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How I Met Your Mother Trivia Quiz
How I Met Your Mother is told by Ted Mosby years in the future as he recounts to his kids the long, winding story of how he met their mother. It follows Ted and his New York friends — engaged couple Marshall and Lily, news anchor Robin, and the suit-obsessed, scheming Barney — who practically live at the bar MacLaren's.
Q1. Who provides the voice of future Ted, telling the story in 2030?
Answer: Bob Saget. Saget narrates, uncredited, as Ted tells his children Luke and Penny how he met their mother. The frame story lets the show replay events from different points of view and swap in euphemisms, such as "sandwiches" for marijuana, for things Ted does not want to tell his kids.
Q2. What colour is the umbrella that links Ted to the Mother?
Answer: Yellow. Ted picks up the umbrella at a club after a St. Patrick's Day party where his future wife also was, though they did not meet. When the Mother is finally shown at the end of season eight, she is holding her yellow umbrella while buying a train ticket to the wedding.
Q3. What was Robin's name as a Canadian teen pop star?
Answer: Robin Sparkles. The secret comes out in season two's "Slap Bet", when Barney thinks Robin made adult films and Marshall thinks she is married. The video reveals "Let's Go to the Mall", and later episodes uncover "Sandcastles in the Sand" and her darker post-pop song "P.S. I Love You".
Q4. What is the Mother's full name, revealed in the series finale?
Answer: Tracy McConnell. Her first name is actually mentioned at the end of episode nine of season one, but her surname only arrives in the finale. Cristin Milioti plays her, first appearing in the season eight finale, which is unusually late for the person a show's title is about.
Q5. Which middle name does Barney give Marshall and Lily's son?
Answer: Waitforit. Lily goes into labour while Marshall and Barney are drunk in Atlantic City. Barney gets Marshall to the hospital in time and chooses the middle name, making the baby Marvin Waitforit Eriksen, a nod to Barney's famous "legen... wait for it... dary".
Q6. Who directed 196 of the show's 208 episodes?
Answer: Pamela Fryman. Fryman directed almost the whole series. The rest were split between Rob Greenberg with seven episodes, Michael Shea with four and Neil Patrick Harris with one. The show was created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, loosely based on their own friendship in New York.
Q7. What does the name of Marshall and Lily's "Dowisetrepla" neighbourhood really stand for?
Answer: Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant. In season three Marshall and Lily finally get their dream apartment despite Lily's bad credit from compulsive designer shopping. Then they discover the location, the tilted floor and, supposedly, ghosts.
Q8. Who does Barney believe is his father for most of the series?
Answer: Bob Barker. Barney's mother lied to him, so he goes on The Price Is Right to meet his "father", wins every prize and gives them to Marshall and Lily as an early wedding present. In season six he admits it is not true and meets his real father, Jerry, played by John Lithgow.
Q9. Where did the pineapple in "The Pineapple Incident" come from?
Answer: The Captain's front door. The season one mystery was never solved on air, and the gang ate the pineapple. After the series ended, extra footage showed that the Captain, Kyle MacLachlan's character from season six, puts a pineapple by his door as a naval tradition, and a drunk Ted took it.
Q10. Which pop star played Abby, the receptionist who sabotages Barney?
Answer: Britney Spears. Abby works for Stella, the dermatologist who removes Ted's butterfly tattoo. She has a vendetta against Barney because he never called her after they slept together. Enrique Iglesias also guest-starred that season as Robin's boyfriend Gael.
Q11. The theme is a 12-second clip from which song?
Answer: "Hey, Beautiful" by The Solids. The Solids is a band that includes creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, who were heavily involved in choosing the show's music. Original character songs like Robin Sparkles' tracks and Barney's "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" ended up on two soundtrack albums, How I Met Your Music volumes one and two.
Q12. Most of season nine takes place in how much time before Barney and Robin's wedding?
Answer: 56 hours. Apart from the 200th episode and the finale, the whole season covers the 56 hours leading up to the wedding in Farhampton, while Marshall tries to get there from Minnesota. The 200th episode instead tells the Mother's story over the eight years before she meets Ted.
Q13. Before the finale, which episode had the show's biggest audience?
Answer: The Pineapple Incident. The season one episode drew 12.3 million viewers. Only the finale, "Last Forever", beat it with 13.13 million. The least-watched episode was season six's "Landmarks" with 6.4 million, and season nine was the most-watched season overall.
Q14. What does Ted call his own architecture firm in season four?
Answer: Mosbius Designs. Ted starts the company after GNB suspends its headquarters project and he is laid off, but he is too afraid of failing to call any clients. It leads him to accept the Columbia teaching job offered by Tony, the man Stella left him for.
Q15. What is the film Tony writes about his romance with Stella, casting Ted as the villain?
