How I Met Your Mother vs Friends

[EmoBorg]

This is a poll for the How I Met Your Mother vs Friends to see whose cast and writing was better.




How I Met Your Mother Characters

Barney Stinson
Robin Scherbatsky
Ted Mosby
Lily Aldrin
Marshall Eriksen



Friends Characters

Rachel Green
Monica Geller
Phoebe Buffay
Joey Tribbiani
Chandler Bing
Ross Geller

[Mr Light]

Friends is a great show (well starting in the middle years) but Mother is one of my all time favorite sit-coms and wins in every category.

[Guy Gardener]

Friends was clever when we didn't expect shit from sitcoms.

How I met your mother is clever in an age where we have much, much, much higher standards.

That being said, my feelings on looking at those cast photos?

I want to shoot Ross and I don't care who is caught in the crossfire.

Meanwhile in the other snapshot, I have to commiserate that Josh Radnor is still a nobody.

[Skywalker]

Barney alone makes HIMYM's cast better. I can't comment on the writing, though; it's been too long since I last watched any of Friends when it was good.

[RoJoHen]

Both awesome shows, but I find HIMYM to be much more relatable. It has become one of my favorite shows of all time.

[Luisiana Jones]

Hanukkah Solo wrote:

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Barney alone makes HIMYM's cast better. I can't comment on the writing, though; it's been too long since I last watched any of Friends when it was good.

Altho Barney is just the new Joey i have to agree with that statement. He's just awesome!

[Beagleman]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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Meanwhile in the other snapshot, I have to commiserate that Josh Radnor is still a nobody.

Yup, I don't see too much of a career for him after the show is over...

[highlander]

I was a huge fan of Friends back in the day, but I have become an even bigger fan of How I Met Your Mother. I watched the DVDs a few years a ago and got caught up to date and haven't missed an ep yet. The writing is great both funny and romantic and the character development is better in my opinion as well.

[trekkiebaggio]

Friends for both. I really like How I Met Your Mother, but I think in years to come I won't be able to re-watch them endlessly like I can with Friends.

[Spot's Meow]

Friends, definitely. I've tried really hard to like How I Met Your Mother, jumping into the DVDs several times over the years. I just don't enjoy it. The characters kind of annoy me, especially Alyson Hannigan who I am normally a huge fan of, and I didn't really laugh very much. I do like Barney though, he is the only thing that makes the show watchable for me, but one character does not a show make (excepting Mr. Ed).

Friends, on the other hand, I can rewatch all day long. The jokes are still really funny to me, not always in a laugh out loud sort of way but often some thought or concept will just be so damn amusing (for instance, Chandler's TV guide being delivered to "Chanandler Bong," it still makes me chuckle thinking about it now!). I also love all of the characters (okay, except for Phoebe), which makes a huge difference. I cared about seeing their lives unfold every week, and seeing the hilarious shenanigans they got into. I just can't say the same for HIMYM - there's no connection there, I just see actors trying too hard to be funny.

[Admiral2]

You should have included an "I hate both equally" option.

[FPAlpha]

Friends overall is the better show from my point of view for a few reasons:

- overall better/more interesting characters

Mother has Barney Stinson.. i give them that and he's hilarious and often enough carries the episode/show by himself but the others share good scenes.. one episode it's Marshal who's awesome, the next one it's Lily etc.

I feel Friends had the more well rounded cast and no breakout character who carried the show

- Mother has dug itself too deep by dragging out the main storyline

Mother was.. well, about Ted's journey to find the Mother. For the first few seasons it was fun to see little tidbits revealed (i even dug Ted and Robin even when they spoiled the fact that she can't be the mother in the pilot episode!) and some glimpses but by season 4 or 5 i became fed up with it. It's season 8 now and they've even put the whole Mother storyline besides to drag out Barney's and Robin's relationship/supposed wedding

So overall Friends wins for me.. not because it has better writing or better actors but because Mother made too many bad choices to take away the spot from Friends (whose quality dropped a bit after season 3/4 but still remained on a good level).

[Carcazoid]

Spot's Meow wrote:

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Friends, definitely. I've tried really hard to like How I Met Your Mother, jumping into the DVDs several times over the years. I just don't enjoy it. The characters kind of annoy me, especially Alyson Hannigan who I am normally a huge fan of, and I didn't really laugh very much. I do like Barney though, he is the only thing that makes the show watchable for me, but one character does not a show make (excepting Mr. Ed).

Friends, on the other hand, I can rewatch all day long. The jokes are still really funny to me, not always in a laugh out loud sort of way but often some thought or concept will just be so damn amusing (for instance, Chandler's TV guide being delivered to "Chanandler Bong," it still makes me chuckle thinking about it now!). I also love all of the characters (okay, except for Phoebe), which makes a huge difference. I cared about seeing their lives unfold every week, and seeing the hilarious shenanigans they got into. I just can't say the same for HIMYM - there's no connection there, I just see actors trying too hard to be funny.

Ms. Chanandler Bong.

Friends has held up even though it's been nearly 20 years since the premiere (and Jennifer Aniston is still a babe). I just don't foresee the same for HIMYM.

[Kirby]

HIMYM has better writing, and I like the creativity of the time jumps, and different versions of the same scenes. I think it makes the storytelling aspect of it more fun. Plus HIMYM can sometimes can go to a very weird place, which I like. On the negative side, they're really dragging the Ted/mother thing out waaaaaaaay too long. Friends is your standard three camera sitcom, and had some very good, fun, memorable moments in it, but I still prefer HIMYM. For a cast, everyone on Friends had some great moments which made for a great ensemble. Neil Patrick Harris just blows away the rest of the HIMYM cast and too frequently is the best part of the show. I'll give the Friends cast the edge on acting.

[RoJoHen]

I decided about 3 seasons ago that "How I Met Your Mother" works so much better if you just ignore the premise. So now I don't care at all how long it takes for him to meet their mother.