Drinking to How I Met Your Mother

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

So this one really took some trial and error. Three of us worked on it, and our original ideas ended up being hit-or-miss, given the fact that there are a lot of only-appears-for-a-season ideas, and even more that are character-specific, and we wanted a somewhat well-rounded list (so for those who hate Lily, there weren't too many for her, etc.). Here's what we came up with in the end, after testing them out for a bit. I should warn you, you may want to only play some of these rules if you don't feel like really drinking. We decided that, since MacLaren's is a major setting, the gang would drink a lot if they were playing, LoL.

- whenever Barney says “legen-dairy” or some variant
- whenever we hear “suit up” or something similar
- whenever Barney gets laid
- whenever Barney mentions his blog
- whenever Barney calls himself Ted's best friend
- whenever Barney dresses up or concocts a scheme to get laid
- whenever Barney says “awesome” - whenever Ted messes with his hair
- whenever Ted talks about marriage or “the one” or says "mother"
- whenever there's a voiceover (aka Bob Saget is talking)
- whenever Robin does a newscast
- whenever there’s a mention of Canada or something Canadian
- whenever Robin says “literally”
- whenever Lily talks about little kids / her class
- whenever Lily says “son of a bitch”
- whenever Lily tells a secret - whenever Lily is meddling (two drinks if it’s for evil)
- whenever Lily or Marshall use a pet name for the other person
- whenever Marshall is exceptionally nice to a stranger
- whenever we see Ranjeet
- whenever there’s a high-five or fist bump
- whenever they flashback within an episode
- whenever there’s a rule, law, or principle
- whenever we hear about a long-standing tradition
- whenever someone is singing (two drinks if it's NOT Marshall)
- whenever there’s a telepathic conversation (two drinks if there's a misunderstanding)
- whenever a challenge is extended or accepted
- whenever we hear a pick-up line (two drinks if it starts "have you met...")
- whenever we see the pineapple or the goat
- whenever we get a real clue about the mother (like the yellow umbrella)
- and, of course, you can utilize the drinking-game-within-the-show of whenever Robin says "but, um"

happy drinking!