10 How I Met Your Mother Moments That Prove Ted Is A Total Jerk

10. Ditching A Woman On Her Birthday (twice)

Let’s start with a mild one. In season one, Ted recalls the story of his brief relationship with Natalie, a woman he broke up with but feels would be worth reconnecting with. The only problem is, he left things in a pretty bad way, dumping her on her birthday.

Really, that’s just bad luck - the problem is that he did so via an answerphone message - a pretty lengthy one, which played out to a room full of her friends and loved ones, ready to throw her a surprise party.

Not a great move on the part of our hero. Worse still, after managing to get back together with Natalie some years down the line, he realises that things aren’t working out and breaks up with her again - somehow managing to do so on her birthday once more.

Ted is aghast at this faux pas (and receives a beating from Natalie for his troubles, in one of the show’s earliest problematic gags), but is really guilty of little more than light thoughtlessness here. It gets a lot worse.