Greatest 'How I Met Your Mother' Episodes

by Aprille Hanson & Julian Spivey

The long running CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” comes to an end tonight and we finally get to find out the answer to how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) met the mother and see how the storyline of one of the best and most tight-knit group of friends on television comes to an end.
 
While there’s good reason to believe the one-hour finale tonight will end up as one of the legen…wait for it…dary episodes of the series’ catalogue, it’s time to pay tribute to some of the truly fantastic episodes that have come before it. It’s tough to come up with a small list of the best episodes of this truly wonderful series, because there have been so many classics, but here are five that particularly stood out.
 
Aprille Hanson
 
"The Naked Man" Season 4, Episode 9
 
Who would have thought that a creepy man who just went on a horrible date could get a woman to sleep with him by just sitting in her living room, totally naked? The writers of ‘HIMYM,’ that’s who. Robin (Cobie Smulders) goes on a date with a short, balding man named Mitch. The chemistry isn’t there, but when Ted runs up to their apartment for a quick moment, he finds Mitch in all his naked glory, chilling on his couch. The move is simple – sit there naked, surprising the date, the two laugh and jump in bed together. It works a guaranteed two out of three times. Ted leaves horrified and confused, but as the whole gang rushes back to the apartment to try and stop Robin from killing the guy, they find that the two are well … busy.
Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) has officially found his new hero and the whole gang tries their own version of the “Naked Man.” Lily (Allyson Hannigan) seduces Marshall (Jason Segel), easily. Ted goes on a date with what turns out to be an obnoxious woman, but uses the “Naked Man” trick – it works. Too bad for Barney that it only works two out of three times. Meanwhile, Robin tries to find her dignity by going on a few more dates with Mitch.
The absurdity of this episode makes it a classic and the clips of Ted and Barney striking various “Naked Man” poses including Barney’s “The Burt Reynolds,” is just too hilarious.
 
"Slap Bet" Season 2, Episode 9
 
This episode was perhaps the most important from a comedic standpoint because it spawned two running story lines: the slap bet between Barney and Marshall and Robin Sparkles. The episode starts out with a simple premise: Robin does not want to go to the mall with Ted. In fact, she won’t go near any mall and she won’t say why. Marshall thinks she was married in a mall in Canada. Barney thinks she did adult movies in a mall. With the appointment of Lily as slap bet commissioner, the slap bet is made – the winner of the bet gets to the slap the loser as hard as possible. When Robin tells Ted yes, she was married in a mall, Marshall throws his might into a slap from Barney. But, hold on now, she lied. Barney gets to hit Marshall three times.
Turns out, they were both wrong. Robin was a teenage pop star in Canada with the hit song, “Let’s Go to the Mall.” And there’s a music video to prove it.
Since Barney didn’t win the slap bet, he gets a choice – 10 slaps from Marshall in a row or five anytime Marshall chooses.
He goes for the five, giving fans years of slaps to look forward too. The episode is out-of-the-box creativity at its finest.
 
"The Pineapple Incident" Season 1, Episode 10
 
Before the concept of the movie “The Hangover,” there was “The Pineapple Incident.” After Barney, Lily and Marshall criticize Ted for overthinking everything he does, he loses his inhibitions by drinking five shots of “Red Dragon,” created by the MacLaren's bartender. He’s pumped, excited and then … black out. The next day, he wakes up next to a woman he doesn’t know, a sprained ankle, writing on his arm and part of his jacket burnt. As he spends the day piecing together the puzzle from the night before, he never finds out the biggest mystery of all – the pineapple sitting on his nightstand. In a series of flashbacks, viewers get “drunk” on this journey with Ted that will go down as the best hangover episode on the show.
 
"The Final Page, Part 1 & 2" Season 8, Episodes 11, 12
 
For eight seasons, fans watched Barney burn through the pages of his “Playbook,” tricks and schemes to get women to sleep with him. He seems however, to have left those days behind, dating a completely mismatched co-worker who Robin loathes named Patrice. Robin, who is annoyed that Patrice constantly wants to be her best friend, is ready to fire her for dating Barney, her ex, who whether she admits it or not, still has feelings for. The first part ends with Barney revealing to Ted he’s going to propose to Patrice.
The second part is the most magical play Barney ever constructed called, “The Robin.” When Ted spills the beans and convinces Robin, despite his feelings for her, to go after Barney and stop him, she decides to go.
She makes her way up to the WWN building where she finds Barney … and no sign of Patrice. The trick – which included getting shot down by Robin for the longest time and then pretending to date Patrice, with her consent of course – was genius and while deceitful, the most romantic play that Barney ever came up with. He proposed, Robin said yes and that completed the final page of his “Playbook.” 
 
"How Your Mother Met Me" Season 9, Episode 16
 
For ‘HIMYM’ fans, the reveal of the mother was something that we’d been waiting for since the pilot. She had to be perfect for Ted. Not good, great, PERFECT. And she is. In its final season, the show has chronicled the weekend of Barney and Robin’s wedding, but has given us a series of flash forwards to see how Ted and the mother go about their lives together – from Ted’s wedding proposal to their children’s birth to her becoming a best-selling author. What would have been a challenge for most writers was how to incorporate all the little hints about the mother that have been dropped throughout the years: the yellow umbrella, the bumping into her at the St. Patrick’s Day party, her being a student in his class, etc.
All those questions were answered in “How Your Mother Met Me.” We meet the mother — still don’t know her name — waiting for her longtime boyfriend at a bar with friends. It’s her birthday and when he doesn’t show up, it’s quickly revealed that he was killed. It’s a dark twist that the show handled with such care and compassion it makes you root for the mother even more. After all, she’s not just some girl; she’s the girl.
It shows the scenes of their almost chance meetings from her perspective, making the storylines fit together magically. Incorporating her story, including her heartbreak, makes her three-dimensional, not just a one-dimensional fantasy for fans anymore. Even more than the big reveal, this was the episode that fans have been waiting for.
Now, all she needs is a name. 
 
