Top 10 Similarities Between “Friends” and “How I Met Your Mother”

Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Jason Segel, Josh Radnor, and Cobie Smulders in "How I Met Your Mother"

If you like Friends, the chances are that you also like How I Met Your Mother and vice versa. Both sitcoms are fun to watch and considered to be comedy masterpieces. But their similarities don’t end there and go much deeper.

Just start from the main premise that includes a group of friends who have their favorite place to chill and go through numerous adventures together. Even some of the characters from the two sitcoms resemble one another. This is why we decided to bring you top 10 similarities between Friends and How I Met Your Mother, in case you didn’t notice them yourself.

Main Plot
Both shows feature similar main plots and lead characters falling for the new girl. Both Ted and Ross get rejected the first season.

Initial Love Interest of Female Characters
Lily was into Ted at first but eventually found Marshall. That started one of the cutest love stories in the show. Similar to Lily, Monica went looking for Joey but ended up with Chandler and thus a big love was born.

Mother and Grandmother
Christina Pickles features on both shows and her role is that of a parent. In Friends, she is the mother of Ross and Monica. In How I Met Your Mother, she is Lily’s grandmother.

Birthday Breakup
Anne Dudek stars in both shows and plays a girlfriend that was dumped on her birthday. In How I Met Your Mother, she plays Ted’s girlfriend Natalie and in Friends, she plays Precious, Mike’s girlfriend. Speaking of bad luck.

Joey, Barney, and Fries
Joey and Barney have so much in common. They are charming and charismatic womanizers who like to dress nicely. But one thing that ties them even more is that they both hate a person who ate their fries. For Barney, it is Gary Blauman and for Joey it is Sarah.

Dating Failures
Ross and Ted have similar dating records. Both dated students and both dated a girl who later became a lesbian.

Hiding Relationships
The two shows also have a habit of hiding relationships. In Friends, Chandler and Monica hid their relationship, while in How I Met Your Mother, it was Barney and Robin. Good job guys, it wasn’t obvious at all.

Bad Photos
Both shows feature a guy who is the least photogenic guy in the group. In Friends, it is Ross, in How I Met Your Mother, it is Marshall. Keep on trying boys.

Awful Nicknames
Ted and Ross have more similarities and one of them is an awful nickname which their friends do not approve at all. Ted goes by the name of T-Mose, while Ross is Ross-a-Tron.

Fake Allergies
Both Monica and Lily pretend to be allergic to something they don’t like. For Lily, it is barrel resin and Monica faked an allergy to chicken and duck. Because it is always easier to fake an allergy than tell the truth.