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Ever felt like you've seen this episode before? Join us as we explore the uncanny parallels and striking similarities between two beloved sitcoms that defined a generation. From iconic running gags to foundational relationship dynamics and character quirks, we'sre diving deep into moments that suggest one show might have taken more than a little inspiration from the other. Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about these legendary friend groups.
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00:00So I guess that decides it. Yep. Hanging out at a coffee place? Not nearly as much fun as hanging out at a bar.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo. And today, we're looking at the times How I Met Your Mother seemingly ripped off pages from Friends' Playbook.
00:13Just, I thought the mature thing to do would be... It's my birthday! Yes, I know, I didn't realize that it was...
00:17It's my birthday and you're telling me I'm not the one for you?
00:21Number 20. Chandler and Ted's Middle Names.
00:24Whether it's his dating life or his general mannerisms, Chandler usually finds himself roasted by his friends.
00:30The hills are alive with the sound... of music.
00:41My stone! My stone!
00:45On How I Met Your Mother, this honor often belongs to Ted.
00:49Their humiliation ramps up when embarrassing details from their past come to light.
00:53In this case, they're middle names.
00:55After Chandler accidentally reveals his middle name, Muriel, Ross won't let him live it down.
01:01Chandler M. Bing?
01:06It's not just an M. Your middle name is Muriel!
01:10Shh! It is a family name.
01:14Chandler Muriel Bing.
01:17Boy, your parents never even gave you a chance, did they?
01:20Similarly, Ted's full name turns out to be Ted Evelyn Mosby, which his friends refuse to let him forget.
01:28This trope is turned up to a higher degree on How I Met Your Mother, as Ted's group still teases him about it on his wedding day.
01:34To Ted.
01:35Don't say it.
01:36Evelyn Mosby.
01:38Thank you for that.
01:39Number 19. Doppelgangers.
01:42Friends enjoys playing with a case of mistaken identity, starting with Phoebe's twin, Ursula.
01:46But while that twist has a family connection, the absurdity goes overboard when we're introduced to Ross's doppelganger, Russ,
01:54right down to his voice, cadence, and mannerisms.
01:57I'm her date.
01:58Oh, oh, you're, uh, oh, you're the date.
02:03You know, this is actually good, because if we ever lose Ross, we have a spare.
02:07How I Met Your Mother had its own fun with this gag, giving every member of the group their own doppelganger.
02:11Unlike Friends, where the similarity is the joke, the humor in Himyum comes from how bizarrely different these doubles are,
02:19with a multi-season arc tied to Marshall and Lily.
02:21There's no sense in having a baby until we've seen all five doppelgangers, right?
02:25Of course.
02:26Stands to reason.
02:27Okay, so when we finally see Barney's doppelganger, that's the universe telling us it's go time.
02:32Still, the fact that it follows a concept that Friends pulled off a decade prior is a little fishy, if you ask us.
02:38Wow! It is like looking into a poorly dressed mirror.
02:44Number 18. Rachel and Robin Can't Cook.
02:47In the sitcom world, a narrative shorthand for a career woman is to portray her as having zero cooking skills.
02:53So, if I mess this up, there's nothing else for dessert?
02:57You're not gonna mess it up.
02:59Wow, Monica, I love that. You really have faith in me. Thank you.
03:03Technical question. How do you know when the butter is done?
03:06Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.
03:09At least that's what they tell us on Friends and How I Met Your Mother.
03:12Rachel's incompetence is a running gag, with a whole episode dedicated to her disastrous English meat trifle.
03:18How I Met Your Mother took its own stab at this, as Robin burns her entire dinner down by confusing Fahrenheit with Celsius.
03:25I thought the oven was Celsius.
03:27It's okay. We got hot dogs.
03:30Yeah, it felt like you could screw up a hot dog.
03:34Oh, God.
03:36This is so good.
03:38I'm gonna finish it in the bathroom.
03:40The show goes further in the final season, when Robin can't even manage to prepare scrambled eggs.
03:45From the looks of it, Himya might have been trying to top Friends over who has the worst cook featured on their show.
03:51So which do you prefer? Burnt food or beef sautéed with peas and onions?
03:55The choice is yours.
03:56It tastes like feet.
