HIMYM Fans Have Big Opinions On Ted's Worst Ex-Girlfriend

Dating can sometimes be a real nightmare. In previous days, single people would often go to places of congregation, like bars and their ilk, to meet prospective partners. More recently, apps have come to dominate many of our interpersonal relationships, with many people proclaiming that they met each other online. The popular sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" recounts how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) finally meets his wife, which is a story that he is telling his children in the year 2030. As such, the retelling of Ted's dating history and his colorful friends often forms the basis of the series.

According to Buzzfeed, Ted manages to date or engage in a tryst with over 58 women over the tenure of the show. Considering that there are 208 episodes of "HIMYM," this means that Ted usually has a new girlfriend every 3.5 episodes, give or take, from a statistical point of view. As such, there are plenty of options when it comes to whom fans think may have been Ted's worst girlfriend, and they definitely aren't shy about expressing their opinion, much like Ted's womanizing friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris).

Although Ted has dated or seen many women over the span of "How I Met Your Mother," it seems as if fans on Reddit have created their own informal poll to finally answer the question about who is Ted's worst girlfriend. u/frozenfreddy7443 started the poll, and the options were Stella (Sarah Chalke), Karen (Laura Prepon), Jeanette Peterson (Abby Elliott), Zoey (Jennifer Morrison), Blah Blah Carol (Abigail Spencer), and Becky (Laura Bell Bundy). After 950 votes, it become quite clear that there was one who rose above the rest, but two others were right behind.

It seems as if "HIMYM" fans on Reddit have crowned Karen as Ted's worst girlfriend with 302 votes, while second place was Stella with 260 votes, and third was Jeanette with 255. With numbers like these, it becomes apparent that the other three options didn't even come close, with fourth place going to Zoey with 101 votes, and last place was tied between Blah Blah and Becky with 16 votes.

However, although the votes of this informal poll definitely skew in one direction, not all fans were on the same proverbial page, with u/Traditional_Range_28 saying, "Picking the worst will always be difficult because they all led the category based on different criteria because worst can mean many things based on the perspective that you're focusing on. Worst personality? Worst behaviors? Etc." They then listed several of Ted's ex-girlfriends and why they think they are bad, with comments about Stella, Zoey, Karen, Jeanette, Blah Blah, and even Victoria (Ashley Williams), who wasn't on the poll.

Others also felt compelled to express their opinions on Ted's worst girlfriend, and u/herkalurk said, "Karen is the worst. While Jeanette is the crazy one, she wasn't vindictive. Karen tried to manipulate Ted into doing things her way, and even when she was clearly in the wrong (sleeping with other guys) she would find a reason and manipulate it in her favor to get Ted back. Didn't help that Ted was on her hook."  u/Fexxvi also had some strong thoughts, and posed a question to their fellow Redditors by asking how Karen can be worse than Jeanette. Although they acknowledged Karen's philandering, they think the physically abusive Jeanette is far worse.

In an interview with Glamour, several of the actors who played Ted's ex-girlfriends were asked what they think their character would be up to after breaking up with Ted, to which Karen actress Laura Prepon replied, "Karen has just got to be snobbily blogging somewhere, I think — mainly just getting paid to pronounce things 'over' and 'passe' and 'provincial.'" Considering the above comments and Prepon's own thoughts on her character, it appears as if the general intolerable nature of Karen hasn't been lost, though there certainly is a healthy debate when it comes to Ted's worst girlfriend in "How I Met Your Mother."