On How I Met Your Mother, Lily would have to be the character credited as the voice of reason as she took charge of the group for the most part. Like the others, though, Lily was also prone to act a bit cuckoo on occasion, which brought many hilarious exchanges.
Still, she tends to get overlooked for not having that one striking bit of characterization, which is a real shame. In order to bring you up to speed on the potential of Lily as a solid character, we’ve brought you five each of her most heartbreaking and funniest quotes on the show.
Funniest: "Don't Tell Me How Much It Costs. Just Snap My Neck So I Can Die This Pretty."
Lily was known for her fashion sense as she was seen wearing numerous styles, but her best one yet might have been when she was a bride. While she looked radiant on her wedding day, it was during her first engagement that this quote came about.
Having gone dress shopping with Robin and Victoria, Lily tried on what seemed to be the most beautiful option. Knowing that it would cost her a fortune and that she could never afford it, Lily humorously asked to have her life ended so she’d at least go out looking the best she ever did.
Heartbreaking: "Sometimes I Wish I Wasn't A Mom..."
It's tragic that there is still a stigma surrounding postpartum depression, especially because so many women live with it. Unfortunately for Lily, she also felt its sting after becoming a mother, which was made worse since she didn't share her feelings with anyone for a long time.
In this instance, she saw that Ted was hiding his inner pain too, after Robin and Barney got engaged, and decided to ease it by revealing her thoughts. While she loved her family life, it did remind her of the things she had to give up.
Funniest: "It's My Birthday...It's Still My Birthday!"
If you want to know the best attitude to have on your birthday, look no further than Lily. For her, it was a “Happy Lily Day” rather than your usual birthday, and Lily carried an overly optimistic mindset throughout her special day.
This was seen best when she woke up at midnight to scream it was her birthday, doing so every few hours until she got ready to celebrate. What made it funnier was how Marshall was a husband who loved planning her birthday right down to the most minute level.
Heartbreaking: "If You Keep Using Words Like Winning And Losing About Marriage. You're Going To Lose Me."
We didn’t really get to see much drama in the relationship of Marshall and Lily for the most part, but this did arrive in the ninth season when they had a big conflict over their future. As Marshall had hidden his acceptance to be a judge, his guilt took the form of Lily.
She reminded him that his constant need to win fights would lead to a certain fallout, something they probably couldn’t come back from. It was a big scare for fans that even the best couple in the series had chinks in their armor.
Funniest: "I Know I Don't Usually Call You Doll Face But It Works In This Voice, Doll Face."
One of the funniest episodes of the series had to do with the gang’s attempts to stop themselves from smoking cigarettes. One of the contributing factors to this was Lily completely losing her natural voice and developing a raspy one instead.
Over the next few days, though, she took to enjoying her new voice, going so far as to speaking like a gangster from the ‘50s. It was here that she also started calling Barney “doll face” as she figured her new voice could pull it off. To be honest, it really could.
Heartbreaking: "Pause..."
Marshall and Lily’s practice of pausing their arguments so they could cool down generally had a negative outcome. The biggest one of which was when they had their last fight before their breakup, where Lily tried unsuccessfully to invoke the pause option.
As Marshall put her on the spot to choose between him and her bid to go to San Francisco, a torn Lily could only mutter “pause” halfheartedly. It became glaringly obvious that their breakup was inevitable.
Funniest: "The Farhampton Liquor Store's Pretty High-End. And Their Security's A Total Joke."
The characters on the show took rather ridiculous lengths in cheering one another up, so much so that they had no problems in committing larceny. Case in point was when Lily apparently waltzed right in the Farhampton store and came out with a lifted bottle of top-shelf scotch.
While Ted at first assumed she’d been nice enough to buy it for him, the way Lily worded her statement made it sound as if she’d sneaked around security. We’ll never know if she did steal it, but that’s what makes it funny.
Heartbreaking: "Yeah, She Is [Normal], And You Deserve A Nice Normal Girl."
After failing in San Francisco, Lily had assumed Marshall would take her back upon her return, only to be rejected for breaking his heart. However, she did learn her lesson in due course, as she went so far as to give him her blessing to be with someone else.
Of course, she didn’t actually want him to love another woman, but Lily had reached a point where she could live with her sorrow if it meant Marshall would be happy. He ended up taking her back, although fans were made to think they were done of good.
Funniest: "Eww...Is Something A Judgmental Chick Would Say But I Say Give Me Multiple High Fives."
The friendship between Barney and Lily was a unique one, in that she was the only person to see through his act but also wanted to make him a better person. However, Lily had to keep her judgement at bay when there was no place for her to stay other than at Barney’s.
In order to keep living there, Lily listened to all of Barney’s crazy ploys for seducing women. In this instance, she almost voiced out her disgust, only to hastily segue it into high-fiving Barney. As it turned out, behaving like Barney really did work as Lily extended her stay at his place.
Heartbreaking: "Our Whole Friendship Is Just Over?"
Some might argue that Robin and Lily’s friendship wasn’t as strong as other sitcom characters, and the rather dreadful finale provided some evidence of this. Here, Lily was shattered to realize that Robin was now moving away from the gang.
When Robin made it clear she wouldn’t be attending hangouts or be around on a usual basis, a heartbroken Lily asked her if their decade-long friendship could be over just like that. Sadly for her, this turned out to be the case as Robin and Lily weren’t the same kind of friends in the long-run.