10 Things About How I Met Your Mother That Haven't Aged Well

In the year of our lord 2025, it isn't exactly news to say that some people find elements of the hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (HIMYM) to be somewhat problematic. From Barney Stinson's (Neil Patrick Harris) frequent manipulation and sexual exploitation of innocent young women to the culture's reanalysis of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) as a "nice guy" who is secretly a conceited jerk, there are plenty of holes you can poke into the beloved sitcom. Still, plenty of fans will happily revisit all nine seasons of the long-running CBS staple, especially with the introduction of "How We Made Your Mother," the rewatch podcast hosted by Radnor and series co-creator Craig Thomas.

There's plenty of room to be critical about the shows you love, but folks often take potshots at HIMYM that you can take at just about every sitcom that has ever aired on television. Try revisiting outdated "Simpsons" jokes or some of the cringier "Seinfeld" episodes, and you'll see what we mean. The television industry is an often ignorant establishment and plenty of that seeps into shows with even the best of intentions, including HIMYM. While it's always important to acknowledge those missteps, it's also important to make other, less obvious critiques. What about the show's production value, or its complicated continuity and frequent callbacks? Maybe a scene or two were cut that ought to have stayed in the final edit. Kids, let's break it all down.

Here are 10 things about "How I Met Your Mother" that just haven't aged well.

"How I Met Your Mother" has been called many things — fatphobic, homophobic, xenophobic, all kinds of phobic — but a majority of these criticisms are lobbed at jokes that, at the end of the day, are based on tired stereotypes. They suck, but in the year of our lord 2025, they're easy to brush off.What isn't easy to brush off is the show's occasional but far more glaring transphobia, especially its use of the t-slur as late as season 6 ("Architect of Destruction"), which aired in 2010. Though other sitcoms at the time were culpable of using the same slur, including toward trans character Carmen on the still-airing "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," it still feels like a particularly mean-spirited addition to a show that forgoes slurs in every other context.

What's worse than the slurs, though, are the shock value potshots against trans people, specifically trans women. Almost every trans joke is portrayed by a woman who "used to be a dude" ("Slap Bet") or "had a penis" ("Spoiler Alert") in some shocking reveal. There's even one scene where Ted's date comes into the men's bathroom and, much to his horror, uses a urinal ("Mystery vs. History"), a particularly tone deaf joke in an era where right-wing politicians weaponize unfounded fear against trans people for bathroom bills. These jokes reinforce the misogynistic view that trans women are disgusting or undesirable because of their genitalia, and amidst all of the show's questionable humor, these moments are especially rough.

Physical media may be struggling, but even that wouldn't convince diehard collectors to start owning porn. In the age of the internet, where user-generated video platforms live side-by-side with subscription services like OnlyFans (not to mention free adult entertainment easily found all over the web), most people don't need to pop in a disc for some action. For better or for worse, Barney Stinson is not most people. Not only did he amass a significant collection of well over 100 DVDs, but he had their shelves professionally lit, as seen in "World's Greatest Couple". Barney clearly takes pride in his porn, but how could you not with titles like "A Beautiful Hind," "In Diana Jones," and "Tip Gun," all of which can be seen if you look closely when Barney gives his collection away in "The Rough Patch".

"How I Met Your Mother" has a surprising amount of jokes centered on porn, and a majority of them are found in fairly outdated forms: Marshall and Lily's sex tape is on a cassette ("No Pressure"), Barney uses a camcorder to record his own "home videos" (also in "The Rough Patch") and Marshall's bachelor party watches the real "Deep Impact" in an SUV DVD player in "Bachelor Party," though Barney intended to bring the adult film version. Clearly, HIMYM is a product of a time where it was common, though somewhat taboo to own porn and even watch it with your buddies. If that alone doesn't date the show, we don't know what does.

Despite their reputation as a tired and even offensive trope, fat suits and other thickening prosthetics are still frequently used in film and television. With moments as recent as the insulting makeup Oscar nomination for Brendan Fraser's fatsuit in "The Whale," it's depressing to see that filmmakers still haven't learned anything from harmful portrayals of fatness in sitcoms like "Friends" and films like "Shallow Hal." Case in point: "How I Met Your Mother" features two examples of fatness as a costume, both of which make otherwise solid episodes memorable for the wrong reasons.

