Have you met Ted?

Ted Mosby, the main character of How I Met Your Mother is the poster child of a hopeless romantic.  Throughout nine seasons of the show Ted is dedicated to finding his one true love, the woman he is going to make his wife.  If Ted had taken our romantic quiz in class he would have had the highest scores by far.  He believes that there is one true love for everyone, he believes marriage will be perfect once he finds his love, and believes that no matter what him and the woman he should be with will end up together some day. Ted throughout the nine seasons, shows all of the four subscales of romantic beliefs we learned from the reading “Isn’t it Romantic?”

            The first subscale “Love at first sight” is shown in the very first episode when Ted meets Robin.  In this clip Ted and Robin lock eyes from across the bar McClaren’s and immediately his eyes light up.  He starts telling his kids that at that moment he knew he was going to marry her someday.  However, this depiction of “love at first sight” is a bit different than usual because Robin does not turn out to be the mother! While we want to reward HIMYM for going against the norms of romanticism in media, we find out in the very last episode of the show that Ted indeed does end up with Robin much later in life. The show very much still falls into the trap of portraying “love at first sight” and depicting it as true.

The second subscale present in HIMYM is “Idealization.” In a clip where Ted talks to the mother for the very first time through a doorway, he confesses his love to her.  He explains to her that in 45 days they are going to meet and fall madly in love, get married and have two kids and they are going to have the perfect life together.  Because of how the show runs we never get to see much of the life that Ted and the mother have together but because of this once scene we know that it is nearly perfect in both of their eyes.  When I first saw this scene I cried my eyes out at how beautiful it was and still do, but now understand that I am a typical audience member that believes “Idealization” can exist right after this scene.

             Lastly, in HIMYM Ted goes through many relationships.  Every time that something does not work out whether it be because of a long distance relationship, wanting separate things, or falling out of love, Ted claims that the person just must not have been “the one.”  Looking back on some of the scenes now, it is apparent these were all aspects that love does NOT find a way.  For example, Ted and Robin break up in in season 2 because Robin does not want to get married and have kids.  Again it seems as if the show is breaking the norms of depicting that “love finds a way,” and managing to shock the audience. However, at the end of the entire season Ted and Robin end up together mending the hearts of all the fans and supporting the idea that "love finds a way." 

Once again, HIMYM despite trying to be different, falls victim to the four subscales of romantic media leaving its viewers with a happily ever after.   From the results of the “Isn’t it Romantic?” study, How I Met Your Mother does agree with the statistics that romantic beliefs are significantly present in sitcoms.  If viewers want a more realistic depiction of romance from HIMYM, they might have to start looking at some of Barney’s beliefs instead!  

      Lippman, J. R., Ward, L. M., & Seabrook, R. C. (2014). Isn’t it romantic? Differential associations between romantic screen media genres and romantic beliefs. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(3), 128-140. doi: 10.1037/ppm0000034