Blink and You'll Miss These How I Met Your Mother Easter Eggs in the New Reboot

One of the all-time running gags of How I Met Your Mother was Ted, Marshall, and Barney’s dream of sharing an expensive 30-year-old bottle of single malt Scotch whisky, Glen McKenna. While the name is entirely fictional, it made for hilarious twists and turns before the group finally revelled in this fine whiskey. In the pilot episode of the Hulu spin-off, when Sophie meets Ian for their first date, the back of that café can be seen covered with graffiti, reading, “Glen McKenna: Aged 30 years.”

Ted is a hopeless romantic through and through. He’s a big-time believer in destiny and has often looked to the universe for signs. And sure, Sophie is her own person, but when it comes to love, she’s starry-eyed just like Ted. We see Sophie make a last-ditch effort to see if Ian (who’s moving to Australia) might be the one for her in a similar vein as Ted would have.

The second episode ends with a bang as we are taken inside Sid’s apartment, only to realise that this is the same apartment Ted, Marshall, Lily, and the rest of the HIMYM gang hung out in most of the time. While the interior décor of the apartment has understandably changed, a die-hard fan would recognise it from a mile away. Sid even tells the group that he got it from an “old married couple who posted it on the Wesleyan Alumni Group.” Ted, Marshall, and Lily attended and met at Wesleyan University, so Sid must have gotten the place from Lily and Marshall, who were named on the lease and living there when we last saw them in How I Met Your Mother. Who put these onions here?!

The apartment also comes with the iconic pair of swords that hung on the wall in the trio’s apartment in How I Met Your Mother. Bought by Ted and Marshall, these were the ones Marshall accidentally stabbed Lily with in season one, episode eight. Later in season nine, it is also revealed that Lily and Robin indulged in a silly make-believe sword fight that ultimately destroyed the 30-year-old Glen McKenna bottle. Jesse informs the group that they (Sid and Jesse) got the last apartment owner to leave the swords for them.

The fan-favorite college sweethearts Lily and Marshall get engaged in the pilot episode of HIMYM. While we’ve yet to see too much of Hannah and Sid’s relationship leading up to the premiere, they similarly started dating in their med school days. The couple also gets engaged in the first episode of HIMYF, so we can’t help but wonder if these two will be our couple goals, much like the old Lilypad and Marshmellow.

Sophie and Ian’s online dating was essentially a modern-day version of Ted and Victoria meeting and instantly hitting it off. When long-distance throws a wrench in the latter’s way, they decide not to pursue their relationship. But, at the airport, Ted decides to appeal to Victoria at the last moment: Maybe they could beat the odds of a long-distance relationship?

When Sophie chases Ian at the airport right before his flight, and he gently turns her down, it feels like a realistic version of the decision that Ted and Victoria naively jump into. We later find out that the older Ted learns this lesson the hard way by getting Victoria and his heartbroken. It’s good to see that HIMYF didn’t fall for the trappings of a doomed relationship, but the parallels are clearly there.

Ah, this one will make any HIMYM fan grin from ear to ear. This is another example of a recurrent joke from How I Met Your Mother being reimagined. The group’s quest to find all five doppelgangers for themselves crops up every few episodes.

In HIMF, Sophie and Ian have an inside joke where they send each other meme-worthy pictures of Jason Momoa lookalikes. We witness hilarious renditions of the actor, like Jason Mimosa, Jason Samosa, and my personal favourite – Jason FOMO-moa. A clever spin on the doppelganger trope.

Who can forget the mysterious pineapple from How I Met Your Mother? In season one, episode 10, titled “The Pineapple Incident,” Ted gets blackout drunk the night before and wakes up with a stranger in his bed alongside a pineapple sitting pretty on his nightstand. The group fills him in and eventually pieces together the timeline of his wild night out with one gaping hole – the story behind the pineapple. While they work themselves up trying to place the infamous pineapple, they ultimately cut it up and devour the fruit without figuring it out.

Sophie and Valentina’s apartment kitchen in How I Met Your Father prominently displays a wooden pineapple cutting board, a likely nod to the enigmatic pineapple from its pr

As Sophie and Ian walk their separate ways following their first in-person date, their anticipatory goodbye kiss is marred by the bitter news that Ian is moving to Australia full-time. This scene is incredibly reminiscent of Ted and Robin’s first date and their subsequent first non-kiss tension in How I Met Your Mother. Is this the show’s creators’ way of hinting that Sophie and Ian may be endgame? Only time will tell.

While the titular mother (Cristin Milioti) inHow I Met Your Mother may have appeared in the ninth season only, small hints were spread throughout the series leading to her eagerly-anticipated reveal. One of those clues included a yellow umbrella that belonged to Tracy, the mother of Ted’s children.

Sophie is an aspiring professional photographer in HIMYF who’s currently trying to find her footing. Her apartment walls were decorated with artistic photographs, likely snapped by her. One of those frames jumped at us because it featured a shot of the yellow umbrella. Yeah, that’s right. Who knew a photograph could take you back after all these years!

The veteran actor and comedian, Bob Saget, who iconically voiced the older version of Ted in How I Met Your Mother, recently passed away at age 65. How I Met Your Father pays the late actor homage at the end of the pilot right before the credits started rolling.

Hell hath no fury like Lily Aldrin scorned. The feisty redhead whose sick burns, life lessons, and personal brand of justice (the Aldrin justice) made her shine bright among her pack of friends. Whenever Lily would get real mad, she’d often spit out her angrier version of, “You son of a b*tch.” When Ian texts Sophie following declining her proposal to pursue a long-distance relationship, this is Sophie and Valentina’s knee-jerk reaction. While it seems like a perfectly normal phrase people utter, it became a catchphrase for Lily throughout How I Met Your Mother. Hence, I’m reading into it now that it reappeared in How I Met Your Father.