Answer: The Wedding Bride. Stella left Ted at the altar in season four to go back to Tony, the father of her daughter. In season five Ted discovers Tony's hit movie retells the story with Tony as the hero, and he sees it by accident while on a date with another woman.
Q16. Which actress was cast as the lead of the unaired spin-off How I Met Your Dad?
Answer: Greta Gerwig. CBS passed on the pilot in May 2014 because Bays and Thomas did not want to reshoot it. Meg Ryan was to voice the lead's future self. A later version, How I Met Your Father, did reach Hulu in 2022 with Hilary Duff, but it was cancelled after two seasons.
Q17. Where was the alternative ending, without Ted and Robin's final scene, released?
Answer: On the season nine DVD. After fan backlash to the finale, an alternative cut has future Ted narrate over his meeting with Tracy at the train station and end on "and that, kids, is how I met your mother", dropping the scene with Penny, Luke and the blue French horn.
Q18. Which famously bad film do Ted and Stella watch during their "two-minute date"?
Answer: Manos: The Hands of Fate. Ted squeezes small talk, dinner, a movie, coffee, two cab rides and a goodnight kiss into two minutes. They meet because she is the dermatologist removing Ted's embarrassing butterfly tattoo.
Q19. Who plays Jerry Whittaker, Barney's real father?
Answer: John Lithgow. Barney had always thought Jerry was his uncle. He remembers him as a fun-loving man and is disappointed to find he has settled down. Wayne Brady plays Barney's half-brother James, Chris Elliott plays Lily's father Mickey and Kyle MacLachlan plays the Captain.
Q20. According to Barney, who wrote the Bro Code?
Answer: Barnabus Stinson. Barney claims the rules were written by Barnabus Stinson, a contemporary of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The Bro Code became a real tie-in book, audiobook and app, followed by Bro on the Go and Bro Code for Parents, and its rules appeared on vanity cards in syndication.
How I Met Your Mother quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
Who provides the voice of future Ted, telling the story in 2030?
Answer: Bob Saget. Saget narrates, uncredited, as Ted tells his children Luke and Penny how he met their mother. The frame story lets the show replay events from different points of view and swap in euphemisms, such as "sandwiches" for marijuana, for things Ted does not want to tell his kids.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
What colour is the umbrella that links Ted to the Mother?
Answer: Yellow. Ted picks up the umbrella at a club after a St. Patrick's Day party where his future wife also was, though they did not meet. When the Mother is finally shown at the end of season eight, she is holding her yellow umbrella while buying a train ticket to the wedding.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
What was Robin's name as a Canadian teen pop star?
Answer: Robin Sparkles. The secret comes out in season two's "Slap Bet", when Barney thinks Robin made adult films and Marshall thinks she is married. The video reveals "Let's Go to the Mall", and later episodes uncover "Sandcastles in the Sand" and her darker post-pop song "P.S. I Love You".
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
What is the Mother's full name, revealed in the series finale?
Answer: Tracy McConnell. Her first name is actually mentioned at the end of episode nine of season one, but her surname only arrives in the finale. Cristin Milioti plays her, first appearing in the season eight finale, which is unusually late for the person a show's title is about.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Which middle name does Barney give Marshall and Lily's son?
Answer: Waitforit. Lily goes into labour while Marshall and Barney are drunk in Atlantic City. Barney gets Marshall to the hospital in time and chooses the middle name, making the baby Marvin Waitforit Eriksen, a nod to Barney's famous "legen... wait for it... dary".
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Who directed 196 of the show's 208 episodes?
Answer: Pamela Fryman. Fryman directed almost the whole series. The rest were split between Rob Greenberg with seven episodes, Michael Shea with four and Neil Patrick Harris with one. The show was created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, loosely based on their own friendship in New York.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
What does the name of Marshall and Lily's "Dowisetrepla" neighbourhood really stand for?
Answer: Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant. In season three Marshall and Lily finally get their dream apartment despite Lily's bad credit from compulsive designer shopping. Then they discover the location, the tilted floor and, supposedly, ghosts.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Who does Barney believe is his father for most of the series?
Answer: Bob Barker. Barney's mother lied to him, so he goes on The Price Is Right to meet his "father", wins every prize and gives them to Marshall and Lily as an early wedding present. In season six he admits it is not true and meets his real father, Jerry, played by John Lithgow.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Where did the pineapple in "The Pineapple Incident" come from?
Answer: The Captain's front door. The season one mystery was never solved on air, and the gang ate the pineapple. After the series ended, extra footage showed that the Captain, Kyle MacLachlan's character from season six, puts a pineapple by his door as a naval tradition, and a drunk Ted took it.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Which pop star played Abby, the receptionist who sabotages Barney?
Answer: Britney Spears. Abby works for Stella, the dermatologist who removes Ted's butterfly tattoo. She has a vendetta against Barney because he never called her after they slept together. Enrique Iglesias also guest-starred that season as Robin's boyfriend Gael.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
The theme is a 12-second clip from which song?
