How I Met Your Mother had a collection of recurring gags throughout its nine-season run. One recurring gag extended from the show into the real world: the fake websites. HIMYM built several fictional web pages to either embellish a joke or set up a storyline over the years, and many of them could have passed for actual websites.
Whether they were meant to trip up Ted's teaching career or prop up Barney's vague career accomplishments, the fake websites were detailed, creative and most importantly hilarious. These seven HIMYM fake websites are so good that the show wouldn't have been the same without them -- and many of them are still online to this day for fans to keep enjoying.
GradeMyTeacher.net
In Season 5, Ted became a professor of architecture at Columbia University after being offered the job by his ex-fiancée Stella's husband Tony. While he was hesitant at first, Ted took the position and fell in love with teaching -- until he discovered Grade My Teacher and found one negative review. This review caused him a great deal of stress as he thought he was keeping his class interesting.
The website is still online today and is based on the highly popular RateMyProfessors.com, which follows a similar structure of students rating and commenting on their professors.
CanadianSexActs.org
During Season 4, Robin let it slip that she was once invited to a Canadian celebrity's home to see his odd collection before being asked to do something inappropriate. This intrigued Marshall, Lily and Barney, who proceeded to spend the next three days trying to guess all three items -- the celebrity, the collection and the act. The trio used CanadianSexActs.org to search for the latter but failed to find the right answer. It was eventually revealed that the combo was The Frozen Snowshoe (a fictional Canadian wrestler), Harvey's trays (the odd collection) and Old King Clancy (the act).
TheSlapBetCountdown.com
After the revelation that Robin was a Canadian pop star in Season 2, Marshall was awarded five slaps to give Barney at any moment in time. Marshall took full advantage of this power and really milked the fear it caused Barney. During Season 3, Marshall decided to have some fun with the situation and set up a website that had a countdown to his next slap.
The website was launched during the first Thanksgiving the gang had together, and the slap was originally canceled by slap bet commissioner Lily because she felt Marshall's pettiness was ruining the holiday. She reinstated it with seconds to go, giving her husband the satisfaction he deserved.
LorenzoVonMatterhorn.com
Barney's tips and tricks for picking up women became more intricate in Season 5 with him utilizing The Playbook, a collection he created and tested to ensure anyone who used them would get lucky. His most advanced and convoluted play was called the Lorenzo Von Matterhorn. This scenario required the player to invent a fake persona of an incredibly rich socialite. The player would enter the bar and pretend to be recognized by the "target," who would proceed to search the fake name online and find articles and websites detailing the alter ego's philanthropy.
The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn website directs to a Wikipedia parody that includes a summary of Lorenzo. There are also three other sites with fake articles about him: Balloon Explorers Club, Extremities Quarterly and Big Business Journal.
BarneysVideoResume.com
For someone as excellent as Barney Stinson, a paper resume detailing his achievements was too boring. In Season 4, Barney created his video resume filled with engaging words and cool visuals, including an avalanche of the word "awesome," which had gained popularity amongst GIF users.
Barney then used his skills to create a video resume for Robin that helped get her a job at Channel 12 when she was at risk of being deported back to Canada. Barney's video resume is still available to download at the website for any fans who want to use it as inspiration for their job search.
ItWasTheBestNightEver.com
After failing to make couple friends in Season 5, Lily and Marshall decided to host a double date with and Barney and Robin. Barney and Robin came back annoyed and frustrated as they'd learned exactly why Lily and Marshall struggled to make couple friends: they were overbearing, from Lily's need for everything to be perfect to Marshall shoving cheese boards into their face. To top it all off, Marshall emailed Barney and Robin a musical slideshow of their date night, including a catchy original song. The show's producers set up a website where fans could see the video.
HIMYM audiences came to learn that Marshall does this frequently, as he'd previously emailed a video of himself ordering Chinese food and spilling it, cat-sitting for Lily's mom -- and the subsequent cat funeral.
LilyandMarshallSellTheirStuff.com
In Season 3, Marshall and Lily discovered that the floor of their new apartment was tilted and they couldn't afford to fix it. In order to make extra money, Marshall created a website called LilyAndMarshallSellTheirStuff.com so that Lily could sell some of her designer clothes. An angered Lily suggested they make a website titled Guy Forces His Wife to Dress in a Garbage Bag For the Next Three Years, which led to pictures of a woman wearing a garbage bag standing with her husband. Eventually, Lily found a way to afford the repairs without selling her clothes -- she sold several paintings to a veterinary clinic.
While thought up for a joke, the Lily And Marshall Sell Their Stuff website was actually selling items when the episode aired. A bumper at the episode's end had Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel (who played Lily and Marshall) reveal that the website was real and fans could purchase some of Lily's wardrobe, with the proceeds going to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.