04:01I like it.
04:04Number 17. The Naked Man.
04:07One of How I Met Your Mother's most iconic gags, The Naked Man had a whole episode to itself.
04:12Two out of three times.
04:14Two out of three times?
04:16Two out of three times.
04:17Just have to pick your spot.
04:19The Naked Man is best used as a last resort.
04:22Kind of a Hail Mary on a first date when you know there's not gonna be a second one.
04:26The name summarizes its entire setup.
04:28And its brilliance lies in its simplicity.
04:31With a success rate of two out of three times, it's a leap of faith with no safety net.
04:36But what if we told you Mitch wasn't the original Naked Man?
04:39That's right, that would be Friends' own Joey Tribbiani.
04:42So if the landlord ever asks, I'm an 87-year-old woman who's afraid of her VCR.
04:48You thirsty?
04:49Oh, you bet I am.
04:52As revealed in a flashback episode, Joey tried the exact move on Monica.
04:56And let's just say he landed firmly in the one out of three failure column.
05:00Much like the How I Met Your Mother gang tries over a decade later, Joey set the standard for taking one shot by leaving it all out there.
05:07Literally.
05:07I mean, someone asks you in for lemonade, and to you that means they want to have sex?
05:11Um, usually.
05:13Yeah.
05:13Well, not just lemonade.
05:15Iced tea, sometimes juice.
05:17Number 16.
05:18Friendship Love Triangle.
05:20Initially drawn to Ted and seeing Barney as a charming but non-serious womanizer,
05:25Robin slowly falls for the latter over time.
05:28Sound familiar?
05:28Maybe my head was saying, nip it in the bud, because my heart was saying something else.
05:37Look, I have feelings for you, Barney.
05:40That's because How I Met Your Mother basically ran with the template set by Friends.
05:44For most of Friends, Rachel considers Joey as her silly, fun friend who's good with women.
05:49I was going to wait until the end of the night to kiss you, but you're just so beautiful.
05:54I don't think I can.
05:58Oh my god.
06:01That was fantastic.
06:03I almost leaned in.
06:04I really almost did.
06:05Late in the show, the two develop an attraction that creates an awkward love triangle with Ross.
06:10Just as Joey matures because of his feelings for Rachel, Barney ditches his playbook for Robin.
06:16Of course, Rachel and Joey don't survive into Friends' last season,
06:19while Barney and Robin also crash and burn in Hymnum's finale,
06:23clearing the way for Ross and Ted to ultimately, quote, win their triangles.
06:40Number 15.
06:42Foreign Romantic Obstacles.
06:43This might sound oddly specific, but it's hard to ignore it once you notice it.
06:47Emily and Nora essentially serve the same function.
06:51Introduced during cooling-off periods between the main couples, Ross and Rachel and Barney and Robin,
06:56they exist mainly as temporary romantic roadblocks.
07:00Why do you care so much anyway?
07:02I don't care.
07:05You know what?
07:05I'm just upset that I'm getting nowhere with Joshua.
07:08You know what?
07:09Still, you do not just meet someone and go flooding off to Vermont.
07:12Ross' relationship with Emily forces Rachel to confront her unresolved feelings for him.
07:16While Robin realizes she's still in love with Barney when he starts dating Nora.
07:21Framed as attractive foreign outsiders with, quote, nice girl personas,
07:25Emily and Nora are eventually jilted by Ross and Barney.
07:29You will always be...
07:30Was this a one-time thing?
07:35Can you tell me it didn't mean anything?
07:40No.
07:40And in another familiar twist, their pursuit of Rachel and Robin is derailed once again anyway.
07:46Considering How I Met Your Mother even made Nora British just like Emily,
07:50the similarities are certainly uncanny.
07:53We are pitiful.
07:54The worst.
07:56Although, there is one difference between you and me.
07:58What's that?
07:59I'm not saying any of this to get in your pants.
08:01Even if you've been skeptical so far, this similarity is too hard to brush off.
08:11I just want to be married again.
08:18And I just want a million dollars.
08:22After all, how many sitcoms based on a friend group have this many wedding day disasters?
08:27Friends kicks off with Rachel fleeing her wedding,
08:29and the chaos continues with Emily bailing after the ceremony,
08:33while Chandler bolts before his.