The most obvious example is in "The Rough Patch," where Neil Patrick Harris wears progressively more exaggerated prosthetics to simulate how much Barney has let himself go in his relationship with Robin. What begins as "relationship gut" becomes a full on fatsuit, complete with ridiculous double chin extensions. It doesn't help that, when fat, Barney is also portrayed as an unattractive slob, leaving stains on his clothes and hesitant to engage in sex. 

That said, the far worse example is in "Lobster Crawl," when Robin's allergic reaction to lobster is simulated using absurdly extreme face and neck prosthetics that go beyond anaphylaxis. They are clearly meant to portray Cobie Smulders as some kind of disgusting monster and, in the process, equate horror with being fatter. HIMYM has long been criticized for fatphobic jokes, but these two moments make more visceral and arbitrary mockery of fat people and, as a result, feel more mean-spirited.

"How I Met Your Mother" repeatedly flirted with cheap jokes about Asian people, but only one instance got them into real hot water. "I regret the unfortunate amounts of cultural appropriation in Slapsgiving 3," wrote Carter Bays as part of a HIMYM-themed "Ask Me Anything" Reddit thread in 2014. "I think we all regret Ted's Fu Manchu mustache very, very much." To say "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" (in reference to John O'Hara's novel "Appointment in Samarra") aged poorly is putting it lightly. The episode was criticized immediately in the hours after it aired in 2014, when Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, and Alyson Hannigan's yellowface makeup inspired the hashtag #HowIMetYourRacism on X, then still known as Twitter.

The episode is clearly intended to parody old school kung fu films, but the choice to make three white actors look Chinese is the kind of racist nonsense that anyone well-versed in pop culture wouldn't even think of attempting. The fact that Ted's character was styled after Fu Manchu in the first place, a character that was deemed a racist stereotype decades before HIMYM co-creator Carter Bays was even born, is inexcusable and not a far reach from Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," which we're pretty sure appears in the dictionary under the word "yellowface." Even over 10 years later, it's hard to fathom how the show got away with any of these creative choices in what amounts to one of the worst HIMYM episodes of all-time.

Need we say more?

In a post #MeToo world, "The Naked Man" is one of the toughest "How I Met Your Mother" episodes to swallow. To recap, the season 4 episode introduces Mitch (Adam Paul), an otherwise unremarkable man who has a secret method to ensuring sex on a date with a woman that isn't going well: You find an excuse to go up to her apartment, you wait for her to leave the room, and then you strip naked. Once she re-enters, her shock at your nudity will disarm her to the point that she says, "what the hell," and decides to have sex with you.

We'll give the show's cast and crew some credit. For a glimmering moment, they make you believe something like this could work. It certainly charmed fans of the show, who have since swapped experiences trying The Naked Man in real life on multiple Reddit threads. However, life is not a sitcom. The Naked Man is indecent exposure and a slippery slope to sexual assault. We don't need to remind you that countless horror stories across Hollywood begin with a man stripping down and exposing his genitals to an unsuspecting woman, emotionally traumatizing her forever. We're not claiming Mitch is as bad as Harvey Weinstein, who is serving 39 years in prison for multiple counts of sexual assault and rape, but to make comedy out of predatory behavior is just really, really gross.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

For those outside of New York City, it can be easy to look at all five boroughs and Manhattan's public transportation system and assume it's easy to get around. In truth, it's not so simple. If you live in a borough like Brooklyn or Queens, it can take you well over an hour to get to tourism hotspots like Times Square or Broadway, even on a subway. Well, for the first four seasons of "How I Met Your Mother," Robin lives in Brooklyn, specifically the neighborhood of Park Slope. That means that every time she went to MacLaren's, which was located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (even though it's based on the real-life McGee's Pub in midtown), it took her an hour to get there.

Any New Yorker could see through this ridiculous plot stretch, which is exactly what Josh Radnor's Brooklynite wife, Jordana Jacobs, did when they began watching the series together for "How We Made Your Mother." Speaking to series co-creator Craig Thomas in an early episode, Radnor recounted that "[Jordana] said, 'how was she hanging out in this bar on the Upper West Side so much if she lived in Brooklyn? That makes no sense! She would never!" The two had a good laugh, rationalizing that perhaps Robin's news station was in Midtown, a much closer district of Manhattan. Still, even a New York newbie would have to be pretty desperate for friends to brave a borough-to-borough commute.

When you're first watching "How I Met Your Mother," you can't believe how well the show's creative team is able to travel through time while keeping things consistent. Remember in season 3's "The Platinum Rule," where the show flashes back to every successive year since the show's debut in 2005 and follows the gang's ill-advised relationships? How about all the way in season 9's "The Poker Game," when we revisit Marshall and Lily right after their wedding, and they look just like they did in season 2? It's uncanny!

