For a comedy series, How I Met Your Mother made its viewers cry an awful lot. The show felt similar a actually long romantic comedy, with 18-carat characters and heartfelt emotions. But similar any rom-com, there were ups and downs, with both moments of hilarity and moments of heartache.

Friends, a show that How I Met Your Female parent is oftentimes compared to, had dramatic moments to undercut the one-act. All the same, they were never anywhere almost equally effective every bit HIMYM'south well-nigh heartbreaking scenes, which go out fans in tears even afterwards this many years, and this many rewatches.

Updated on March fifth, 2021 by Rhys McGinley:How I Met Your Rather ran for a wildly successful nine seasons and despite the lighthearted, oft hilarious nature of the show and its characters, information technology never shied away from big issues or emotional resonance. The show and then often took fans to the brink of tears, whether that be through the actions or consequences of the characters, or life just throwing hurdles in their way. The bear witness did sadness beautifully in almost cases, crafting a narrative that fans were invested in and delivering a gut punch that left everyone reeling, and the writers did that so many times that it is difficult to limit to just ten.

15 When Barney Cleans Up Rose Petals Off Robin'south Bed

"Tick Tick Tick," the tenth episode of flavour vii, is pretty hard to watch for fans given all the events that go down involving Barney and Robin, and the icing on that heartbreak cake comes at the very end of the episode.

Ted returns to his apartment to find Barney bravado out candles and throwing out rose petals that were all across Robin'south room. Seeing Barney so distraught is hard enough, but on pinnacle of that, we know that he would never have told anyone nearly this painful, vulnerable moment had Ted not caught him, he would accept suffered in silence.

14 When Stella left Ted at the chantry

Poor Ted. He just wanted to do the correct thing. Stella objected to Ted inviting Robin to their nuptials, so he decided to invite Stella's ex Tony to level the playing field and testify that inviting exes to your wedding is fine. But and so Robin decides she shouldn't be there and takes the ferry dorsum to New York, where she sees Stella and Tony canoodling together.

Ted finds a note and realizes he'southward been left at the chantry. I by one, his friends join him and try to condolement him. Fans didn't really similar Stella from the off, so no one was disappointed when she left, just we all felt bad for Ted.

13 When Ted realizes he's solitary with one ticket to Robots vs. Wrestlers

On the whole, season viii is 1 of How I Met Your Mother'southward weakest installments, but "The Time Travelers" is a terrific episode... one of the testify's best, peradventure. Ted spends the whole episode arguing with Barney and time to come versions of themselves over whether or not he should go to Robots vs. Wrestlers while Marshall, Lily, and Robin fence over who a drink should be named after.

At the end of the episode, Barney tells him he'southward but a figment of his imagination. The Marshall, Lily, and Robin storyline happened months ago. Barney and Robin are planning their wedding, Marshall and Lily are looking after their baby, and Ted is alone with ane ticket to Robots vs. Wrestlers.

12 When Barney couldn't forgive his dad

When Barney finally met his biological male parent, he was disappointed by how lame he'd become. He used to be a roadie who toured the United States with some of the biggest stone bands in the world, sleeping around with more women than Barney himself, but at present, he's settled down into a suburban beingness with a wife and kids.

Barney is ostensibly disappointed by this because his dad isn't as absurd as he thought he was, but then he reveals why he's heartbroken: "If you were going to be some lame suburban dad, why couldn't you have been that for me?"

11 When Marshall listened to his dad'south final words to him

In the episode "Last Words," Marshall spends his dad's funeral hung up on a voicemail he received from him between the last time he saw his dad and his dad'southward death. All throughout the episode, Marshall thinks that his dad'due south concluding words to him were simply a recommendation to watch Crocodile Dundee Iii.

Even so, he leaves the church during the service and listens to the final message, a pocket dial that ends with Marshall's dad saying, "Marshall? Oh, it looks like I've been calling you for almost five minutes. How's my pocket audio? Oh, sorry about that, buddy. Um, anyhow, your mom and I had such a cracking time seeing y'all. I love y'all."

ten When Lily opened up about the struggles of parenthood

Afterwards Marshall and Lily had a infant, it seemed as though they were adapting to parenthood pretty well on the surface. But then, in ane of the show'southward darkest moments, Lily was brutally honest to Ted about how she really feels: "Sometimes I wish I wasn't a mom."

"Sometimes I want to pack a bag and leave in the eye of the night and not come back." She told him this because it's her deepest, darkest secret, and she wanted him to reveal his own deepest, darkest secret, then she told him something that was worse than annihilation he could tell her.

9 When Ted showed how devastating Robin and Barney's engagement was for him

When Barney reveals that he's been orchestrating "The Robin," the concluding play in his Playbook, to woo Robin and eventually suggest to her, Ted gives the engagement his blessing. But then he gets a text confirming the engagement, and he describes the emotional agony he felt in that moment to his kids with a fast-cutting montage of every single moment in the series where he got punched, kicked, or otherwise seriously injured.

