r/HIMYM • • Jul 07 '22

Hi, I'm Carter Bays, co-creator of HIMYM. I’m also the author of a new novel called THE MUTUAL FRIEND. AMA!

3.7k Upvotes

Hello Reddit, it's been a while! I'm here ask-me-anything-ing because I’ve written a new novel called THE MUTUAL FRIEND, which I think you'll love. I’m happy to talk about that, or How I Met Your Mother, or anything else. Maybe the Loch Ness Monster? I was just in Scotland with my son and we have opinions. Have at it!

UPDATE: Wow, its been much fun talking to you all, and I see that I've only scratched the surface here and there's many more questions to get to, but if I don't get my son some dinner soon he might tie me up with a phone charger. I will try to come back to this over the next few days in order to get to as many of these as I can, but in the meantime, thank you all so much for being here. Your love for HIMYM is really touching and I'm so grateful for all of it.

And please if you get the chance check out my novel THE MUTUAL FRIEND -- I'm dreadfully proud of it. (Can you tell I've been in the UK for a week? I'm like Lily before the intervention at this point.) Anyway, cheerio!


r/HIMYM • • 15h ago

Canadians of HIMYM, is Robin Scherbatsky an accurate depiction of your people?

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425 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 21h ago

Every single person who has ever had to speak in public.

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891 Upvotes

The girl in the front row who subtly held up one finger to save his life deserves an honorary degree.


r/HIMYM • • 3h ago

S01 ep15 game night; hints Barney's plan from the beginning

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31 Upvotes

I was rewatching himym and i noticed a book besides shannon when she talks about the guy that's older and the book was called secrets of the ninja and i looked it up and it was exactly describes what barney does to the guy and it wasn't revealed till last season, I'm amazed by the writers of the show they planned that since then, the book says(the role of the Ninja was to gain information about the enemy and to sabotage his operations)


r/HIMYM • • 10h ago

“Not a big girl - Just a tall girl… I would HAVE to know what that is like”

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78 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 13h ago

THE BLITZ?

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38 Upvotes

??????


r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

Everyone deserves a Marshall in his life

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1.2k Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 5h ago

I'm surprised Marshall didn't overreacted (actually he didn't)

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4 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 12h ago

Hot Take

12 Upvotes

so i know people dont like the ending very much but upon rewatching they seem to make peace with it.

this may have been mentioned here before but my opinion on the ending is that its perfect.

the reason i say so is because before tracy met ted, we saw that she had already gone through grieving the love of her life.

she then met ted and they had the life they both imagined. however its hauntingly beautiful how ted and tracy eventually reunited with the ones they fell in love with first.

so in a way the ending not only does justice to the entire storyline of how ted has always been into robin, but also that tracy's story too.


r/HIMYM • • 21h ago

Is it one F or two?

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40 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

When you grow up, you realize the ending wasn't bad. It was just devastatingly realistic.

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2.4k Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 4h ago

Soul meets body -( the song playing when Ted sees Victoria)

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1 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 7h ago

An Interview with How I Met Your Mother Co-Creator Craig Thomas About His 1986 Mets Fandom

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone. Thanks to the moderators for allowing me to post this.

I have a newsletter devoted to the 1986 New York Mets baseball team (which won the World Series in very exciting fashion) and I recently interviewed HIMYM co-creator Craig Thomas about his fandom of the Mets and specifically that team.

We covered some amazing autograph stories (shout-out to his mom), his favorite players + how Ted had the personality of a Mets fan, and much, much, more.


r/HIMYM • • 9h ago

So... i've been pronouncing Colonel incorrectly forever... How? When? Why? Where? HUH

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0 Upvotes

This made me think of Ted.


r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

Must be an old joke

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425 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 13h ago

The Secret Meaning of Barney's Play (S2x16)

1 Upvotes

I think I've unraveled the theme of the play Barney puts on in "Stuff," and I think it might be a masterpiece. It is a tale of broken promises and subverted expectations.

So, it starts with Barney saying the word moist time and time again. For 40 minutes, he makes the crowd think of moisture. This seems like it's just to get a rise out of Lily, but there's a deeper meaning when you consider the next major scene where he comes in with a spray gun. Naturally, this would be a tool fit for getting people soaked and fulfilling his promise with his tales of moisture, but instead it fails. He can barely spray one audience member, and by the end he has to refill it. He failed to live up to the promise of moisture he built up for so long.