08:35How did you guys find me?
08:36I knew I should have hid at the gym.
08:40What the hell are you doing?
08:42Panicking.
08:43And using the internet to try to prove that I'm related to Monica.
08:46How I Met Your Mother made this a habit of its own,
08:49with everyone from Stella, Victoria, Klaus, Barney, and Robin
08:53all having their own wedding day crash-outs.
08:55Because you were sprinting from a church in a wedding dress.
08:58And as a kid, I was a bit of a detective.
09:04To be honest, I'm wondering if this whole getting married thing is something I can go through with.
09:11Just like Friends, these happen due to a combination of cold feet
09:14or last-minute realizations that they don't love the person they're marrying.
09:18The only difference?
09:19While Friends keeps this relatively grounded,
09:22Himyum turns it into a chaotic comedy of errors.
09:25It means the thing that is almost the thing that you want.
09:33But it's not quite.
09:35Death is Victoria to me.
09:37Number 13.
09:38Ross and Ted dating college students.
09:40The nice guy trope hasn't exactly aged well with today's audience.
09:44Among the most criticized elements of Friends and How I Met Your Mother
09:47is their designated nice guys dating one of their college students.
09:50You know what? Forget it.
09:52I see you already gave me an A.
09:55Gotcha.
09:57I'm kidding!
09:58Oh.
10:00So seriously, what time?
10:02Ted may have been taking a page out of Ross' playbook here,
10:05initiating a secret relationship despite university rules forbidding it.
10:10Despite warnings from colleagues and friends,
10:12both men are all too willing to ignore the obvious power imbalance.
10:16Actually, Ted, she has a point.
10:18Yeah, and think about it.
10:19If the rules are that strict, you could be putting your job in jeopardy.
10:23I think you gotta let this one go, buddy.
10:26As expected, each romance is doomed when the nice guy loses interest,
10:30with Ross and Ted convincing themselves they did nothing wrong.
10:33But although Ross at least seems to take the hint,
10:36Ted repeats the same mistake with another college student,
10:39none other than Barney's half-sister.
10:41Hi, don't try to make this okay.
10:43You still slept with my sister.
10:44Promise me you will never, ever do that again.
10:48I promise.
10:50I just winked.
10:51No, I didn't.
10:53Number 12. Flashbacks.
10:55As the series goes on, we get more flashbacks with the Friends gang
10:59before they become a group of six.
11:01Most of these take us to their college days,
11:03with Chandler, Ross, Rachel, and Monica sporting hilariously bad hairdos
11:07to reflect the time period.
11:09Chandler, um, if you want, I can make you some macaroni and cheese for dinner.
11:13Well, as long as the Pilgrims didn't eat it, then I'm in.
11:16Ah!
11:20Damn it!
11:22These moments serve to highlight just how awkward and out of touch they once were.
11:26So how does Himyum flesh out its backstory?
11:29You guessed it, with college flashbacks.
11:31So, uh, do you have a girlfriend?
11:35Yeah.
11:36Not sure about the whole long-distance thing, though.
11:39It's like Descartes says,
11:40in order to determine whether there's anything we can know with certainty,
11:44we first have to doubt everything we know.
11:47You know?
11:47Eerily like Friends,
11:49Lily, Marshall, and Ted also get their own hijinks,
11:52with weird hairstyles and exaggerated personalities to boot.
11:55Drawing inspiration is one thing,
11:57but did Himyum really have to go all in with the same aesthetic?
12:01Maybe they hoped we wouldn't notice.
12:05You're not the dean.
12:10College, good time.
12:11Whenever an attractive single mother of the group enters the picture,
12:17you know things are about to get awkward.
12:20I know you're still mad at me,
12:21I just want to say that there were two people there that night, okay?
12:24There were two sets of lips.
12:25Yes, well, I expect this from her, okay?
12:27She's always been a Freudian nightmare.
12:29That's exactly what happens with Ross and Nora Bing
12:32when Chandler's best friend ends up locking lips with his mom.
12:35Although he's called out for this,
12:36it's clear that Ross' attraction isn't just an inebriated accident.
