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TV Show Drinking Game
Catchphrases, cold opens and cliffhangers - drink on cue.
TV Show Drinking Game
How I Met Your Mother Drinking Game
The **How I Met Your Mother Drinking Game** leans on a show that is told twice - Future Ted narrating from 2030...
You watchHow I Met Your Mother
You needDrinks + friends
Triggers14 drink rules
Best with2-15 players
The How I Met Your Mother Drinking Game leans on a show that is told twice - Future Ted narrating from 2030 while the younger gang lives it. That structure hands you rules no other sitcom has: a flash-forward, a Future Ted correction, a callback to a joke from four seasons ago. Add Barney's catchphrases, Marshall's charts and the booth at MacLaren's, and the triggers land before the teaser ends.
Nine seasons, but the shape changes. Seasons one and two set up the slap bet, Robin Sparkles and the yellow umbrella; the middle run is peak Barney; and season nine spends almost all of its 24 episodes on one wedding weekend at Farhampton, with the Mother finally on screen. Pick a stretch for the density you want, and pair it with any other TV show drinking game to fill out the night.
How to set it up
- Decide when the narration counts. Future Ted talks over almost every scene; a common fix is 'only when he addresses the kids directly' or 'only when he corrects himself'.
- Choose a Barney episode if you want the fast game - 'The Playbook', 'Girls Versus Suits' and the Bro Code episodes are catchphrase after catchphrase - or a Marshall-and-Lily episode for a slower, sappier one.
- Give the Canada rule to the person who knows Robin best: the Sparkles jokes, the hockey and the slipped accent are throwaways the room will miss.
- If you're aiming at the finale, agree in advance whether the last episode is played at all - it runs longer, it's mostly flash-forwards, and it splits every group of fans.
The rules: drink when…
The heart of the game: 14 triggers. Read them out before you press play, keep the ones your group likes, cut any that would fire every minute, and remember that a "drink" is one sip.
| When this happens… | …you drink |
|---|---|
| Barney says 'Legen - wait for it - dary' | Sip twice |
| Barney says 'Suit up' or talks about his suits | Sip |
| Barney says 'Challenge accepted' | Sip |
| The gang gathers in their booth at MacLaren's Pub | Sip |
| Ted acts pretentious about architecture or grammar | Sip |
| Ted mentions the yellow umbrella or 'the mother' | Sip |
| Marshall brings up Minnesota, the Vikings, or his dad | Sip |
| Marshall presents a chart or a graph | Sip |
| Lily and Marshall get sappy and coupley | Sip |
| Robin's Canadian side or Robin Sparkles comes up | Sip |
| Robin mentions guns, scotch, or cigars | Sip |
| Someone references the Slap Bet or a slap lands | Sip twice |
| Future Ted narrates to his kids | Sip |
| Ted finally connects with the mother in a big reveal | Drink for 3 seconds |
How to play
Pick the era
Seasons two through five are the sweet spot: the slap bet, Robin Sparkles, the goat, 'Suit up', the 100th-episode musical number. Season one is still building the gang; seasons eight and nine turn serial, with the Mother reveal at the end of eight and the wedding weekend in nine.
Drink with the narrator
Because Future Ted introduces most scenes, the narration and the visual gag usually arrive together - decide whether that's one sip or two, or the teaser alone will cost three.
Play the slaps as an event
When a slap-countdown episode comes up (the Slapsgivings, the season-nine slap trial), everyone picks a moment for the slap to land. Sip on every slap reference until it does; whoever guessed closest hands out a drink.
Hold the long drink for the umbrella
The three-second rule is for the Mother beats only - the umbrella turning up, her bass guitar, the platform at Farhampton, the meeting in the finale. That's a handful of moments in 208 episodes, which is the point.
Variations & house rules
The Playbook run
Watch the Barney-heavy episodes in a row - 'The Playbook', 'Girls Versus Suits', the Bro Code introduction - and play Barney rules only. Every 'Legendary', 'Suit up', 'Challenge accepted', wingman play and lie to his mother is a sip; a moment of real feeling for Robin is the long drink.
Wedding weekend
Play season nine as its own game. Drop the MacLaren's rule, add one for every Farhampton Inn scene, every flash-forward to the Mother and every time the wedding nearly falls apart, and finish on 'Last Forever' with the group's agreed verdict on the ending.
Ted vs Barney
Two players take Ted and Barney. Every time your character delivers a pretentious speech or a legendary catchphrase on screen, the other player drinks. A 'Have you met Ted?' resets the count.
Pro tips
'Legen - wait for it - dary' costs two sips because it's rarer than you think; 'Suit up' and the Future Ted rule are the ones that fire every episode, so price those low.
Marshall's charts appear in bursts - one scene can hold a pie chart, a bar graph and a Venn diagram, then the rule sleeps for three episodes - so treat it as a bonus.
Season nine keeps the gang out of the booth for almost the whole run; if you're binging toward the finale, swap in a Farhampton rule before you get there or the second half goes quiet.
Drink responsibly: Future Ted and the booth rule fire in every one of the 208 episodes, so a run through a season disc adds up faster than the catchphrases suggest - set your stopping episode before the first 'Kids...'. A movie-length game adds up fast, so keep the pours small, water between drinks, and swap any trigger for a sip of water whenever you like. See our safety guide.
Frequently asked questions
Which season of How I Met Your Mother is best for a drinking game?
Season two or season three. Season two has 'Slap Bet', Robin Sparkles and Marshall and Lily's wedding; season three adds Slapsgiving, the Bro Code, the goat and Barney at his most catchphrase-heavy. Season five works too if you want 'Girls Versus Suits' and the Playbook in one run.
Which HIMYM episode has the most triggers?
'Slap Bet' (season two) is the obvious one: Robin Sparkles, the slap bet itself, Marshall and Barney at their most childish and Future Ted narrating every twist. 'The Pineapple Incident' and 'Girls Versus Suits' run it close, and any Slapsgiving stacks the slap rule.
Does the drinking game work on the HIMYM finale?
Yes, but it plays differently. 'Last Forever' is double-length, mostly flash-forwards with fewer booth scenes and catchphrases, and the Mother rule finally lands - keep the umbrella and Future Ted rules, drop the Barney bits, and agree before pressing play whether the blue French horn counts as the long drink.
How many HIMYM episodes make a full drinking game?
Three or four, because Future Ted's narration and the booth rule fire in every one of them. For a longer run, keep Barney's catchphrases, the slap rule and the umbrella and let the narration go.
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