10 How I Met Your Mother Moments That Prove Ted Is A Total Jerk
Hero or villain? (Hint: it's the latter)
The secret to a good romantic comedy is likeable leads. If you’ve got a person or a couple you can root for, then frankly you can get away with a lot. Hokey storytelling, cliches, wild coincidences - so long as you get the audience onside with your hero, your job is basically done.
How I Met Your Mother has its hero, in the form of Ted Mosby, the ever optimistic, unlucky in love but true of heart protagonist who just knows The One is out there somewhere, walking those New York City Streets, waiting to meet him.
That’s what they’d like you to think, anyway. The truth is that Ted Mosby is somewhat of a jerk. An irritating, unsympathetic sitcom character is nothing out of the ordinary, but when your programme hinges on watching this guy find love - for nine years, no less - it’s a little less than ideal when the main character is basically unbearable.
Ted Mosby’s crimes are myriad and varied, from minor transgressions to downright villainy. It’s not uncommon for the buttoned down protagonist to be outshone by the colourful supporting characters, but when it comes to this guy, at times you end up wishing him the worst.
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.