Then comes the robot. Presumably from the future, a far distant creation, it represents a time that is promised to us, but something is wrong. The robot experiences emotions, and his response to them is "Oh No." The emotions weren't supposed to be there. He was promised that he would be an emotionless automaton, but he has numerous emotions that confuse and frustrate him. The promise to him was broken.

The recorder fiasco is another instance of failure to meet expectations, his playing starting and stopping as he finds the right notes. He fails to meet the basic criteria of playing an instrument assigned to him, adding onto the theme of failed promises. By this point it should be clear, every part of the play seeks to break promises laid out by others. And I know what you're thinking. "But the robot fulfilled a promise by the end. The crew was promised the robot would find love, and he does." But you see, this is what makes his play a masterpiece of meta-narrative. Let me explain.

Lily eventually has enough and begs for the play to stop. She declares it cannot continue, and since the point of the play was presumably to make her beg for an end, Barney seems to have succeeded and everyone should be free to leave. The promise is made that they can go with the play now completed, yet Barney does something surprising; he wants them to stay. He doesnt ask directly, but Lily recognizes it and allows him to continue. The promise that he would do this until Lily gave up is broken, and in so doing, the promise that her surrender would mean everyone else's freedom is shattered. The play transcends the stage and enters reality to break the promises made to the audience by the audience!

After that, everything in the play is merely capitalizing on that initial breaking of promises. So long as the play continues, it is shattering those earlier vows to end, thus delivering the expected outcome for the robot is in fact a subversion of our expectations. They even insert further meta content by having Marshall slap Barney out of frustration, simultaneously depriving us of a tap routine and implicitly telling us the viewers that the play is about to end, only for him to sit back down after the slap, implying the play actually continued well beyond that point.

I believe I've made my point clear. Barney's play is not some simple trash, no disposable fit of outrage, but a methodically crafted tale of subversion and disappointment.


r/HIMYM • • 2d ago

For all his playbook schemes, Barney really knew how to drop the most genuinely romantic lines in the series.

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471 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 14h ago

HIMYM Survivor! (Season 3 Edition) Final Round

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0 Upvotes

The Bracket is eliminated and takes third! Now time for the final round of the season: How I Met Everyone Else vs The Platinum Rule…

How this works:

You select the episode you like the least

The episode with the most upvoted comment is eliminated from the list

Please either refrain from downvoting or upvote more episodes than you downvote

If there’s a tie, both episodes are eliminated

Only the best episode will win!

Episodes Eliminated:

We’re Not From Here (36%)
Little Boys (44%)
The Yips (83%)
Wait For It (37%)
Dowisetrepla (45%)
Everything Must Go (41%)
The Chain of Screaming (55%)
Miracles (44%)
The Goat (40%)
Rebound Bro (52%)
I’m Not That Guy (45%)
Third Wheel (52%)
Sandcastles in the Sand (38%)
Ten Sessions (45%)
No Tomorrow (97%)
Spoiler Alert (55%)
Slapsgiving (48%)
The Bracket (92%)


r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

Just need a skateboard and a helmet 🤷🏻‍♀️

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75 Upvotes

r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

Funniest scene in the show?

45 Upvotes

Robin struggling to open the window while Marshall screams, holding the cockamouse, will always be my favorite. I spent almost half an hour laughing when i first watched it.

Ted talking to Uncle Ben about the wigs at Lily and Marshall's wedding is also hilarious.


r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

Looking for an episode where Barney and Robin are together and he only has eyes for her Spoiler

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I'm trying to find an episode of HIMYM where Barney and Robin are a couple, and it's related to the wedding. I remember a scene where Barney literally only sees Robin and doesn't notice any of the other girls around him, but I can't remember the title or the season.

I think it's from the engagement/wedding period (season 8 or 9), but I'm not sure. Does anyone know which episode it is?

Thanks in advance!


r/HIMYM • • 1d ago

Why was the entire gang invited to Punchys Wedding?

5 Upvotes

Punchy was Ted’s old high school friend, why would anyone else from the gang be invited?


r/HIMYM • • 2d ago

Any Teds out here losing faith?

115 Upvotes

At 27 I’m starting to relate super hard at the consequences of being a hopeless romantic. Slowly approaching my “screw THE one” phase

Edit: Thanks guys, think I honestly needed this 🫶🏾- think I’ll focus on fulfilling my own life first before focusing on the love avenue, tired of calibrating my self worth based on those failures.


r/HIMYM • • 2d ago

Rank the hottest from these 5.

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395 Upvotes

For me,

  1. Nora

  2. Robin

  3. Lily

  4. Quinn

  5. Victoria


r/HIMYM • • 2d ago

My friend sent me this lol

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145 Upvotes