Romantic comedies are perhaps the most predictable movies and TV shows because they have a template that is ever-present. How I Met Your Father falls under the rom-com genre, following in the footsteps of How I Met Your Mother to depict the story of a person meeting the one they will marry.
Hilary Duff’s sitcom may contain tropes that are commonplace in the rom-com environment, but they are all valid in the way they are incorporated. With the Hulu series set to be around for a while, it’s interesting to explore the elements it uses in its storytelling and why they have been executed so well.
Romantic False Leads
Romantic comedies almost always have love interests who aren’t going to end up with each other but are presented to stir up conflict for the true couple. How I Met Your Mother also had one-off characters who served this purpose to confuse fans over who Ted’s future wife will be.
The sequel series does a good job of invoking this trope because Sophie’s made it clear that she met the father on the night of the premiere episode. New false leads have been introduced with the catch that she met these men on said night, so there’s still great interest in these characters since they are still in the running to be Sophie’s future husband.
Epic Fail Dates
The failed dates trope establishes the fact that the characters are unlucky in love and brings in the comedy aspect of a rom-com. How I Met Your Father has so far featured fails like Sid’s ill-fated attempt to make a long-distance romance sexy, Jesse striking out with women, and Sophie going on dates with weird guys.
It suits the setting of the series since each character is meant to be frustrated with the dating landscape to a certain extent. The failures in their romantic lives are what motivate them to try to find the one because they’ve had enough of being the butt of the universe’s jokes.
Love Montage
A love montage depicts the beginning of a romance where everything seems to go perfectly and is essentially the honeymoon phase. It’s one of the aspects HIMYF has adapted from HIMYM, as the original series had a number of montages where Ted used to experience similar feelings when he started a new relationship.
The current series portrayed this with Valentina and Charlie, along with Sophie and Ian, but it doesn’t feel too corny because the trope is somewhat parodied. How I Met Your Father has chosen to go beyond to show what happens after the love montage and the challenges that follow, which justifies the use of the trope.
Embarrassingly Funny Breakup
The best way to show that characters have significant baggage to carry is through an embarrassing incident. Rom-coms tend to blow this out of proportion to unrealistic but humorous levels, and How I Met Your Father has done the same to explain why Jesse is such a cynic.
As it happened, his girlfriend dumped him when he made a live video to propose to her, which went viral and turned him into a reluctant internet sensation. The trope works mainly because it has now set Jesse up for his character development where he’s on the path to learning to trust another person enough to fall in love.
Meet-Cute Between Love Interests
Those who are aware of Hilary Duff’s list of acting credits know that she has had her fair share of material that contains this trope. It’s a rom-com staple that ensures the first meeting will remain firm in viewers’ memories for them to buy into the idea that a couple is meant to be.
Although multiple meet-cutes can be overdone, it makes sense in How I Met Your Father due to Sophie’s personality, who tends to hope that the next guy she meets will be the person she’ll end up with. The series is from her point of view, so the meet-cutes are how Sophie perceives them to be.
Romantic Tension
Among the similarities between HIMYF’s Sophie and HIMYM’s Ted is that they are both around people whom they are interested in. Ted had Robin, who he tried to be friends with but kept pursuing, whereas Sophie has had a similar dynamic with Jesse ever since they've met.
The romantic tension trope highlights how two people can be right for each other if they didn’t have different life goals but the “will they/won’t they” aspect of it all keeps viewers interested. It’s the hook that a rom-com throws towards fans to keep them guessing if the pair will make things official.
Opposites Attract
Another trope that has gone on for the longest time, it’s remained popular because characters with different personalities can clash before they get together. It would get boring to see the same kind of people all the time, so rom-coms tend to have love interests be opposites.
How I Met Your Father has incorporated it into Valentina and Charlie, with the former being something of a slob and relatively flighty while the latter is uptight and clueless. It helps to bring in a load of laughs, as watching Valentina and Charlie stumble their way through a relationship with such striking differences in personalities is an easy avenue for humor.
Foregone Conclusion
Anybody who chooses to watch a romantic comedy is well aware that the story will have an ending where the characters get together. How I Met Your Father has already guaranteed it due to the fact that the premise is about Sophie telling her son how she met his father.
Considering the basis of the series is the adaptation of this trope, there’s little doubt that it works since fans want to see the journey Sophie takes to get her happy ending. Letting viewers know that she’s happy in the future brings the casual energy that’s required for a rom-com to work.
Spunky Best Friend Character
As long as there have been rom-coms, there have been characters whose role is to be the spunky best friend to the main protagonist. Valentina serves as this for Sophie while both Sid and Jesse are each other’s best friend archetype who alternate in their funny side.
It wouldn’t make sense for there not to be a character who falls under this trope in an ensemble cast, so the presence of Valentina, Sid, and Jesse is certainly welcome. They also balance out Sophie’s constant identity crisis, and the show’s foundation is supposed to be built upon friends who help each other go through tough times.
Hopelessly Romantic Protagonist
While recent romantic comedies have started to move away from this trope, it wouldn’t have been possible for How I Met Your Father. That’s because the protagonist has to be a person who realizes that the journey to finding “the one” is a long road and they need to learn to first love themselves and the people around them.
Sophie is an even better character for the trope because she has a rather sad backstory where she never knew her father and didn’t have an example of a happy couple in her life. For Sophie to believe in love to the end is to establish that a person can have a fairy tale romance regardless of who they are.