Julian Spivey
 
“Pilot” Season 1, Episode 1
 
Choosing the pilot episode of “How I Met Your Mother” for this list might seem like a copout with all of the excellent episodes over its nine seasons, but going back recently and watching it I believe it really stands out as one of the best (I will add, though, that I typically feel this way about pilots). The pilot is our introduction to a series … it’s the “will we or won’t we” fall in love with this series and almost instantaneously do we fall in love with Ted, Barney, Robin, Marshall and Lily. There are so many running bits from this series that debut in the pilot like Barney’s “have you met, Ted?” tagline to introduce women to Ted and the “Suit Up!” cry that became one of Barney’s many great catchphrases along the way. I believe the very first “legen…wait for it…dary” was uttered in this opener, as well. The first episode also introduced us to one of the great sitcom relationships in Ted and Robin, even if we knew how it would play out by the end of that episode with the shocker of an announcement that was “and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” The pilot was a perfect introduction to a group of friends we would welcome into our lives and cherish for the next decade.
 
“Arrivederci, Fiero” Season 2, Episode 17
 
The season two episode “Arrivederci, Fiero” is an excellent “How I Met Your Mother” episode for many, many reasons. The first and foremost reason is that it gives us the backstory on how Ted and Marshall truly became best friends over a college Christmas break road trip. These flashbacks, which really are a truly great and important aspect (along with the show’s usage of flashforwards) of ‘HIMYM,’ are among the best in the series. One of my favorite aspects of this episode is the running gag of Marshall’s Fiero having eaten his single of The Proclaimer’s ‘90s one-hit wonder “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” and it being the only song him and Ted can listen to on their trip and the ups and downs that come with that, especially their epic renditions. One of the funniest storylines of the episode is how Barney is the only one of the group who absolutely hates the car, because of a terrifying experience learning to drive in it. Overall, “Arrivederci Fiero” is one of the great bonding episodes between this great group of friends.
 
“How Your Mother Met Me” Season 9, Episode 16
 
You know “How I Met Your Mother” is truly a wonderfully written show when they can add a new character in the final season, do an episode completely from that character’s point of view, with little interaction among the principle cast and become one of the series’ classics. That’s exactly what the show did with this season’s “How Your Mother Met Me.” I, like many fans, thought that we wouldn’t get the pleasure of seeing the mother of Ted’s children until the very last scene (or at least episode) of the series. The show’s creators did the right thing in introducing her to the audience in the season eight finale and then adding her to the cast for the final season in storylines either not involving Ted or through flashforwards with Ted. After the show introduced the perfectly casted Cristin Milioti as the mother, the next logical step was to do an episode on her storyline leading up to the present time. The episode, which started with tragedy, ended in a beautiful moment where “the mother” sings “La Vie en Rose” accompanied by her ukulele playing on her hotel balcony where Ted can hear, but not see, her. One of the most beautiful scenes of a series filled with them.
 
“Slap Bet” Season 2, Episode 9
 
“Slap Bet,” from the show’s second season (which could likely be considered the show’s best), is among the show’s funniest when it comes to pure laughs. It’s also generally the highest ranked episode of this series among fans and critics alike. It includes two long-running bits that fans absolutely adore: the slap bet that it takes its title from (and was just finished up in the series’ penultimate episode last week) and it was the debut of Robin’s teenage Canadian pop star alter-ego Robin Sparkles (which I do find a bit overrated). I’m sure “slap bet” was a thing long before this series, but ‘HIMYM’ is the reason why it’s now a huge part of the pop culture lexicon. The terror Barney feels when he believes Marshall is about to slap the hell out of him is among the funniest moments in this series’ long run, as is Barney’s exuberant enjoyment upon finding Robin’s past “Let’s Go to the Mall” music video.   
 
“The Naked Man” Season 4, Episode 9
 
When it comes to downright hilarious episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” it can be very hard to choose. There’s, of course, “Slap Bet” and its offshoot “Slapsgiving.” There’s the epic “The Playbook” episode that probably is the first runner-up to my list. Then there’s the hilarity of “being too old for this … stuff” in “Murtaugh.” However, for my money, the funniest episode of ‘HIMYM’ is probably season four’s “The Naked Man.” It’s such a unique and out there concept that you know the writer of this episode, Joe Kelly, has to know somebody who has done this wildly inappropriate move in the past. The wild move, known simply as “The Naked Man,” is exactly what it implies … stripping down naked and hoping your date is so taken aback or amused by your confidence that she will throw you a bone. The ingenious move is Mitch’s (guest star Adam Paul), who pulls the move during a floundering date with Robin, in which Ted happens to walk in on him in the full buff. Ted doesn’t believe that the move could possibly work, but Mitch assures him “The Naked Man” works two out of three times and when Robin falls for it Barney, Ted and Lily all end up giving it a shot. Sure, enough it works two out of three times. There are obviously more important moments in “How I Met Your Mother” history, but “The Naked Man” had me in stitches for 30 straight minutes (even laughing through commercial breaks). The funniest part of the episode is when Ted and Barney discuss which naked poses they should strike upon their naked reveal.