With the Met Gala recently ending and an abundance of new iconic fashion looks gracing the carpet, Nova thought we would give you our top ten faves from previous years.
On the 8th of January Jason Kimmel uploaded a TikTok video. In it, he’s sat at his piano in his New York apartment, softly playing the keys, he looks straight at the camera and sings:
And she told me I remind her of Ted Moseby.
I said “Honestly I’m flattered.” She said “Don’t be.”
I said “Really no I’m flattered, Ted’s annoying but I like Josh Radnor.”
She said “Who?” I said, “The actor.”
Catchy lyrics, playful melody and relatable subject matter with a whopping pop culture reference bow on top. The song reached 3.5 Million views on the original sound, which was then used in over 4000 videos by other creators, also getting views and likes in the millions.
We spoke to Jason about the song, which soon became known as ‘The Actor’.
“It was 100% a real person, real conversation!” he smiles, clearly used to answering this question.
“The musical theatre kid in me just wanted to capture that moment… the comedy of it, but also how relatable that is. To find someone just completely on another planet.”
Delivering the final line “The actor” as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, played heavily as punchline for many of the creators using the song in their videos.
“We all have our bubbles right?” Jason continues, “Things I’m interested in are so important in my head, and that’s backed up by the content on my feed. In that world, everyone is talking about the things I’m interested in.”
“But that falls apart as soon as you talk to someone in the real world.”
But what is it about How I Met Your Mother that has fans so emotionally invested?
The ‘New York sitcom’ is a well established seat in the Television royal family. Household names like Friends ruled for ten seasons, and before that the mighty Seinfeld held the throne.
“That late 90s, early 2000s era is often thought of as the golden age of sitcoms. People would rush home to watch Friends and you had to watch Sex and the City so you could talk about it at work the next day.” Says Professor Lincoln Geraghty, American Pop Culture expert and Author of Cult Collectors: Nostalgia, Fandom and Collecting Popular Culture.
Friends and Sex and the City both ended in 2004 and for the first time in decades, the throne was empty.
How I Met Your Mother premiered the following year and took the throne as THE New York sitcom, until its finale in 2014.
“As soon as you notice something has run for nine seasons, it’s pretty guaranteed to have an impact.” Says Geraghty.
“Nine seasons means every year, it was popular enough that it was worth making, with the actors getting more and more popular, needing higher salaries and so on.”
“How I Met Your Mother was a phenomenon. Not only for its longevity but the reach that it had. Barney’s ‘Legendary’ became common speech. Still in online culture, the frequency of shared images from HIMYM is well above other similar shows.”
However, there are some aspects of the show that have aged poorly. Specifically the actions of Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris.
Barney is a womanizer, a con-man and in a few instances, borderline abusive in his treatment of women. He most frequently plays the devil on Ted’s shoulder.
In contrast to Barney, Ted is far less set in his ways. He makes mistakes, he’s hypocritical and often learns lessons the hard way. He’s emotional and earnest, which often leaves him isolated, just like Jason’s character in “The Actor”.
“I always related to Ted.” Jason says, “But for that moment in the song, I’m kind of censoring myself. I know Ted isn’t cool to some stranger in a bar”
That self-censorship is an all too familiar feeling when getting to know someone for the first time. We can be defined by the things we’re passionate about. These characters we laugh, cry and grow with can be so important, and Jason agrees:
“I stand by that fully, I don’t think I could be with someone that doesn’t know that Josh Radnor played Ted Moseby.”
“The show was huge for me… Like are you living under a rock? Or you just don’t care? As an actor myself, it’s just so disrespectful.”
“The message was always more introspective than that one verse about Ted.”
“It’s self-doubt, a kind of unmotivated frustration. It’s nostalgia for an older version of myself, but an unwavering optimism. It’s that Ted Moseby feeling.”
The format of How I Met Your Mother is ‘future’ Ted looking back on himself with the wisdom to understand his mistakes, teaching his kids to be better. This portrayal of masculinity is so important for our modern society. For that we can thank Ted Moseby, and for Ted we thank Josh Radnor, The Actor.
