If you haven’t watched an episode of How I Met Your mother before (HIMYM), you’re depriving yourself and you need to fix that as soon as possible.

Let me give you a brief and basic overview. How I Met Your Mother is about a father telling his two teenagers the story of how he met their mother (go figure) over a 9 part series.

While it may not catch the attention of some viewers, the whole show is about so much more.

#1 It taught us about love.

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With a title like “How I Met Your Mother” the series is an entire love story about how Ted met ____ (For your sake I won’t give her name). However, this isn’t solely their love story. We learn about so many different relationships from Lily and Marshall, Ted and his love triangles before he met ____, Barney and his extensive list of women he got into bed with, and Robin and her own complicated love life. I can’t count the amount of relationships and different love interests were introduced in the show, but the most important ones gave us each a new lesson about falling in, (and sometimes) out of love.

#2 The use of running gags are incredible

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The writers were so clever in terms of running gags. From the slap-be thatt was drawn out from season 2 all the way through season 9, the goat in the bathroom, the yellow umbrella, “Major/General/Sargent”, Barney’s blog, Glen Mckenna, Tantrum, the intervention banner, “eating a sandwich”, doppelgangers, the naked man, the blue french horn, “New is always better”.… I Could go on forever! Those who watched the entire series start to finish can fully appreciate the running gags in the show. The greatest moments while watching HIMYM are when you go “Oh my gosh that reference was from season __! It came back!”

#3 It gave us the “Bro Code” and the “Play Book”

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As much as I didn’t approve of (most) of Barney’s tricks, the extensive Bro-Code and the sneaky playbook brought wild and memorable stories and rules into the show.

#4 It had everything a show needs

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We laughed, we cried, we got secondhand embarrassment, we got angry, we cried some more, we celebrated triumphs, we felt the love, and we felt weirded out all during the course of the show and sometimes just in the course of one episode!

#5 It gave us Lily and Marshall

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All I can say #Relationshipgoals. All HIMYM fans really want is a love like “Marshmallow and lily-pad” They have an unconditional love, support each other in just about everything they do, they’re overly comfortable with each other, and they just love being together. Isn’t that what everyone wants?

#6 It was easy to get attached

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While I know this is just a TV series, I got so emotionally tied into the show that I sobbed when it ended. It was like almost actually knowing the characters. We watched Ted fall in and out of love until he found the love of his life. We saw Barney mature over time and start to stray away from his playbook while he realized he wanted something real. We watched Lily and Marshall grow as a married couple and as a family. We saw Robin follow her dreams, become successful and experience love and heartbreak. All of the characters became so relatable that it was nearly impossible not to get emotionally tied to the show.

#7 It taught us about friendship

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While it was about how Ted Met his wife, the show really focused on the friendship between Ted, Barney, Robin, Lily, and Marshall. The story couldn’t have been told without Ted telling his kids about all the crazy adventures they all went on, the tragedies that struck each one, the heart-warming moments they shared together, the triumphs they celebrated as friends, and the low points they helped each other through. Without the other 4, this story would’ve been short and sweet, but with the stories added in from the friendship really made the show into an epic love story for Ted to tell.