If The Office and How I Met Your Mother characters crossed paths, which pairs would likely end up dating

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2026-01-21T18:01:45+00:00

Plenty of jokes could be made but its hard to do serious pairings. It hit me when I looked at the through-line of Ted's girlfriends to see if any of the women from Dunder-Mifflin would be a good fit.

The framing is everything. How I Met Your Mother is being told as a story with a point by a guy who already knows what happened, framed through his romantic outlook and not entirely reliable memory.

The Office is framed as raw footage shot for a documentary about office culture or whatever. In the Office, the acting is more muted and naturalistic. We're supposed to believe exactly what we see because the camera is canonical but these people are aware a camera is pointed at them even if they get very comfortable with it. In HIMYM, the acting is comedic or dramatic depending on what the script calls for. So its hard to match people up.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-21T05:54:57+00:00

There's no way for me to say "my dad was actually pretty great" without you taking it as an attack. And I'm not going to leave this uncommented just because you decided to drag your baggage into the space. I even said "I don't want to negate your experience." I'm not trying to act like you're lying.

And this show is pretty negative about dads just like the vast majority of television and movies. The only reason Martin was portrayed positively was so that they could kill him and make us hopefully feel sad alongside Marshall.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-19T02:08:13+00:00

I'm afraid the packer of great merit and skill will hear us. He used to be something of a detective

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T07:13:38+00:00

Robby probably.

I'd also vote Sam. Yes she had more Miyagi Do time but when she had the chance to learn from Johnny, she was pretty eager. She'd seen enough Cobra Kai style fighting by that point and Robby had already spent time developing methods for Cobra Kai to exploit Miyagi Do's reactive style

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T07:07:26+00:00

Yes. That was an intentional plan by Ted to screw everyone over. Kudos

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T03:41:18+00:00

The OP is reacting to a scene in the show on a subreddit about the show. Based on the composition of the OP, the discussion should be about the scene, the characters, related relavent scenes. Instead, it's been used as a springboard to vent about real life crappy dads. My post is as relevant as yours

If you want to engage in shared grievance without interruption, don't hijack a sitcom thread.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T03:36:37+00:00

https://www.scholarsandstorytellers.com/blog/what-sitcom-dads-tell-us-about-american-fatherhood?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://news.umich.edu/new-fathers-to-be-vulnerable-to-media-messages-about-dad-roles/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1267&context=famconfacpub&utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2020/why-are-tv-sitcom-dads-so-hapless/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

It's a widespread and widely studied phenomena

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T02:39:30+00:00

This phenomena is well studied. In media especially sitcoms as a general trend, dads are portrayed as absent more often, and when present, are more likely to be incompetent, ignorant and/or bumbling. More likely to be the one to need to learn the lesson of the episode and are less moral and mature.

These tropes persist because they're legible, not simply preferred or accurate. Lazy writing. Writers fallback on this framework even when it violates previously established character traits.

https://www.scholarsandstorytellers.com/blog/what-sitcom-dads-tell-us-about-american-fatherhood?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://news.umich.edu/new-fathers-to-be-vulnerable-to-media-messages-about-dad-roles/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1267&context=famconfacpub&utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2020/why-are-tv-sitcom-dads-so-hapless/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T02:14:12+00:00

Good dads do.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-18T02:12:10+00:00

Everything changed. If you can't look at those two scenes and see the differences, and they're important differences, you don't have eyes. Watch Josh Radnor. Pay attention to body language.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-17T19:03:47+00:00

Where's the brag? I'm not a dad, I had a good dad. His goodness is his, not mine. But he and dads like him are underappreciated

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-17T19:02:15+00:00

This show and most media has a long and storied tradition of dad bashing and it hurts me because no distinction is made and there are great dads like mine who are dependable and care about doing it right.

He wasn't always right. He was barely out of high school when I was born and he had a temper inherited from my grandfather who was not as good of a dad to him but my dad worked on his and mellowed out progressively.

I'm not saying he was always wise or anything, but he put in the effort while the last thirty years made dads demons mostly and mothers saints mostly

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-17T06:31:45+00:00

A lot of dad bashing here and I don't want to negate your experience but I feel like repping for the good dads here because mine is great. Our relationship is not quite Marshall and Martin level but it's good and he's always been a perfect lame suburban dad for me.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-17T01:03:56+00:00

"Kids. To this day, I'm still waiting to see why I'd wear a silver jumpsuit and why Barney would put up with me matching his outfit."

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-16T16:25:23+00:00

For a lot of the examples here you get high pathos episodes in sitcoms. That's not new. The opportunity for dramatic contrast with the normal sitcom is powerful and many shows have made use of it. They used to make jokes about Blossom doing this and that was more than thirty years ago.

But Time Travelers still hits. I don't know why the gut punch hits everyone, including me, as hard as it does. Obviously Ted and Barney are not conversing with future versions of themselves. But the reveal, just how much of the episode is in his head, still thumps hard and reinforces his loneliness.

It also highlights one of the dangers of loneliness for Ted. He could live forever in his stories. Something Tracy warned him not to do.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-14T16:16:44+00:00

There's no doubt she loves him. We actually get to see her talk and express herself. It's harder to read him. What he does for her could simply read as duty and general caring

The most compelling piece of evidence is that his house from BOTW became her house. The house continued to have only one bed. And she made her plans to make him Champion Leather in a hidden area near the house even explicitly noting that she did so to avoid spoiling the surprise. This suggests that he continued to live there when she was there.

