How I Met Your Mother: 10 Biggest Unanswered Questions
So...was Marshall mugged by a monkey or not?
How I Met Your Mother ran for nine epic seasons, allowing protagonist Ted Mosby to tell the long and winding story how he met his future wife, and how he and his friends grew and changed throughout their twenties and thirties.
Told exclusively through flashbacks with startling focus on the tinier details of the story, the twisting sitcom, for the most part, revels in its ability to tie up loose ends and fill in the timeline's various plot holes.
But, as with all shows, not everything is perfect with Ted's tale, as is the case with these 10 unanswered questions left dangling since the series finale.
From characters who disappeared without explanation to major storylines left unresolved, the following aspects of How I Met Your Mother have never been successfully concluded, and have in some cases kept fans talking since the finale over seven years ago.
No single show is perfect, but thinking about the things that How I Met Your Mother left ambiguous can be really jarring to entire viewing experience. It's worth noting, though, the infamous Pineapple Incident won't be found here, since the mystery was solved in a deleted scene on the DVD boxset.
This article will contain major spoilers.
10. Did Marshall Get Mugged By A Monkey?
In the season five episode Zoo Or False, Marshall finds himself caught in a moral dilemma when he tells the gang he was mugged in Central Park. To his dismay, this news makes Lily head out to buy a gun for protection, so he tells Ted and Barney that his wallet was actually stolen by a monkey at the zoo.
This new story prompts Robin to put Marshall on her show to talk about the ordeal, which Marshall refuses to go through with when he realises the monkey he claims mugged him is about to be separated from his mate.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Marshall continuously switches his story between the two radically different versions of events, only to realise he doesn't have to explain himself to anyone, and leaving the gang stranded with an hilarious signoff: "I'm going to bed."
Future Ted makes it clear Marshall never told the whole truth, and it's never cleared up what really happened with his wallet, only that Lily never got a gun and the monkeys lived happily ever after. The entire debacle is never mentioned again, despite fans clambering for answers ever since the episode aired.