1. The Pineapple Incident
Finally, my pick for the best, most legendary episode of How I Met Your Mother is the most open-ended of all episodes: “The Pineapple Incident.”
Ted’s the epitome of an over-thinker. He has every aspect of his life planned out, and over the seasons a lot of his internal turmoil came from his plan not playing out as he imagined it. He’s been that way since the start of season one, but in this episode, Barney insists that he turns his brain off. Five shots later, Ted stops thinking, starts doing, and almost instantly blacks out.
Instead of showing the events of the night as Ted experienced them, he has to find out what transpired through a series of stories from his friends who all saw different parts of the night. The main goal is to figure out who the brunette in his bed is, but there’s also the mystery of what happened to his ankle and why there is a perfect pineapple on his nightstand. Like many romantics who get drunk, Ted spends most of the night wanting to call Robin, but it’s the other things he does that lead to the most laughs. Between singing Cheap Trick and asking Carl if he’s a vampire, there are plenty of memorable moments here.
“The Pineapple Incident” is clearly the premier episode of season 1. It’s got everything I love from How I Met Your Mother and without a doubt it is my all-time favorite episode of the series.
Tell us, what do you think of our list? Are there any episode that you would’ve rather seen in the top 10? Head on down to the comments section to share your thoughts on your favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother.