How I Met Your Mother Launched 55-Day Slapcountdown.com to Hype Season 3's Slapsgiving
Updated
Updated · tvline.com · Jul 6
How I Met Your Mother Launched 55-Day Slapcountdown.com to Hype Season 3's Slapsgiving
2 articles · Updated · tvline.com · Jul 6
Summary
In July 2007, How I Met Your Mother created Slapcountdown.com, a real website that counted down to the exact moment Marshall would slap Barney in the Season 3 Thanksgiving episode “Slapsgiving.”
The stunt was designed to exploit early second-screen viewing, with co-creator Carter Bays saying the team wanted a ticking clock on the show to exist in real life as fans watched with laptops open.
By the season premiere two months later, the site showed 55 days remaining, turning a joke from Season 2’s “Slap Bet” — where Marshall won five slaps he could deliver anytime — into a built-up event.
Creators said timing the countdown to land on a Monday night during the episode took significant planning, and Slapcountdown.com remained the show’s only tie-in site released in advance to promote a specific plot point.
The sitcom eventually spawned more than a dozen real companion websites, but most were shut down after the series ended in 2014.