How I Met Your Mother Superfan Calculated The Sitcom's Staggering Waste Of Alcohol
"How I Met Your Mother" ran for nine seasons, telling the story of how Ted (Josh Radnor) met the mother of his two children. The show digs into his tales without revealing who the mom actually is until the end of the eighth season, and while the conclusion was controversial enough to make it onto our list of worst series finales ever, it's hard to deny the series' enduring influence. Like most sitcoms, "Mother" focuses on a handful of primary locations, one of which is MacLaren's Pub.
This Irish bar is situated in the middle of New York City and beneath Ted and Marshall's (Jason Segel) apartment. As you might imagine, even if you haven't seen the show, there's a lot of alcohol spotted throughout its run. Often, the characters are seen sitting in their favorite booth, nursing a beer or cocktail. There's even a comically large bottle of champagne that might have once had a fish in it. It's not an exaggeration to say that alcohol plays a large part in the show itself.
Most "Mother" fans are generally aware of this, but only one fan sat down and watched all 208 episodes, looking to see exactly how much alcohol was wasted. It turns out that a lot of bottles of beer and unfinished drinks are left on the table, and it took a dedicated Redditor to math it out. Not only did they crunch every relevant number in their post, but they put together a pie chart showing the exact percentages of wasted alcohol, with color-coding to attribute each percentage to a character. The numbers prove that "How I Met Your Mother" wasted over $4,200, across 285 abandoned drinks.
How did they waste that much alcohol on How I Met Your Mother?
The timeline of "How I Met Your Mother" spans decades. Much of the story takes place in and around bars, so it makes sense that a bunch of alcohol gets tossed around. It's probably not something you notice, but once someone points it out, those wasted drinks are easy to see. Whenever a character runs from the bar (which happens a lot), they leave their drink behind. Looking back, it's logical that the cost would rise so high.
According to Redditor HIMYM-Abandoned, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, who transformed the role from boisterous to lovingly boorish) wasted the most at 29.4% of the total cost. That's 68 drinks at a value of nearly $1,100. Right behind him is Ted, who typically drinks beer ... when he's not leaving 51 bottles behind. The numbers show that a total of 40 characters ordered and abandoned drinks for 21 different reasons, mostly due to those abrupt exits. In one remarkable notation, one bottle gets busted with a sword. All told, 285 drinks, or 10.83 gallons, amounting to $4,266.64 in estimated costs, were left unfinished or untouched. To cork it off, Season 4 is the most wasteful.
Still, Season 9 isn't far behind, as three bottles of 30-year Glen McKenna scotch, totaling $1,800, were shattered. For the most part, alcohol is just something the characters hold in their hands to look busy. Still, there are episodes specifically about alcohol and the gang's favorite drinks. This makes it interesting to look back to see just how much was wasted. The good news is that every one of those drinks is fake, with those valuable bottles filled with fluid dyed to resemble the appropriate liquor. No fun allowed when filming network television.