25 Funniest ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Episodes

How I Met Your Mother is still providing viewers with entertaining (and quotable) moments 20 years after its premiere.

The CBS sitcom first aired on Sept. 19, 2005, and ran for nine seasons, ending in March 2014. HIMYM centered around Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), an architect living in New York City. The show, set in 2030, is structured through a series of flashbacks capturing Ted’s life as he tells his two children — a son and daughter, played by David Henrie and Lyndsy Fonseca — how he met their mother, all narrated by Bob Saget.

Ted is surrounded by a group of friends, which includes Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) and his girlfriend-turned-wife Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). Over the show’s nine-season run, several celebrity guest stars appeared in the series, too, including Bryan Cranston as Ted’s boss, Sarah Chalke as one of Ted’s love interests (and almost-bride) Stella, Britney Spears as Abby the receptionist and more.

In March 2025, Radnor and the show’s co-creator, Craig Thomas, also launched a rewatch podcast called How We Made Your Mother to explore the behind-the-scenes of the beloved series, and recap the many plots and subplots.

From romance to drama and all of the shenanigans in between, here are 25 of the best (and funniest!) How I Met Your Mother episodes.

Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”

In the pilot episode, set in 2030, Ted began to tell his teenage son and daughter the tale of how he met their mother.

This took viewers back to 2005 as he helped Marshall propose to Lily. Later at their favorite bar, Ted lamented to Barney about how their engagement made him want to get married. Across the bar, Ted spotted Robin, and by the end of the night, they had dinner plans set for the following day.

The episode ended with one of the show’s many plot twists — with Ted telling his kids that was how he had met their Aunt Robin, not their mother.

Season 1, Episode 10: “The Pineapple Incident”

“The Pineapple Incident” remained one of the most puzzling stories in HIMYM, though the mystery was solved years later in an exclusive deleted scene from season 9 shared by Buzzfeed.

In the episode, Ted got blackout drunk and woke up the next morning with a woman in his bed that he did not recognize, a sprained ankle, a burnt coat and a pineapple sitting on his nightstand.

Throughout the episode, the mystery of each unexplained incident occurred, including falling off a table while singing karaoke, getting his jacket singed by Barney for repeatedly calling Robin and meeting Trudy (Danica McKellar) while drunk in the women’s restroom. However, the pineapple on his nightstand remained unsolved.

Season 1, Episode 15: “Game Night”

Aptly titled, this episode followed the friend group during a game night, where Ted’s friends tried to interrogate his new girlfriend, Victoria.

All the while, the group learned the backstory behind Barney’s famous catchphrase, “Suit up,” as he detailed the fallout of his first and only relationship years prior — in exchange for equally embarrassing stories from his friends.

Season 1, Episode 18: “Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M.”

The title of the episode served as a life lesson for fans of the show. After returning home from a night out, Ted answered a call from Robin, though he was really expecting a call from his girlfriend Victoria to break up with him while they were long-distance.

Ted decided to go to Robin’s and lied about breaking up with Victoria, leading to a kiss between the two. However, Robin later learned Ted lied when Victoria called his phone and she picked up. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy: when Ted called Victoria back at his apartment, the two broke up, for real this time.

Season 2, Episode 7: “Swarley”

Ted and Barney gave Marshall seemingly terrible dating advice amid his breakup with Lily and tried to convince him that his love interest, Chloe — a barista from the coffee shop — had “crazy eyes.”

He thought they were right when she called him about a person with a hunchback and a limp following her and discovered a broken photo of him and Lily in his apartment.

As it turned out, it was Lily who followed Chloe, snuck into the apartment and accidentally broke the frame. Despite the drama (and a ransacked apartment thanks to Chloe), Marshall and Lily decide to reunite.

Season 2, Episode 9: “Slap Bet”

It was the slap heard round the world. The slap bet between Marshall and Barney remained one of the longest-running — and fan-favorite — bits throughout the entirety of the series.

Barney sealed his fate this episode when he agreed to receive five slaps distributed over an undetermined period of time rather than being slapped 10 times in succession.

“Slap Bet” also contains one of the show’s most viral moments when it is revealed that Robin had a brief stint as a Canadian popstar as a teenager, including her hit song “Let’s Go to the Mall.”

Season 2, Episode 17: “Arrivederci, Fiero”

Fans of HIMYM have never heard the song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers the same since this episode.

Marshall’s Pontiac Fiero was about to hit 200,000 miles, a milestone moment that he was waiting years for, including keeping cigars in the glovebox to smoke for the occasion. Before they could celebrate, Marshall hit a pothole and his car stopped running.

The group reminisced about the car, and Lily and Robin fessed up to spilling Thai food in the glove compartment and smoking the cigars he had saved all along. The Fiero never made it to the milestone, try as the friends might to push it the rest of the way, so they bid the car one final adieu.

Season 2, Episode 21: “Something Borrowed”

Marshall and Lily’s wedding didn’t necessarily go off without a hitch. Their flowers didn’t arrive in time for the ceremony, their harp player went into labor, the photographer couldn’t take photos, Lily’s veil was ruined and she couldn’t find her custom bridal underwear.

It wasn’t rainbows and butterflies for Marshall either, who got a botched dye job, which led him to shave a patch of hair off. The couple were ready to call it off, but Ted gave them something even better — the wedding they always wanted, in the park, surrounded by their small group of friends.

Season 3, Episode 5: “How I Met Everyone Else”

Fans spend the entire series learning about how Ted met the mother of his children, but in season 3, viewers finally got an episode dedicated to learning how Ted met his group of friends.

The protagonist met Marshall and Lily on their first day at college, while Ted and Barney met in the bathroom of a bar. Viewers already got to see how Ted met Robin during the pilot episode at the bar, starting a nine-season-long on-and-off-again romance.

Season 3, Episode 9: “Slapsgiving”

Nothing says holiday tradition like a slap bet. Marshall and Barney’s bet from season 2 continues into the show’s third season, coming to a head again on Thanksgiving, or rather, “Slapsgiving.”

This episode marked Marshall and Lily’s first Thanksgiving as a married couple, and she wanted to make it perfect. Meanwhile, Marshall terrorized Barney in the days leading up to the holiday.

Lily ultimately pulled rank as the slap bet commissioner and said that a slap could not occur on the holiday. When Barney started to taunt Marshall, Lily gave him a warning, but when he continued with his teasing, she revoked her rule, allowing Marshall to slap his friend for the third time.

Season 3, Episode 14: “The Bracket”

After Barney is stalked by a woman who warned other women to not hook up with him, he took action — by narrowing down a list of more than 60 people who might possibly want revenge on him.

He enlisted the help of his friends to eliminate women from the list, a la March Madness, though Lily had seen the woman face-to-face and wanted Barney to face his stalker. Despite his resistance to apologizing for his actions, Barney eventually said sorry to a woman he thought was his stalker, but she turned out to just be a friend of Robin’s.

Season 4, Episode 4: “Intervention”

When Marshall, Lily and Ted were ready to move out of their shared apartment and Robin was set to leave N.Y.C. for Japan, they got together one last time to look back on all of the interventions they held for each other over the years.

The frequent interventions included one for Lily’s fake British accent, Robin’s tanning habit and Marshall’s Dr. Seuss hat.

Season 4, Episode 8: “Woooo!”

Across nine seasons, HIMYM created plenty of slang and catchphrases, including the “woo girl.” While unemployed, Robin was taken to a birthday party for Lily’s friend, Jillian. The two discovered that Jillian is what is described as a “woo girl” — a single woman who goes out to party and yell “Woooo!”

To keep having fun with other unmarried women, Robin fell into the “woo girl” lifestyle, but when Lily tried to join in, Robin told her that she couldn’t because she was actually happy with her life.

Season 4, Episode 9: “The Naked Man”

“Have you ever tried this one?” The gang was introduced to a new move when Ted walked in on Robin’s blind date, Mitch, sitting naked on the couch. He later told Ted that he used a distraction to get naked in front of his date in hopes it would lead to sex.

Lo and behold, the move worked on Robin, and the rest of the group tested it out successfully — except for Barney.

Season 4, Episode 24: “The Leap”

As the season 4 finale, “The Leap” marked several big moments in HIMYM. Barney finally confessed his feelings toward Robin and the two shared a kiss.

Ted was ushered into a new era of his life after his friends encouraged him to quit being an architect and accept the offer to be a professor at Columbia University.

All five of the friends also took a literal leap at the end of the night at Ted’s 31st birthday party, jumping across the roof to the apartment next door.

Season 5, Episode 8: “The Playbook”

After Robin and Barney break up, he immediately puts himself out there by using his “playbook” on women.

Some of his moves include what he called “Lorenzo von Matterhorn” and “He’s Not Coming.” Lily tried to create an elaborate plan to steal the playbook away, but Barney was 10 steps ahead and integrated her plan into one last ploy — “The Scuba Diver.”

Season 5, Episode 12: “Girls Versus Suits”

In “Girls Versus Suits,” Harris was able to do what he does best — perform.