12:40How I Met Your Mother mirrors this approach with Barney,
12:43who's very open about his interest in Ted's mom.
12:46As you know, I've always been very, very fond of your mother.
12:51Please don't.
12:52In fact, Virginia and I shared a special moment back in 2006 BC, before Clint.
13:00As it goes with Ross and Nora,
13:02Barney and Virginia Mosby share a steamy moment
13:04where they're inexplicably drawn to each other.
13:07And just as Chandler is understandably horrified,
13:09Ted is far from happy either,
13:11even asking Barney before his wedding
13:13to make sure nothing more ever happened.
13:16It's so hard to know where to begin.
13:17I mean, there's so many...
13:18What did you do to my mom?
13:21Well, that night we were in my car.
13:24I was wrong.
13:24I can't handle this.
13:26Just tell me in baseball terms.
13:28I got thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.
13:31I can live with that.
13:36Number 10.
13:37McCentral Perk
13:38In both How I Met Your Mother and Friends,
13:40the group have a usual place where they hang out all the time.
13:44That girl totally winked at me.
13:45Did not wink at me.
13:47I was winking at you.
13:55Huh.
13:57The How I Met Your Mother gang have McLaren's Pub,
13:59and the Friends have Central Perk.
14:02Admittedly, many sitcoms have a hangout spot
14:04that the main characters frequent.
14:06But it seems like an awfully big coincidence
14:08that both the Friends and the How I Met Your Mother gang
14:10live right upstairs from their local hangout.
14:12And we toast the incredible, life-changing year we've all had.
14:16Get out of our booth.
14:19Also, it's been revealed in a flashback episode
14:22that Central Perk used to be a bar
14:24before it was a coffee shop.
14:26Chris says they're closing down the bar.
14:28No way.
14:29Apparently they're turning it into some kind of coffee place.
14:32Just coffee?
14:34Where are we going to hang out now?
14:36Not me.
14:37Number 9.
14:38The Outsider
14:39With such a tight-knit group of friends,
14:41it can be hard for anyone else to break into the fold.
14:45Poor Gunther always seems to be on the outside looking in,
14:48never actually quite part of the gang.
14:50Gunther, six glasses.
14:52Six?
14:53You want me to join?
14:54Oh, I thought Joey was here.
14:55Five is good.
14:57Perhaps he and Carl the bartender
14:59should go out for a drink,
15:01or a cup of coffee,
15:02and make a gang of their own.
15:04In Friends,
15:05Gunther works at Central Perk,
15:07and constantly serves the Friends,
15:09listening in on their adventures.
15:10But he's always a bit of an outsider.
15:13I love Rachel.
15:17I wish she was my wife.
15:20Similarly in How I Met Your Mother,
15:22Carl the bartender appears when necessary,
15:25but is never one of the gang.
15:27Hey, on the house.
15:28Whoa.
15:30That's my own concoction.
15:31I call it the red dragon.
15:32Wow.
15:33Thanks, Carl.
15:34That's really sweet.
15:35Number 8.
15:36Chandler and Marshall are not photogenic.
15:38Chandler, what is the matter with your face?
15:42Wait, this picture is supposed to say
15:44Gellar and Bing to be married,
15:45not local woman saves drowning moron.
15:49Some of the entries on this list
15:50might be pure coincidences,
15:52but this one seems a little too specific
15:54to be by accident.
15:56It's more than just the fact
15:57that both Chandler and Marshall
15:59are terrible at taking pictures.
16:01While Joey and Barney are great at it,
16:03in both shows,
16:04there are entire episodes
16:06with stories about it.
16:07In Friends,
16:08the episode focuses on Chandler
16:10not being able to take a good picture,
16:12and only makes a brief mention
16:14of Joey having the secret
16:15to taking a great headshot.
16:17In the How I Met Your Mother episode,
16:19Barney is incapable of taking a bad picture,
16:22and briefly makes fun of Marshall
16:23for always taking terrible ones.
16:25I always look, drop, dead, stone, cold amazing.
16:29Unlike Marshall,
16:30who just looks dead, stoned, and cold.
16:35If you're a fan of How I Met Your Mother,
16:37you probably get even more teary-eyed
16:40than Barney does
16:40when he officiates Marshall and Lily's wedding.