He and then says that it felt like all of that pain combined and then multiplied by a million. We get a pretty articulate thought of what he's talking almost.

8 When Robin Finds Out She Cannot Conceive

One of the defining characteristics of Robin is her independence. She has never needed a human, she is career-driven, and for a lot of the prove, she makes articulate her full general lack of interest in marriage and children.

Sadly, the selection was taken away from Robin when she finds out in flavor 7 she is infertile. Even though she thought she never wanted children, she yet struggles with no longer having the choice to excogitate - and information technology is heartbreaking to see Robin deal with this solitary, as she feels that she cannot lean on any of her friends at the time.

vii When Ted establish a heartbroken Marshall in the rain

The first flavor of How I Met Your Female parent ends with 2 huge uppings of the stakes. First, Ted and Robin properly get together, so Ted feels on summit of the globe. Then, he returns home to detect Marshall sitting in the rain on the steps outside their apartment building, looking forlorn and property Lily's engagement band.

In a million years, the last thing How I Met Your Female parent fans were expecting was for higher sweethearts Marshall and Lily – possibly the most adorable couple in the world – to pause upwards. These final moments of flavour one were still memorable 8 seasons later.

6 When Barney & Robin Divorce, & Robin Drifts From The Group

The finale ofHow I Met Your Mothermade many controversial and heartbreaking decisions that bellyaching fans, betrayed character arcs, and were merely unnecessary. I that arguably fits all three was the decision to divorce Barney and Robin.

When the two announced this two the grouping in Marshall and Lily's home information technology was shocking and upsetting. The two seemed and so made for each other despite all their issues, and they were one of the fan base's favorite relationships. To brand matters worse, this divorce helped in seeing Robin drift from the group in a huge way, with Robin not fifty-fifty popping in for all the big moments, only some.

v When Robin shakes her caput at Barney

When Barney and Robin are both in relationships – Barney with Nora and Robin with Kevin – they make the worst mistake that anyone in a human relationship can practice and sleep together. The forenoon later, Barney realizes that he really cares about Robin and wants to be with her.

So, they hold to both tell their corresponding partners about the affair and get together. Barney tells Nora, but Robin doesn't tell Kevin, and when Barney excitedly waits for Robin to run into him at MacLaren's, we experience his pain when he sees her come in with Kevin and shake her head at him.

4 When the Female parent'southward decease was foreshadowed

Midway through the final season of How I Met Your Mother, fans started to option upwardly on the hints that the Mother had been dead the whole time. Her bodily expiry in the series finale didn't have anywhere almost as much impact as this early moment of foreshadowing.

Ted is telling the Mother the story of when it was unclear if Robin'due south mom would come to her wedding, and she says, "What female parent is going to miss her daughter's wedding ceremony?" Seconds afterwards, Ted is holding dorsum tears... and and so are we, peculiarly on re-viewings when we know for sure what this was hinting at.

three When Tracy Dies

Of course, the foreshadowing of the Female parent's expiry is only heartbreaking in hindsight. Had Tracy never died, there would be no foreshadowing. Unfortunately, fans did not get the alternate testify ending, and Tracy did die.

Information technology was almost unbelievable to watch for the get-go time. For nine seasons the evidence had built upwards to Ted and the Mother's epic romance, only to have the writers kill her off then Robin and Ted'due south toxic relationship could brainstorm again. It is a moment that is both infuriating and sad, rolled into ane low-quality episode that sends fans spinning the entire fourth dimension.

two When The Bear witness Ends

For whatsoever show that runs for an extended catamenia of time and has a fanbase the size ofHIMYM's, in that location will always be a guaranteed heartbreaking moment in it; the finish.

Maxim bye to these characters that fans spent nine years with, who went on many ups and downs, was very difficult. Even more so considering how the evidence concluded. Fifty-fifty with the divisive finale, though, the fact remains that the show ending for skillful is simply most as emotional equally the show gets.

1 When Marshall's dad died

Of course, this 1 tops the listing. On every rewatching, fifty-fifty though they can encounter the moment coming the second, they see the episode-long countdown begin, How I Met Your Female parent fans choke up when Lily tells Marshall his dad is dead. Jason Segel's reaction to the gut-wrenching news has a tragic ingenuity layer considering he wasn't told what the twist ending was.

Until they actually shot the scene, he was under the impression that Lily would go out of her cab and tell him she was pregnant. When she tells him his dad has died, his reaction is completely authentic, and they nailed it in one take.

Adjacent: How I Met Your Mother: The Primary Characters Ranked By Wealth

Side by side Breaking Bad: 10 Side Characters With Principal Graphic symbol Free energy

Well-nigh The Author

Ben Sherlock (3379 Manufactures Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He'south currently in pre-product on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You tin can catch him performing standup at odd pubs effectually the Great britain that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

More than From Ben Sherlock