Barstool Nate defends Ted Mosby after Big Cat's HIMYM take

It started with Big Cat saying he still doesn't get the ending. A little later he explained why: he has never watched the show at all.

Big Cat

@BarstoolBigCat

I should clarify for those that didn’t listen to today’s @PardonMyTake yet. I have never watched a single second of How I Met Your Mother. Just don’t understand how Max and Memes explained it to me. Sounded shitty

Big Cat@BarstoolBigCat

Trust tree - I still don’t really understand the ending to How I Met Your Mother

So Big Cat's verdict comes entirely from the recap Max and Memes gave him on the show. That's a funny way to judge a sitcom that ran 9 seasons, but he's in good company. The finale, a 2-part episode called "Last Forever" that aired March 31, 2014, is still one of the most argued-about endings in TV. The mother, Tracy, finally shows up, Ted marries her, she gets sick and dies, and in the last scene Ted goes back to Robin with the blue French horn. Barney and Robin's marriage, which the whole final season was built around, falls apart in the same hour.

Pardon My Take

@PardonMyTake

The Booth Boys explain how the ending of HIMYM ruined the show for some viewers While also spoiling the entire show before Zac could finish it

Normally a PMT bit like this fades by lunch. This one didn't, because Barstool Nate has made HIMYM his whole personality. He calls it his number 1 comfort show and says he basically watches it on loop. He didn't just grumble. He laid out the case for the ending on its own terms.

Eric Nathan

@BarstoolNate

I think it’s realistic and fits the theme of the show- timing. Tracy and Ted met at the right time and fell in love. Ted and Robin could never work bc he wanted marriage, kids, etc and she wanted her career. They both got what they wanted and then reconnected when the timing finally worked for both of them. The show itself mostly botched the final season for a multitude of reasons but I don’t hate the finale at all, it makes sense.

Tim@Tdubs35

@BarstoolNate Nate so what’s your take on the finale now 12 years later?

That's the best defense of the finale out there, and Nate is careful about what he's defending. In a follow-up he blamed the final season more than the last scene: the pacing, Marshall's storyline, and a whole season spent on the Barney and Robin wedding only for them to divorce almost right away. If that season had been better, his argument goes, people would have accepted Ted and Robin a lot more easily. It's worth knowing the producers saw the backlash coming. The DVD box set has an alternate ending where Tracy lives and Ted never goes back to Robin, and fans who hated the original have been pointing to it ever since.

Then Nate went all in. Monday night he posted the video he said he'd wanted to make for a while: 4 straight minutes, straight to camera, on why Ted is not the worst.

Eric Nathan

@BarstoolNate

Been wanting to do this video for a while. 4 minutes ranting about why Ted is *not* the fuckin worst

Joseph Giandalia@Giandalia09

@BarstoolNate Ted Mosby is the fuckin worst

That's where things stand. The guy who has never watched it thinks it sounds bad, and the guy who has it on loop says the ending was earned and the final season is the real problem. Calling Ted Mosby the worst has been an internet tradition for a decade, so Nate's rant won't settle anything. But a 12-year-old sitcom finale just took over a Monday at a sports company. The obvious next move is making Big Cat actually watch it, and Zac might want to finish the show before anyone else spoils it.