1. How The Married Couple First Met
Again a big plotline in the sitcom is far too alike to Friends, but as shown previously the HIMYM team don't care about the similarities. Perhaps it's deliberate seeing how successful Friends has been, but nevertheless it's rather annoying. The story of how Marshall and Lily met was originally told as a chance encounter at college which saw the pair fall in love at first sight. However, Ted wrongly recanted himself meeting and subsequently making out with Lily in the same college, and the day Lily was going to Ted's dorm room the next day, she saw Marshall for the first time. Sound familiar? It should, because it's been done before! In Friends, Monica and Chandler originally slept with each other as Monica was feeling unattractive and lonely, but she was unsuccessfully looking for Chandler's friend Joey to satisfy her. Both sitcoms have chance meetings of the woman looking for another man, but instead marrying the one they didn't plan on getting with at the time. Another story that has too much resemblance to Friends regardless of it being incorrect. The worst part about the story is that it didn't need to be similar in any way. The audience know Marshall and Lily met in college when they were young, so why not be creative with how they met? Perhaps meeting in the street? Or in class perhaps? Not when the girl was said to be looking for another man just like in Friends. Too many stories involving the similar character types are having the same back stories as Friends which highlights lazy writing and obvious forgery.