The characters in How I Met Your Mother hosted a number of interventions during the show’s nine seasons. Here’s the story of how the interventions started, and how they kept coming back.

The interventions were introduced in How I Met Your Mother season 4, episode 4. The first intervention was a serious affair aimed at the gang’s friend Stuart who became an alcoholic after his marriage troubles. The group had an official “Intervention” banner made for the situation. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) then ruined it by bringing a bottle of gin, thinking it was Stuart’s birthday. This started the gang to use interventions for increasingly petty complaints. Whenever one character had an issue with another, they would break out the banner.

At one point, Ted, Lily, Marshall, and Robin (Cobie Smulders) decided to give Barney an intervention for his overuse of pyrotechnic magic tricks. During the intervention, he lit the banner on fire and burned a spot above the fireplace. Ted eventually realized they all needed an intervention for all of their interventions. However, a second banner was made for Ted by his friends when they didn’t approve of his engagement to Stella, and while it was never officially used then, it did come out a few more times later in the series.

Here are all the reasons why the intervention banner was brought out in How I Met Your Mother (and when, for those cases after the initial wave):

  • Ted: His pronunciations for words like “encyclopedia”; his rushed relationship with Stella; being in love with a married woman (season 6, called himself). Robin: Her obsession with getting spray tans; for being too obsessed with Barney (season 7). Marshall: For not wanting to take off his purple and yellow Dr. Suess hat; his constant use of charts (late season 4). Lily: Her use of fake British accents. Barney: Overuse of magic tricks; not wanting to stop pretending to be an old man to attract girls; to reconnect with his father (season 6); to slow things down with Quinn (season 7). The whole group: Having too many interventions.

Towards the end of season 6, an intervention for Barney was held to persuade him that he needs to have dinner with his father so he can give him another chance. Barney got another intervention the following season when he was preparing to move in with Quinn (called a “Quinn-tervention”). The last intervention in How I Met Your Mother was for Robin when she became obsessed with Barney. It took place in season 8 and it was all part of Barney’s play, “The Robin.” Barney made Robin go crazy after he faked a relationship with another woman. In the end, the play worked perfectly and Barney and Robin got engaged.

Interventions sometimes led to conflict in the group, but they remain one of How I Met Your Mother’s funniest running gags.

Next: Why How I Met Your Mother’s Controversial Finale Was A Perfect Ending