Answer: "Hey, Beautiful" by The Solids. The Solids is a band that includes creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, who were heavily involved in choosing the show's music. Original character songs like Robin Sparkles' tracks and Barney's "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" ended up on two soundtrack albums, How I Met Your Music volumes one and two.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Most of season nine takes place in how much time before Barney and Robin's wedding?
Answer: 56 hours. Apart from the 200th episode and the finale, the whole season covers the 56 hours leading up to the wedding in Farhampton, while Marshall tries to get there from Minnesota. The 200th episode instead tells the Mother's story over the eight years before she meets Ted.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Before the finale, which episode had the show's biggest audience?
Answer: The Pineapple Incident. The season one episode drew 12.3 million viewers. Only the finale, "Last Forever", beat it with 13.13 million. The least-watched episode was season six's "Landmarks" with 6.4 million, and season nine was the most-watched season overall.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
What does Ted call his own architecture firm in season four?
Answer: Mosbius Designs. Ted starts the company after GNB suspends its headquarters project and he is laid off, but he is too afraid of failing to call any clients. It leads him to accept the Columbia teaching job offered by Tony, the man Stella left him for.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
What is the film Tony writes about his romance with Stella, casting Ted as the villain?
Answer: The Wedding Bride. Stella left Ted at the altar in season four to go back to Tony, the father of her daughter. In season five Ted discovers Tony's hit movie retells the story with Tony as the hero, and he sees it by accident while on a date with another woman.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Which actress was cast as the lead of the unaired spin-off How I Met Your Dad?
Answer: Greta Gerwig. CBS passed on the pilot in May 2014 because Bays and Thomas did not want to reshoot it. Meg Ryan was to voice the lead's future self. A later version, How I Met Your Father, did reach Hulu in 2022 with Hilary Duff, but it was cancelled after two seasons.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Where was the alternative ending, without Ted and Robin's final scene, released?
Answer: On the season nine DVD. After fan backlash to the finale, an alternative cut has future Ted narrate over his meeting with Tracy at the train station and end on "and that, kids, is how I met your mother", dropping the scene with Penny, Luke and the blue French horn.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Which famously bad film do Ted and Stella watch during their "two-minute date"?
Answer: Manos: The Hands of Fate. Ted squeezes small talk, dinner, a movie, coffee, two cab rides and a goodnight kiss into two minutes. They meet because she is the dermatologist removing Ted's embarrassing butterfly tattoo.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
Who plays Jerry Whittaker, Barney's real father?
Answer: John Lithgow. Barney had always thought Jerry was his uncle. He remembers him as a fun-loving man and is disappointed to find he has settled down. Wayne Brady plays Barney's half-brother James, Chris Elliott plays Lily's father Mickey and Kyle MacLachlan plays the Captain.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
-
According to Barney, who wrote the Bro Code?
Answer: Barnabus Stinson. Barney claims the rules were written by Barnabus Stinson, a contemporary of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The Bro Code became a real tie-in book, audiobook and app, followed by Bro on the Go and Bro Code for Parents, and its rules appeared on vanity cards in syndication.
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother by the numbers
- Seasons
- 9
- Episodes
- 208
- First aired
- 19 September 2005
- Last aired
- 31 March 2014
- Episodes directed by Pamela Fryman
- 196
- Finale viewers (US)
- 13.13 million
- Mother first shown
- Season 8 finale
- Year the story is told
- 2030
Source: Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother
About the How I Met Your Mother quiz
How I Met Your Mother was built around a mystery that took nine years to solve, and it planted running jokes and callbacks along the way: a yellow umbrella, a pineapple, a teen pop star past and a slap bet. The production has its own stories too, including a single director for almost every episode, a 12-second theme and an alternative ending. A good quiz tests both the long game and the background.
Questions cover all nine seasons — Ted's search for "the one," Barney's playbook and suits, Marshall and Lily, Robin, the bar MacLaren's, and catchphrases like "Legen — wait for it — dary."
What this How I Met Your Mother quiz covers
The quiz covers Ted's story from 2005 to the finale and the long wait for the Mother, but skips the stock questions. You get the running mysteries (the pineapple, Robin Sparkles, the slap bet), the people around the gang, from Barney's real father to Abby, and a final round on how the show was made: its director, its 12-second theme, its ratings records, the alternative ending and the spin-offs that came after. Each answer below explains the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
How I Met Your Mother quiz — frequently asked questions
Do I need to have seen the ending?
Yes, ideally. Several answers reveal the Mother's identity and details from the finale, so stop before the answer key if you have not finished it.
Is it mostly about Barney?
No. Barney has a few questions, but they are spread across the gang, the Mother, recurring characters and the crew.
Does it cover How I Met Your Father?
Only briefly, through a question on the unaired How I Met Your Dad pilot. The quiz focuses on the original series.