Misunderstood: 'How I Met Your Mother'

Sit-coms have been altered, and there is no longer a laugh track. Instead there is some awkward comedy and some hilarious moments, for example, Brooklyn 99 is legendary. We all love watching Friends over and over again, and seems no matter how many times I watch it, I am still laughing at the jokes. However, what if we are simply misinterpreting How I Met Your Mother. The story is told from the narrator's point of view, Ted Mosby, who is a helpless romantic living in New York city, finding the love of his life. All of his friends he has are all seen from his point of view. We might find the characters unrelatable at times. But maybe this is what the writers wanted? How so, you ask? Well, think about it, Barney is so unrealistically horny, and he wants to have no real relationship and just have sex. Much like Joey Tribiani from Friends, except the difference is that Barney takes all challenges, and basically has sex with anything or any woman that moves. Maybe this is just how Ted sees Barney, when realistically Barney is really just Joey Tribiani, but takes his game to the next level. Then, how perfect Marshal and Lily are—they are also probably not that perfect, again this is just how Ted Mosby sees them. Then, how perfect Robin is—she is always perfect in each and every episode, it feels like she has not once screwed up. Once again, this is all coming from Ted's perspective. It is not how the television wanted to show them. It was how Ted saw all of his friends. When he tells some of the stories, he sometimes has to go back and tell it again, or starts telling another story that is linked to another episode. That's what makes the show relatable. It is how Ted tells the stories, and how he sometimes can't remember certain aspects, so he just makes it up as he goes. Even Barney's apartment, his television was probably not the whole wall, but it was just really big, bigger than anyone has seen, however, Ted probably saw it as a whole wall television. The life-size stormtrooper could actually be real. It is just the characters that are romanticized to how Ted Mosby sees things. Since everything is told from his perspective, then all the characters and everything that happens is not from the audience's perspective, but from Ted Mosby's, and I think that is why some people do not find it relatable.

Well, that could be not the only reason why people find How I Met Your Mother unrelatable, it could be because of the comedy that is displayed in the show. It does not have a focus around the jokes, but rather the story and the situations that the characters find themselves in. For instance, the piles of Credit Cards that Lily is in debt with, or the fight that Barney and the dude from the other building have. Those might be a little over the top, but it could be shown that way, because it is called exaggeration. They want to exaggerate the situations and what happens, because that's what brings out the comedy.

However, there are certain relatable elements to the story. For example, Barney's job; every time someone asks about Barney's job, he just answers with a smile and an answer of "please" and that's it. I feel that we all have that one friend who we are unsure of what they do for a living, and sometimes they do explain it, but we cannot remember what they do. Look at all the characters jobs, even Lily as a teacher, she always has paint marks on her clothes, and when she and Marshall were thinking of names for their future baby, she would come home and reject every name that was in her kindergarten class. If we look at Marshall and his habit of singing everything that he does, I can relate to that, because it is a minor silly thing that I sometimes do too.

I think we have all made snap decisions about television shows. In my opinion, Friends is still far funnier, but the comedy is brought out in such a subtle and discreet way, yet obvious that it blows away some audience members who are big fans of what they see on their television screen.