10 Most Paused TV Moments

The pause button just might be the greatest invention since sliced bread - we take it for granted in our all-digital age, of course, but since the days of VHS it has allowed audiences to relive and linger upon shocking and impactful moments in TV shows and movies.

These moments can be many things - a brutal burst of violence, a sexy aside, a jaw-dropping plot twist, an Easter egg, or perhaps simply a meaningful image which begs more in-depth analysis.

Across the last few decades of TV, these are the images which have endured in the pop-culture lexicon, from the earlier days of the "water cooler show" to the viral social media discourse of today.

Whether these moments were satisfying, disgusting, or actually frustrating, each nevertheless held fans' attention and got them talking, which is certainly preferable to simply leaving them indifferently glazed-over.

These are the scenes and beats which defined their respective shows and allowed them to live on with fans, whether for better or worse, ever since. If any TV show gets a single image nearly this indelible or iconic, it's doing something right...

How I Met Your Mother finally put fans out of their misery - temporarily, at least - by revealing the identity of Ted Mosby's (Josh Radnor) future wife, aka The Mother, in the season eight finale "Something New."

The closing seconds of the episode showed the mother, played by Cristin Milioti, buying a ticket to Farhampton where she will eventually meet Ted, bringing eight years of speculation to a sudden end.

Given that Milioti was a little-known actress at the time the episode aired, viewers understandably smashed the pause button to get a better look at the woman around which the entire series effectively revolves.

It's of course a shame that the payoff to this reveal was ultimately so unsatisfying - unless you accept the cobbled-together alternate ending as canon, that is - but the moment this episode ended, the world could talk about nothing else.