This page explains in detail the interactions between the How I Met Your Mother series and the Mario series.
How I Met Your Mother episode Columns[]
January 22, 2007
How I Met Your Mother
Mario
In the eighteenth episode of season 2 (Episode #35), Barney finds a nude painting of Marshall at the apartment. In the flashback set in 1998 showing how Lily proposed Marshall to pose for the painting, he is seen playing the Super Nintendo, and since the console is sitting on the TV, the game can be seen to be Super Mario World.
How I Met Your Mother episode Desperation Day[]
February 14, 2011
How I Met Your Mother
Mario
In the sixteenth episode of season 6 (Episode #128), Lily travels to Marshall, who was living with his mother in Minnesota after the death of his father. Once there she finds out that he's behaving like a teenager, spending the days playing videogames. Specifically he comes in playing with a Game Boy, and after asking his mom for new batteries he says: I don't want my Game Boy to crap out, I'm having the sickest Dr. Mario run of my life!
Shortly after, as Marshall's mom asks Lily to take him back to New York she admits: I mean, he is having a pretty sick Dr. Mario run, but...
In a later scene while Marshall and Ted are playing on the Super Nintendo, Lily tries to convince Marshall to go back to New York, and mentions Super Mario Kart:
Lily: I'm sure it's been really helpful for her to have you here playing Super Mario Kart for 14 hours a day. Ted: You have Super Mario Kart?! Marshall: Hell, yeah. (points at the table and Ted hurries there to grab the game)
License[]
The creators of How I Met Your Mother held no right over Nintendo's Mario, but they only included minor references to the games.