16:43Lily and Marshall,
16:46when everyone sees you,
16:47they see true love.
16:53It's the best love.
16:55But if that scene feels familiar,
16:58it's probably because Friends got there first.
17:01When Monica and Chandler get married,
17:03Joey gets ordained
17:04and officiates their wedding.
17:06In How I Met Your Mother,
17:07Marshall and Lily's wedding
17:08occurs much more spontaneously,
17:10and Barney just happens to be ordained already
17:13for his own personal reasons.
17:15Meanwhile in Friends,
17:16Joey goes through a journey
17:18to become Monica and Chandler's
17:19perfect officiate.
17:21I can take it from here.
17:22Thanks.
17:23Still, we deem this one
17:24a close enough call
17:25for a spot on this list.
17:28We too can share
17:29and love
17:31and have
17:32and receive.
17:36Number 6.
17:37No one knows
17:38what Chandler or Barney do for a living.
17:40It's a long-running joke
17:42in both Friends
17:42and How I Met Your Mother
17:43that Chandler and Barney's jobs
17:45are a mystery.
17:47What is Chandler Bing's job?
17:48They're both businessmen of some sort
17:50who wear suits to work,
17:52but none of their friends
17:53know exactly what they do.
17:54It has something to do with transponding.
17:57Oh, oh, oh, he's a transponster!
18:00Ironically, it isn't until Chandler
18:02finally works up the courage
18:03to start a new career
18:04that Monica reveals
18:05what his old job was.
18:07No, I want you to have a job
18:08that you love.
18:10Not statistical analysis
18:11and data reconfiguration.
18:13I quit
18:14and you learn what I do?
18:17As for Barney,
18:18whenever he is asked
18:19what he does for a living,
18:20he simply responds,
18:22please.
18:23While that might seem ambiguous,
18:24Barney was actually spelling out
18:26his job the entire time.
18:28Great!
18:29What do I do?
18:30Please.
18:32Provide legal exculpation
18:34and sign everything.
18:35Just show up every day,
18:36scribble your name
18:37in a bunch of documents
18:38and we'll pay you
18:3816 crap loads a year.
18:40Number 5.
18:41Pilot.
18:41Rachel?
18:43Oh God, Monica,
18:44hi!
18:44Thank God!
18:45This one is
18:46a little bit of a stretch,
18:48but along with introducing
18:49all the main characters
18:50and establishing
18:51the tone and character
18:52dynamics of the show,
18:54like most pilots do,
18:55each of the pilots
18:56of these two shows
18:57also serves the purpose
18:58of introducing
18:59a new character
19:00to an already established
19:01friend group.
19:02Hi, have you met Ted?
19:06Hi.
19:08Let me guess.
19:09Ted.
19:10In the Friends pilot,
19:11Rachel stumbles
19:12into Central Park
19:13looking for her old friend
19:14Monica
19:15after running out
19:16on her wedding.
19:17What if I don't want
19:18to be a shoe?
19:19What if I want to be a
19:20purse?
19:21You know,
19:21or a hat?
19:23In How I Met Your Mother,
19:25Robin happens to be
19:26in McLaren's
19:26when Ted turns around
19:27and locks eyes with her,
19:29right after deciding
19:30he's ready to get married.
19:32Okay,
19:32I'm ready.
19:34Where is she?
19:35Ann Dudek was dumped
19:41on both shows
19:42on her birthday.
19:43Talk about bad luck.
19:45In Friends,
19:46Ann Dudek plays a character
19:47named Precious,
19:48who was Mike's girlfriend
19:50when he went to Barbados
19:51to propose to Phoebe.
19:52When the couple gets back,
19:54Precious is waiting
19:55for Mike in his apartment
19:56and gets dumped,
19:57as it turns out,
19:58on her birthday.
19:59He proposed to you?
20:02This is the worst
20:03birthday ever.
20:06On How I Met Your Mother,
20:07Dudek plays Natalie,
20:09a woman Ted dated
20:10and broke up with
20:11via answering machine message
20:12on her birthday.
20:13I thought the mature
20:14thing to do would be...
20:15It's my birthday!
20:16Yes, I know.