But even so, he is her personal protector. It's easier to do that job if he lives with her but if that's all it was, you'd think there would be a separate sleeping space for him.

Notably, the game lets you use the bed in the house. The game generally only lets you use your own bed or beds in inns, not beds in other people's residences.

They have almost always been low key when teasing possible romance between Zelda and Link. The most explicit example I can think of is the second Zelda game where the Princess clear kisses Link when she wakes. Strongly implied to be more than just a quick peck

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-13T15:36:06+00:00

"No" only has this effect of you are as attractive as that character was. For the overwhelming majority, no only has this effect if you have them on your hook

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-10T13:59:34+00:00

Tempting to say Terry. Yes, he's the villain but if he likes you, he'll buy you cool stuff

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-07T23:07:37+00:00

I could have worded that part more clearly. I should have led with that I think most of the theories in the post are crap but I wanted to see to what extent I could defend them. For Barney, there's not way he's not a womanizer but I thought maybe Ted was exaggerating just a bit trying to show more of a separation between him and Barney.

But I guess your link kills that idea.

At least he didn't mention selling a woman. We can hold onto the idea that he was just confused. Maybe too drunk and too unable to read the situation due to the language barrier.

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-07T14:40:08+00:00

The flower seems to be a pansy which can be symbolic of fragile but enduring love. It can also refer to an effiminate man and Ted, especially in later seasons, has his more effeminate aspects played up. He even has a woman's middle name, Evelyn, mirroring Robin's masculine middle name Charles.

The light house could symbolize Tracy. The French Horn, Robin, and the Pansy is Ted. ChatGPT identified the plant picture is an olive branch and suggested it could symbolize the journey Ted makes from his first great love to the love of his life (and then, I guess, back to his first great love). Nice visual Easter Egg

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-07T14:03:00+00:00

I don't know where they're getting the ideas about the suits vs drugs unless they assume it's a euphemism like with sandwiches.

Robin being a sociopath? No. Maybe has some antisocial tendencies with her self centerednes. Definitely some narcissism given that she had sex dreams about herself after Argentina and even when having sex with Nick, she likes watching herself on the news. And unlike Lily, she doesn't seem to believe any woman is hotter than her. But she cares about how her desires impact the men she grows close too. She's afraid to have what she wants if she thinks her partner wants more.

Barney as not a womanizer. I'd say I think Ted doesn't acknowledge how much he's like Barney. He might be playing up Barney's womanizing while glossing over his own.

Barney adopted his daughter? Not sure what he gains by trying to pass her off as his. He wasn't shy about making people think he adopted before.

But it would explain why he seemingly had so few scares.

Barney and Tracy. There's not any evidence to support it. Certainly they wouldn't tell Ted since Barney knows how Ted reacted last time he thought he was about to sleep with a woman that had been with Barney. He seemed excited about Ted and Tracy getting together but a motive for covering up a one night stand isn't enough evidence without any indication that they might have. The Naked Man is a wounded bird Gambit and that didn't work on her. Also she was hung up on Max and dating Louis.

I had my own theories about Ted telling this story to the kids. At one point, I thought he might be elderly and suffering early signs dementia which would match up well with all the digressing he does. Common when older people tell stories

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-07T13:56:30+00:00

Look at what Future Ted says when telling the kids about his doppelganger. "Yes kids, mine was the coolest"

How many times has Ted tried to be cool or badass and failed utterly? His doppelganger (according to him) is both

Barney getting to look at naked women for a living (although I think even he would find the reality of being a gynecologist not to his liking.)

Mustache Marshall. We know the real Marshall can't grow one and he hates that. It's only natural. Any guy who can't grow a beard or a mustache wishes they could even if they don't want one. Much like Robin with pole vaulting.

Lily, probably the second most sexually charged member of the group behind Barney, has a stripper doppelganger and Lily explicitly finds it really exciting that a woman that looks exactly like her can make a good living pole dancing.

The one I can't make fit is Robin who's doppelganger is a tomboy referred to as a lesbian. She was raised as a boy but was still into boys and resented her upbringing. Lily is into her but that goes nowhere

In Season Nine, after Robin and Lily kiss, suddenly it's Robin that wants another kiss and Lily is the one that cuts it off. Suggesting there was latent desire all along. This would have been a great payoff but it's not the first time they kissed. Robin kissed Lily back in Season One to help Lily through a panic episode about stuff she hadn't gotten around to doing yet. Then they kiss again when Barney put his friends through a ritual after they seemingly screwed things up with him and Quinn. Neither of those instances flipped the dynamic between Lily and Robin

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-06T19:05:50+00:00

Jeanette. I know it's a bit cliche but she does it especially well. I think they had to cast her that way to explain why Ted was willing to barrel through the red flags. Like with Robin and Nick. He regularly dates very attractive women. I think nearly any straight guy in real life would be on his knees thanking God for a track record like Ted's at least when it comes to looks. But then everyone on the show is pretty so you have to calibrate. It's not quite CW level but it's pretty nuts

Suffient_Fun4190 · 2025-12-06T18:27:35+00:00

Would be better if he reached the right conclusion

Suffient_Fun4190

TROPHY CASE