34 Reasons "How I Met Your Mother" Was The Cleverest Show On TV

It was funny, but it was cunning as hell too.

Posted on September 14, 2015, 12:04 GMT

Luke Bailey

BuzzFeed Staff, UK

1. Because of things like this.

2. Because of how Marshall totally stole the show, even when he was in the background.

3. Because of how they cover up the "holes" in Ted's memory.

4. Because of this callback.

5. Because The Mother's name was actually revealed way back in Episode 9 in the first season.

6. Because of this cunning use of colour theory.

7. Because of how precisely clothes were matched.

8. Because there's no situation when a high five isn't relevant.

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9. Because Dr X's website actually exists.

10. Because "before a man meets the woman he'll marry, he'll make one final, horrible mistake."

11. Because Robin Sparkles' spaceship was also a curling stone, because Canada.

12. Because even in the first shots of the Hoser Hut, there's Paul Shaffer.

13. Because of this perfect background joke.

14. Because Marshall's jacket actually reappears.

15. Because this Rastafarian is eating a "sandwich".

16. Because whenever Marshall went on a trip, he brought back beer – even in Marvin's stroller.

17. Because the red car case that Robin's locket is in has been there the whole damn time.

18. Because this motorcycles sign was in an episode way before Barney actually did something that caused it to exist.

No word on the llamas, though.

19. Because they eventually found all the doppelgangers.

CBS

20. Because of how the Van Smoot dynasty was so carefully worked into the show.

21. Because Robin kept her promise.

22. Because Barney really, really does use 83 whenever he's making up a statistic.

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23. Because of how Barney's advice was truer than he ever expected.

24. Because of this symmetry between the start and the end of the show.

25. Because there really are a lot of similarities between the mother and the daughter.

26. Because Ted and Tracey both love coins, so they named their daughter Penny.

27. Because of this bit of foreshadowing.

28. And how this more or less came to pass.

29. And maybe even this foreshadowing too.

(On the left.)

30. Because of this countdown.

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31. Because the importance of a great joke was never underestimated.

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32. Because of the symbolism of these clouds turning to blue skies.

33. Because of how well the show made you feel for Ted.

34. Because of how this saying came so very true. Twice.