I love HIMYM but I feel some episodes feel like rip-offs of Friends, and Scrubs too. Last night's ep was extremely similar to the Friends episode with Rachel buddying up to her boss by smoking, including influencing Chandler who was a struggling-to-quit smoker throughout the series. It's not just that HIMYM covers the same themes as other sitcoms, it's that the scripts match too closely. For a show that has some really groundbreaking elements, it's disappointing when HIMYM feels like just another lame sitcom.

I love HIMYM. But, I am 24 and as such never really watched Friends when it was on. I watch it sometimes in syndication now and I don't really get it. There's a cohort effect to these things. There's nothing wrong with going back over common themes with a new audience. It's not like the shows overlapped (right?)

I'm a fan of both Friends and HIMYM. You have to think that there will be some similar plot lines just because they're both about a group of friends in their 20's-30's living their lives. It's like saying because my friend just got pregnant, and then I get pregnant 3 years from now that I'm copying her. It's dumb. HIMYM has a much different style than Friends, often more wacky and fantastically lame (which is precisely why I love it!)

Okay, this is the first time I have come across this page. Up until last night I never saw a comparison from HIMYM to Friends. HOWEVER, the plot with Marshall and his job and the boss and the smoking....even a scene was so similar that I sat up, pointed at the TV, and yelled! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE HIMYM and will continue to watch until the show ends but I was so disappointed with last nights episode. Even some of the lines the boss said to Marshall on the roof were so similar to that same scene with Rachel and her boss. I mean, come on! Was it inentional by the writers to poke fun at the constant comparison or was it really just lack of creativity?

HIMYM has never made me think of Friends, and I don't think it's quite fair to point out that this sitcom copies another sitcom as though it's a unique, because I'm fairly sure Friends wasn't the first sitcom on television...

There seems to be some confusion by some readers over this story. I want to point out that I didn't write the Slate article comparing HIMYM to Friends, I'm doing a post *about* Slate's article and linking to it. Thanks.

I think you were desperate to write something to amuse yourself and make you feel like you had real insight to weekly sitcom genre.

Every sitcom from Roseanne to Raymond does a cigarette. Big deal. When they find a brown bag with 10,000 cash in it like "What's Happening" and "Saved by the Bell", then you have something to worry about.

HIMYM has no intentions of being "Friends", if anything they are more like Brittcom "Coupling".

I like both Friends and HIMYM and quite frankly I never think of Friends when I watch HIMYM. Personally, I didn't think last night's episode was all that great, but it sure didn't make me think of Friends.

Friends had bubblegum episodes about smoking. They are just about whoever it was smoking.

This played more into the characters and while Barney and Robin's dates when they finally had their last cigarette were presumably random Lily's, Marshall's and Ted's were character-based, as well as revealing that Marshall and Lily's first child will be male.

Plus, who doesn't love husky-voiced Lily?

Do we really need another one of these posts from you Bob? You really don't offer anything to this blog anymore other than random videos and "What Do You Think" posts, that you don't really even bother to give your opinion in. I love this blog to death but I could really do without your posts. Don't mean to be negative or anything but it's just something i've noticed as of lately.