“How I Met Your Mother”

As I’m sure most everyone that has watched television knows, “How I Met Your Mother,” or HIMYM for short, was a long-running sitcom on CBS that ran for nine seasons.

It’s hard to believe, but the show started in 2005, back when I was only nine years old. I watched it ravenously when I was a wee lad in my preteens, and I found it strikingly hilarious. But as I got older and the humor of the show began to fade, I started to wonder if my attraction to it was because I still found it funny or because I’d been watching it for years and felt obligated to see it through in honor of my younger self.

As it turns out, the answer was most likely the latter of these two. The appeal of the show when I was younger was the ceaseless fun and sexual humor the show provided. The show had a certain electricity to it that drew me in, and the characters were vibrant enough to keep me glued to my screen.

Where the show went wrong in later years, though, was that it lost its electricity by using the same tired old gags, phrases and jokes over and over again. After hearing Barney make a sex joke for the thousandth time, it’s not really funny anymore. The show probably lasted about four seasons longer than it should have; the creators could’ve wrapped up most of the important story lines by then.

Although it’s still fun to watch an episode of HIMYM from time to time for remembrance’s sake, it’s not a show that I’m interested in re-watching fully any time soon. I feel like I’ve already seen everything, and there’s no appeal in experiencing it all over again.

Here’s a taste of the infamous “Slapsgiving” holiday the characters partake in every year.