20:17I didn't realize that it was...
20:17It's my birthday
20:18and you're telling me
20:19I'm not the one for you?
20:21It's really not
20:22such a big deal.
20:23Three years later,
20:24Ted asks her out again
20:25and breaks up with her
20:26yet again
20:27on her birthday.
20:29Number three,
20:30friendship.
20:31One of the most obvious
20:33similarities between
20:33these two hit shows
20:34are the character dynamics.
20:36Good afternoon, sir.
20:38I'm Marshall Erickson.
20:40Sir?
20:41Oh, please.
20:42Just call me Ted.
20:43Characters from
20:43How I Met Your Mother
20:44share certain parallel
20:45archetypes with characters
20:47from friends,
20:48but more on that later.
20:49The characters that fall
20:50into the same archetypes
20:52across both shows
20:52develop the same friendships.
20:54You know,
20:55I've known Chandler longer,
20:57so I always think of him
20:58as my best friend,
20:59but now...
21:00I may have to rethink
21:03some stuff.
21:04Lily and Robin
21:05are similar to
21:06Monica and Rachel,
21:07whereas Ted and Marshall,
21:09the roommates from college
21:10who are still best friends,
21:11are basically
21:12Ross and Chandler,
21:13who share the same backstory,
21:15and Joey and Barney
21:16are the third best friend
21:17of the guys.
21:18Ted,
21:19why don't you just
21:20talk to him?
21:20He's your best friend.
21:21I think...
21:22Let's get back to those
21:26character archetypes.
21:28The main characters
21:29of both shows
21:30fill certain specific roles.
21:32It's a never-ending battle
21:33of my life.
21:33Career versus romance.
21:36Never-ending battle?
21:38Career's been trouncing
21:39romance for years.
21:40Ross and Ted
21:41are nerdy,
21:42know-it-all romantic types.
21:44Chandler and Marshall
21:45are goofy,
21:46lovable types.
21:47Rachel and Robin
21:48are career women
21:49who the nerdy guy
21:49falls for.
21:50Monica and Lily
21:51are motherly types
21:52who take care
21:53of the rest of the group.
21:55Joey and Barney
21:56are players.
21:56And you know
21:57Monica and Ross?
21:58And that's Phoebe
21:59and that's Joey?
22:01Hey, how you doing?
22:02Don't you?
22:03Phoebe is the wild card.
22:05Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
22:08What, you don't, uh,
22:10you don't believe
22:10in evolution?
22:11Nah, not really.
22:15You don't believe
22:16in evolution?
22:17But the similarities
22:17go on.
22:19Ross and Ted
22:19both become professors.
22:21Rachel and Robin
22:21both sacrifice relationships
22:23for their careers.
22:24And Monica and Lily
22:25both manipulate
22:26the rest of the group.
22:27She was just using you
22:29to get back at her ex
22:30and you clearly
22:31didn't see it, so...
22:32Before we continue,
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22:47Number 1.
22:49Relationships.
22:50Of course, you idiot!
22:53Speaking of those
22:54character archetypes,
22:55not only do they develop
22:56the same friendships,
22:57but they also develop
22:59the same relationships.
23:00You know,
23:01you probably didn't know this,
23:01but back in high school,
23:03I had a, um,
23:04major crush on you.
23:07I knew.
23:08Ted and Robin meet
23:09in the first episode,
23:10date for a while,
23:12and ultimately end up together
23:13in the series finale.
23:14Likewise,
23:16Ross and Rachel reconnect
23:17in the pilot,
23:18date for a while,
23:19and ultimately end up together
23:20in the series finale.
23:22That comparison
23:23is the most similar,
23:24but Lily and Marshall
23:25are also like Monica
23:26and Chandler,
23:27and even Barney and Robin
23:28bear some similarities
23:30to Joey and Rachel.
23:31I love you.
23:32Let's be friends.
23:33Okay, friends then.
23:34I love you.
23:34Let's get married.
23:35No, you're smothering me.
23:36Okay, forget it.
23:37Ah!
23:38Ah!
23:38Which moment made you think
23:42How I Met Your Mother
23:43peeked into Friends' playbook?
23:45Drop a legendary opinion
23:46in the comments.
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