My Top 12 Hilarious Episodes

For Every HIMYM Fan, There's that One or Two (or Heaps of) Episodes that at the Mere Mention Makes Them Grin Like a Silly Goose.

I've been thinking about this lately: what episodes, no matter how many times I watch them, produce that wonderful effect called laughter every time? No, not because of that classic moment in an episode, but instead beacause for pretty much the whole runtime everything is just funny. To qualify for my personal list, the episode had to make me laugh (or at least actively alert on humour) throughout the episode, all storylines had to be funny and enjoyable, and of course rememberable. 

So to prepare my list, I went through all episode lists of all the seasons and on just reading the title or short description of the episode picked the ones I remembered the most based off the humour. For some of the episodes I had picked they were locked in automatically because they were simply that good. For others, I needed to rewatch to confirm my pick was legit. Originally, I was going for a top 5 list, then I had to expand the list to top 10... then I threw it all out the window and thought, "I can pick whatever number I want!"

So here's my list people, and in no particular order (because that would be too cruel) they are:

 

1. The Pineapple Incident (Season 1)

Five shots, a girl and a pineapple - it's all part of the mystery of how Drunk Ted spent the night not thinking but doing. A classic episode - IMO I don't see how anyone can not have this on their Top Whatever-Number Episodes list.

 

2. The Playbook (Season 5)

We are introduced to some of the best schemes Barney has ever done to pick up women. Not only was the episode full of hilarious plays, but the episode as a whole was a play.

 

3. Murtagh (Season 4)

Barney being awesome at laser tag, "a gentlemen's agreement!" and the joy of Barney slowly killing himself - what more could you ask for?

 

4. Subway Wars (Season 6)

A race involving everyone? It gets pretty entertaining to see how each of them go about the race their own way - Marshall outrunning the machine world, Ted being the crazy person on the bus, Lily misinterpreting the subway, Robin trying to outdo New York, and Barney being.... Barney.

 

5. The Three Days Rule (Season 4)

Ted being Ted: texty text style! But it turns out that at the other end is not a cute girl but Barney and Marshall! So Ted decides to mess with them: pretending to admit he has gay dreams about his best friend (cue the best friend debate between Marshall and Barney). And of course.... Stan *sighs*.

 

6. The Best Burger in New York (Season 6) 

Reemember that time you ate something so... perfect that you forget where you got it from in your rush to tell every human being about it? Yeah, been there too. Plus the descriptions of the burgers they give are inspi... wait for it... rational!

 

7. Okay Awesome (Season 1) 

I swear, around 1/3 of this episode is spoken in subtitles! Marshall gets it down with some cool dance moves and I agree with Ted: I don't find clubs and stuff like that fun either. 

 

8. Cockamouse (Season 1)

That magnificant beast. That stuff of nightmares and disturbing logical explanations it requires to make even remote sense of. That is all.

 

9. Showdown (Season 2)

I spent time on this episode jealous of Lily that she got to eat so much junk food, amazed that Ted didn't breakdown during his best man speech, and in awe as Barney was being an unbeatable machine on 'The Price is Right'. Don't believe me?

 

 10. Monday Night Football (Season 2)
What would we do without the media? In order to keep the excitment going for a pre-recorded Super Bowl game, the gang have to avoid finding out who had won for the day full of blackmailing kids, news reports, sports bars, newspapers, etc. It involves Robin nearly going crazy on the air, Barney handcuffing himself in the apartment, Ted inventing the Sensory Deprivator 5000 and Marshall hiding out in Lily's kindergarten class.

11. Lucky Penny (Season 2)
An episode about cause and effect: if Ted never found a 1939 penny, he and Robin wouldn't have walked past a wedding shop while eating hot dogs from the money Ted earned from that penny, Lily wouldn't have wanted to camp at the shop with Robin, Robin wouldn't have walked in on Marshall in the bathroom when she went to crash at the apartment, Barney would never have taken Marshall's place in the marathon (since Marshall broke his toe), Ted would never have jumped the turnstile trying to save a trapped Barney on the subway, and Ted WOULD get to the airport on time since he would not have a courtdate. Mishap glory, but Ted's a lucky guy: the penny saved him from moving to Chicago.

12. Rabbit or Duck (Season 5)
This one just made it on the list. We have Barney's magic phone (I want that ringtone so bad!) that even Ted goes crazy for, Marshall and Lily frantically searching for a wife for Ted, and a big debate: rabbit vs. duck! And btw, I'm on Marshall's side - rabbits: good and ducks: bad.

Episodes that didn't make the cut:
Slap Bet (Season 2) - although Robin Sparkles that the end was awesome and that the episode marks the beginning of the slap bet, the episode as a whole wasn't quite enough to make the list.

Spoiler Alert (Season 3) - it was fun watching the gang discover each had their own annoying habits with glass shattering realisation, but it doesn't get there until the second half of the episode and I think the first half wasn't really enough to support the whole episode.