How I Met Your Mother has always been my go-to background show. I watched it as it came out, rewatched it countless times, and eventually just had it on whenever I wanted something familiar. The first episode was released on September 19th, 2005. So to celebrate 20 years since its release date, I wanted to show something.
As an Englishman, something about the show always bothered me. Very often, a character would walk into MacLaren's, get a drink, deliver two lines, and then just leave. And I'm left shouting at the TV, "You have a full pint left!"
Naturally, the only thing left to do was dig into it. I decided to watch every single episode and keep track of every single time one of the characters abandons a drink. I figured out what the drink was, how much of it was left, and the approximate cost in that year.
After a long time (about 3 years, with some very lazy periods), the project is finally done. The full data is in this spreadsheet for all to see:
The Data: HIMYM Abandoned Drinks Tracking
You can dive into the data if you want, but here's some good datapoints:
- The Wasteful: On overall number of abandonments and total cost, Barney was of course the worst, abandoning 68 drinks at a cost of $1,096.97. Those scotches were expensive. But if you're looking for pure volume, Ted takes the crown. A beer drinker with almost as many instances as Barney (51), he wasted 12.271L of booze
- The Frugal: Lily is our most frugal, wasting the least in all categories, with a stat-line of 28 abandonments/4.162L/$123.08. Tracy/The Mother technically beats her, but that's a little unfair a comparison
- The Total Waste: Across all nine seasons, 40 characters abandoned 285 drinks, 41 litres, at a total cost of **$4,266.64 (in today's money), for 21 different reasons
- The Reasons: The most common reason was obviously just… leaving the drink, this is labelled "Abandonment". Other notable mentions:
- Abandoned (Bees) [S07E15@18:13]
- Rejected (Canadian) [S07E08@6:25]
- Destroyed with sword [S09E03@11:27]
- The Most Wasteful Season: For number of abandonments and volume, Season 4 is the clear winner at a stat-line of 54/8.035L/$229.02, but Season 9 takes it due to three bottles of $600 30-year Glen McKenna being wasted, resulting in a total wastage of $1,719.71
Season Summaries
| Season | Abandonments | Total ml | Total cost | Unique characters | Unique abandonment reasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 42 | 6287 | $204.95 | 9 | 3 |
| Season 2 | 31 | 6417 | $135.63 | 7 | 4 |
| Season 3 | 13 | 1104 | $43.04 | 7 | 4 |
| Season 4 | 54 | 8035 | $229.02 | 10 | 4 |
| Season 5 | 46 | 5449 | $302.13 | 13 | 4 |
| Season 6 | 36 | 4801 | $169.68 | 10 | 3 |
| Season 7 | 27 | 2886 | $135.83 | 8 | 4 |
| Season 8 | 13 | 1969 | $66.09 | 6 | 2 |
| Season 9 | 23 | 4081 | $1,719.71 | 8 | 5 |
| Total | 285 | 41029 | $3,006.08 | 40 | 21 |
Main Character Summaries
| Main Character | Total Abandonments | Total ml | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ted | 51 | 12271 | $776.84 |
| Marshall | 38 | 7244 | $157.10 |
| Lily | 28 | 4162 | $123.08 |
| Barney | 68 | 6541 | $1,096.97 |
| Robin | 42 | 5494 | $584.03 |
| Tracy | 4 | 609 | $28.69 |
Enjoy a look through the associated graphs, data, and let me know if I've missed anything! I've had a lot of fun putting this together over the years.
Posted by HIMYM-Abandoned
30 comments
I love whatever is wrong with you
This is the kind of important analysis that AI wouldn’t be up to. Beautiful research.
Now do CHEERS.
This is why this sub exists
Truly amazing. Also, my girl Lily knows what’s up.
Also also, I suspect OP may be LundgrensFrontKick and if you aren’t then you two need to collab like yesterday
I love this. Pro tip: Never start watching K-Dramas. HIMYM is tame compared to the nonsense that’s going on over there.
Love the information. But bar graphs make more sense than line graphs I think. Pie charts are good though.
Op just needs their charts, jack!
This is brilliant. Pitiful, but brilliant.
That’s like a third of one of Barney’s suits
Did you take inflation into account?
Now OP what I want to know, is what % of their overall drinks ordered did characters abandon? Is someone more/less likely than others to ditch a pint?
During season 9 when Lily was at Barney’s wedding and kept destroying glasses, did you count those?
Can you call those 3 bottles of 30-year in Season 9 ‘abandoned’? I thought at least 2 of them smashed, am I not remembering correctly?
Excellent work tho’
Ok now we need an analysis of all the movies/tv shows where elaborate breakfast foods prepared for an unappreciative family are left uneaten while the husband/kids just grab a coffee or one slice of dry toast as they rush out of the house.
This is why I follow this sub. Beautiful data. Well done. No notes.
I was trying to remember who the hell ‘Tracy’ was.
Did you keep track of the number of finished drinks?
F yeah mate, this is a lifetime achievement!
You’re doing the lords work here friend!
This is amazing. a few weeks ago, I mentioned to my husband how unrealistic is was when people on tv left full drinks behind. Today he sent me this. Perfect!
The data is indeed beautiful, the visualisations not so much
Ok but where is the standardised data? Without that, this is all fairly meaningless.
What’s the breakdown by type of drink?
The pie charts in the last seasons sometimes lack ted and in the ninth season in the pie chart Barney is nowhere to be found!
Other than that, amazing job! That’s a lot of time and dedication and it’s absolutely admirable, this sub is made for content like yours so thanks <3
Next up, how much the food cost that the characters had in all seasons of big bang theory
Excellent. This is why I’m subscribed to this sub. Very well done, OP!
The drinks cost the same amount whether they drink them or not, this is a pointless
Have never wasted a drink unless I was about to throw up if I were to drink it.
Finally,
^(some good fucking data)
1 drink is $16? o.O
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