How I Met Your Mother is just a handful of days away from bowing out after nine seasons of yellow umbrellas, red cowboy boots and blue french horns.

The CBS sitcom is particularly known for its many recurring elements and running gags involving the New York group of friends.



So before we say goodbye to Ted, Marshall, Lily, Barney and Robin for good, Digital Spy has chosen 10 of our favourite such themes that we will miss when the sitcom ends on Monday (March 31).

High Fives

Barney's high fives have been a hallmark of HIMYM since the first episode. Whenever he is excited about pretty much anything, a high five is required, and usually with different names. Highlights include the Freeze Frame Five, the Solemn Low Five or the Relapse Five, in which "we high five, then it's awkward for a little bit, then we high five again".

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Intervention Banners

Quite an awesome idea that I hope groups of friends around the world implement, whenever the gang are concerned about a silly fad in one of the others' lives, they bring out the big red intervention banner. After occurring in one episode, it returned for several others throughout its run, and even got surprisingly deep when it dealt with Ted's romance with Stella.

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Telepathic Conversations

Each of the five members of the group have been able to conduct telepathic conversations with one another, whenever a bad situation arises that they need to keep schtum from other people. Barney and Ted, Lily and Marshall, Lily and Robin - pretty much all the pairings have had one at some point. There's even been a four-way conversation once.

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Slap Bet

After Barney incorrectly guessed that Robin once did porn, but was actually a teen idol in Canada (more on that in a bit), Marshall won the Slap Bet, which allowed him to slap Barney really hard at any point in time five times, and was later increased to eight. Over time, the eight slaps have come and gone. Some have been expected, some were not, but it was always a joy when they occurred.

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Robin Sparkles

Possibly HIMYM's finest moment was when it was revealed that super cool Robin was once a teen pop idol in Canada called Robin Sparkles. The video for 'Let's Go To The Mall' alone is pure gold, but over time we got to see more of her backstory and songs including 'Sandcastles in the Sand' and the grunge-tastic 'PS I Love You'.

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Legen...waitforit...dary!

One of the many catchphrases coined by Barney, and one that may have encroached outside of HIMYM fandom. Barney generally loves the word 'legendary' to describe any remotely interesting moment, but particularly important moments require a "wait for it" in the middle.

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Mock Salutes

A cute little in-joke that Ted and Robin had while they were in a relationship, in which any two words that include some form of rank is repeated out loud with a salute, such as "General Knowledge" and "Major Buzzkill". The others hated it at first, but in time everyone couldn't help but do it. It's also very difficult to not do this in real life when you hear a set-up.

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Barney's rules and laws

Over the course of the series, Barney brings up a whole host of rules, laws, graphs and charts that help teach Ted and Marshall the way to be a bro. Classics include The Lemon Law, in which people can avoid spending too much time on a date that is not going well within the first few minutes, and The Mermaid Theory, in which single men and married women can't be friends as eventually he will find her attractive. Barney also likes to name several of his creations "the number one rule", no matter how many of them there are.

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Challenge Accepted

A phrase uttered by Barney whenever a possible challenge is suggested for him to sleep with random women, no matter how crazy the idea. These include dressing as an old man, pretending to be a lesbian or speaking as a little boy. Sometimes he accepts the challenge even when there wasn't actually one in the first place.

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Haaaave you met....

Yet another Barney phrase, but one that has been used by others over time. A genuinely great game for wingmen and women to use on their mates, in which they say "Haaave you met [name]?", and then walk away, forcing the friend to speak to the stranger. It's also how Ted first met Robin, leading eventually to Barney marrying Robin. Mind blown!

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How I Met Your Mother concludes with a double-bill episode on March 31 on CBS in the US. It will air in the coming weeks on E4 in the UK.

What are your favourite HIMYM recurring gags? Let us know in the comments box below.

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