With a little help from his friends, Barney performed the musical number “Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit” as he wrestled with wanting to date the new bartender who swore off dating men in suits without ditching his identity.

Season 6, Episode 4: “Subway Wars”

What’s the fastest way to get around in N.Y.C.? The gang put the question to the test in this episode as they all raced to the same location downtown.

Ted chose the bus, Lily grabbed the subway, Robin took a cab, Marshall ran on foot and Barney, well, he faked a medical emergency to get an ambulance to the hospital located next to the restaurant.

Naturally, life got in the way, and their original travel plans were all thwarted, though they all got to the restaurant at the end of the day.

Season 6, Episode 10: “Blitzgiving”

Have you ever called it an early night and missed out on an epic series of events? If so, you may have had the curse of “The Blitz.”

On the eve of Ted’s first Thanksgiving as host, he made the mistake of going home early, and awoke the next morning to chaos in his apartment, as well as a broken oven.

After a quick relocation for the celebration, the curse got transferred to Barney, who missed the parade by taking a separate cab, though by the end of the night, the curse was passed on to its origins — their friend Steve.

Season 7, Episode 3: “Ducky Tie”

This episode was aptly named, due to a particularly heinous tie that Marshall acquired — blue, with a yellow duck pattern — that Barney detested. Thus, the two friends ended up in a bet (not the slap bet, this time) that if Barney could follow the hibachi-style cooking technique at the restaurant where they were dining, he could touch Lily’s breasts. If he couldn’t, he had to wear the tie of a year.

As it turned out, Barney had pulled one over on Lily and Marshall and prepared for this moment, including taking cooking lessons. Barney excelled at the technique, leaving Lily no choice but to flash him as a distraction to botch the final move.

Reluctantly, Barney turns up to the bar at the end of the episode, donning the tie.

Season 7, Episode 23: “The Magician’s Code (Part 1)”

The moment fans had been waiting for finally arrived in this episode — the birth of Marshall and Lily’s first child. Unfortunately, Lily started to go into labor while Marshall was in Atlantic City with Barney. The duo tried to find a way back to Manhattan, with Barney eventually flagging down a bus driver who was leaving Atlantic City.

Unfortunately, he was heading to Buffalo, not N.Y.C., but several senior citizens on the bus faked medical emergencies and demanded to be taken to the hospital where Lily was giving birth. Spoiler alert: Marshall made it in time to meet his son, Marvin Waitforit Eriksen.

Season 7, Episode 24: “The Magician’s Code (Part 2)”

There’s no twist like a season finale twist, and the season 7 finale had several wedding-related surprises for fans. Three seasons after he was left at the altar by his fiancée, Stella, Ted literally drove off into the sunset with Victoria on her wedding day to another man.

In a turn of events, Barney popped the question to his girlfriend, Quinn, while they were on their way to Hawaii on vacation. At the end of the episode, in a flash forward to Barney’s wedding, Ted walked into the room with the bride, only for viewers to discover that Barney was marrying was Robin, not Quinn.

Season 8, Episode 22: “The Bro Mitzvah”

This episode is when HIMYM met The Karate Kid. Both Ralph Macchio and William Zabka made a guest appearance during season 8 to mark an important occasion — Barney’s surprise bachelor party.

Very little went right during the celebration, thanks to Marshall and Ted, including Barney’s ex-fiancée Quinn being the hired entertainment and inviting Macchio instead of Zabka, who was Barney’s real hero from the movie.

Even after a disastrous night, Barney got one thing he really wanted — a face-to-face interaction with Zabka, courtesy of Robin.

Season 8, Episode 24: “Something New”

After eight seasons, fans finally discovered the identity of the mother of Ted’s children. In many ways, the episode felt like a goodbye as Marshall and Lily prepared to move to Italy (though an opportunity of a lifetime presented to Marshall threatened to thwart the plans) and Ted revealed he would be moving to Chicago to avoid having to be around Robin after her wedding to Barney.

However, by the end of the episode, one thing is certain: Tracy, played by Cristin Milioti, is the kids’ mother.

Season 9, Episode 16: “How Your Mother Met Me”

After all those years, this episode reveals that Ted and “The Mother” were like ships passing in the night. Throughout the episode, an invisible string is evident between the two, with their paths crossing in strange ways since 2005.

She had passed by him at a bar, he took her yellow umbrella, she witnessed Ted accidentally walk into the wrong classroom as a professor and they shared a moment on the eve of Barney and Robin’s wedding where Ted heard her sing from their adjoining room at the inn.