15 Dark Fan Theories About 'How I Met Your Mother'

From Redditor u/Scholer833:

In HIMYM, Barney Stinson is this womanizer who wears suits every single day. But, in season 5 ,episode 12 "Girls vs. Suits," a girl he wants to hook up with (specifically the bartender of their favorite bar) refuses to go on a date with him because he is wearing a suit. She puts her aversion of suit wearers to the fact that she dated Wall Streets guys (people known for wearing suits AND using cocaïne) before and that they weren’t good boyfriends. Barney then proceeds to stop wearing suits and it shows (sweating, ticks...etc) symptoms usually associated to withdrawal. He reveals in the next scene that he hid a suit in the Bar’s bathroom and goes in it to wear his suit for "a minute " and then comes back to the table feeling better.

People who are familiar with the show know that sometimes the characters smoke weed. But since the show is told from the point of view of a father talking to his children’s, they use the placeholder word "sandwich" when they talk about marijuana.

It would then be logical to give another name to all other drugs that would pop up in Ted’s story. Especially a dangerous drug like coke.

Sandwich = weed

Suits = coke??

From Redditor u/RyanIGuess98:

I’ve been rewatching HIMYM again and I’m realizing that Robin is a sociopath.

First off, she’s able to tell a lie without feeling guilt. This is seen in the episode where she lies to Ted (her boyfriend at the time) about being married when in fact she was testing his secret keeping ability. She doesn’t flinch when he asks her question after question. Now I realize this maybe forgivable since it was a very secret and personal part of her life but that’s not the case in season three when she sleeps with Barney. She makes it very clear to Barney that they never slept with each other after they get out of bed. Barney goes through stages of guilt but whenever the show gives a clear jab at their secret, Robin is cool, calm and collected while Barney is shook.

Second, she is very arrogant. This is shown a couple of times early on in the show whenever the group goes through something and they talk about how the group wound up somewhere else than they planned on , Robin always leads on that she A) Hasn’t faced disappointment and B) She got her dream job. She doesn’t ever seem to get shook by empathy of other people in their group.

From Redditor u/Theluckygal:

As predicted by Ted, Heather Mosby flaked out & did not stay in New York for too long. That's why we never see her again on the show. She has either moved out of the country or in jail for shoplifting/criminal activity. Heather wanted to work in finance so she got involved in embezzlement, money laundering crime at her job. When co-signing the lease, Ted tells her that he wants to get to know her better as he thinks she has changed but he never mentions her again to his kids & she is not a part of his life at all.

From Redditor u/KyoryuRed:

We know that Barney is a pathological liar, and we know that Barney is rarely as sleazy as he seems. Based on this, I find it easy to believe that the concept of “Number 31” is perhaps not what we think it is. Based on the fact he managed to sleep with hundreds of women and not have any children, I think that Barney was also infertile. But, when they were in the hotel room in Argentina and he saw Robin holding that baby, Barney knew that it wasn’t going to work out between he and Robin. 

So when Robin asked him if he wanted out, he knew that for either of them to be happy, he had to take it.

At that point, Barney devised a plan. Being the liar he is and always wanted to remain “cool” in front of his friends, he kept in a secret. Every night he would pretend to go out and sleep with girls, when really, he was going back to his apartment and researching adoption agencies. Several times he was matched with a pregnant woman who he thought was willing to let him adopt their baby, and every time it fell through. That was until lucky “number 31” came along.

Once everything had been finalized, he came up with the ridiculous story of the second playbook and the accidental pregnancy to remain “cool” among his friends. 

From Redditor u/Domyfranky:

In the episode 9x09 "Platonish." In that episode, we see the first meeting between Barney and Tracy. According to Ted's story, Barney tries to seduce her, but she immediately rejects him,and in a few seconds she seems to perfectly get what is his real problem. They talk for a while, sitting on a bench, and then Barney gets the idea for "The Robin," and she leaves. Now, I've always found it very weird that Tracy understood in such a short time everything about Barney. So, I think that in reality, Barney actually managed to seduce Tracy that night, and they slept together.  

Tracy looked at some pictures of Barney and Robin together, and only at that point she understood Barney's feelings for Robin. Before she left his home, she gave him the idea for "The Robin" and we know the rest. A few months later, at the wedding party, we see Tracy a little embarassed when she meets Barney. I think at that point both her and Barney silently agreed to never tell anyone about what really happened between them, because it would have been too embarassing.

 So they "censored" the story with the "I understood everything about Barney in a few seconds" version, and Ted told this version to the kids because this is the only version he knows.

From Redditor u/Noahdg83:

Robin is abusive towards children?

The entire show is told from the point of view of Ted as he attempts to convince his kids it's a good idea for him to date Robin. If Robin isn't deeply flawed in some way, convincing his kids wouldn't be that hard!

While she doesn't drink or do drugs more than the other central characters, though it's possible one or more does have alcoholism issues that Ted chooses to gloss over.

She's shown getting violently angry more often than any other central character. This is treated as something funny and playful by Ted... but it might be less fun to someone physically weaker than she is.

She is explicitly said to hate children and at the same time regret her own infertility, and these sorts of conflicting emotions are more likely to lead to drama than simple hatred (or love).