional slaps being added and retracted by official Slap Bet Commissioner Lily. Marshall always knows the exact right moment to deliver a slap, keeping both Barney and the audience guessing season after season. Let’s make this a thing IRL!

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Oh Honey
“Oh Honey”

The Blitz
“Blitzgiving”

Robin the Woo Girl
“Woooo!”

Ted's Butterfly Tattoo
“Wait for It”

Barney's Job
Various Episodes

We’ve all had this happen to us: you order at Starbucks, they ask for your name, you say it clearly and yet when you pick up your soy chai latte they’ve completely butchered it. But when it happens to Barney in season two, the results are epic. His friends latch on to the ridiculous name written on his cup (“Swarley”) and realize that they can bug him by calling him by the new name, so of course they’re unrelenting. Not only that, but this episode also features Marshall trying to date the girl with “crazy eyes” who Lily follows down the street, making her think she’s being stalked.