Well, not quite. You're so distracted keeping up with the story that you don't look closely at what are clearly wigs helping to maintain continuity. Most of the time, it isn't too rough, especially for the men of HIMYM. Their hair doesn't change too drastically season to season, so it's smooth cutting back and forth. It fares far worse for the women, whose obvious wig work across various episodes becomes more and more sloppy with every passing rewatch. Lily is probably the worst offender, and the show's need to recreate her iconic redhead pixie bob and her short-lived brunette bangs make for some funny side-by-side comparisons, not to mention her goth black hair in college flashbacks. Robin doesn't get a pass either, especially as her hair got shorter towards the end of the show. The finale's cold open flashback, which sees Robin sporting curly hair and horrendous hairline, isn't fooling anyone.

For a show that does so much time-jumping, "How I Met Your Mother" has a remarkably ironclad continuity upon first watch. The plot and characterization all feel really tight. However, as you rewatch the show over and over again, certain inconsistencies begin to emerge. For example, remember when Marshall says he has never been in a fight ("Sweet Taste of Liberty") yet insists he's had many fights with his brothers ("The Fight")? Or how about when Robin says she never played a team sport ("Slutty Pumpkin") yet also says she never attended prom because it conflicted with field hockey finals ("Best Prom Ever")?

You could argue some of this is just the writers finding their footing, but it continues in later seasons. Season 6's "The Mermaid Theory" claims Robin and Marshall have never hung out alone even though they share a subplot in season 4's "Little Minnesota." Barney's mother, Loretta (Frances Conroy), is identified as Patty in season 3's "The Yips" before her introduction in season 4's "The Stinsons." Even Barney's panic attack learning to drive in "Arrivederci, Fiero" is undercut by him stealing a moving van in the very next episode, "Moving Day," which isn't necessarily a plot hole so much as it makes absolutely zero sense. No long-running show can be perfect in its continuity, but these little goofs and gaffs do dampen the show's creative novelty upon rewatches.

One of the things that made "How I Met Your Mother" such a novel sitcom was its blending of traditional sitcom story structure with more cinematic filmmaking techniques. Most shows simply filmed live in front of a studio audience with multiple cameras, but HIMYM did not. Instead, they would pre-record multicam segments without an audience and splice in additional, single-cam content, like POV shots, slow motion, and even visual effects. Some of the latter moments really shine, like the body-doubling in "The Time Travelers," one of the many elements that make it one of the best HIMYM episodes of all-time.

That said, there are also plenty of moments that show their age, particularly those that involve either green screens or CGI. We're thinking about moments like when Robin and Gael (Enrique Iglesias) are windsurfing ("Wait for It") or when Ted and Tracy are up in the lighthouse at the Farhampton Inn ("The Lighthouse"). How about when Marshall and Lily morph into one person at the bed and breakfast ("Duel Citizenship") or when Robin's dogs morph into all the guys she's dated before ("Stuff")? Even stuff like folks exploding after getting Lily's "dead to me" look ("Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap") just look a little silly, especially in an era where streaming has turned prestige TV into the gold standard. Still, the fact HIMYM even implemented them at all was bold for a network show, so props to them.

This one hurts, guys. Fans have long been split over the "How I Met Your Mother" finale ("Last Forever"), in part over the death of Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti) from an undiagnosed illness. Those who didn't catch on to season 9's many clues were likely left gobsmacked by the sudden twist. We think fans might have been a bit too harsh about it at the time, but there is no denying that a few more scenes with the titular Mother may have softened the blow. Well, as it turns out, we were supposed to get one particularly important one. According to series star Alyson Hannigan, 18 minutes of the finale's original script were cut, including a brief but moving montage moment where the gang comforts Ted during Tracy's funeral.

"[That cut was] even more heart-wrenching than what the finale was," she told TVLine. "They were like, 'No. It's just too gut-wrenching,'" she continued, speaking to their thought process behind cutting the scene. "[The scene] would have been better for the audience, so that then they can process, 'Oh, [Ted] mourned. He got closure' — and then they'd be happy that [he and Robin] got together ... I think [it] was too fast." You could say that again, Alyson. This wouldn't have satisfied every fan in the world, but it definitely would have given more gravitas to Tracy's death in a way that would have brought catharsis for fans just as much as it did for Ted.