What is The Great Gatsby about? How I Met Your Mother co-creator reveals how the episode Purple Giraffe was inspired by Fitzgerald's classic

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, is a dazzling yet tragic exploration of money, love, and the delusion of the American Dream and is considered to be one of the foremost American novels of the 20th century. Decades later, the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother was an unlikely echo of Fitzgerald’s themes of unfulfilled yearning and performative excess.

The Great Gatsby, set in the Roaring Twenties, follows Jay Gatsby, a secretive millionaire who throws grandiose parties at his estate in Long Island in an attempt to win back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Conveyed through the eyes of Gatsby’s cousin, Nick Carraway, the novel lays bare the emptiness that lurks below Gatsby’s decadent existence, ultimately building to a withering takedown of class, obsession, and the unattainable past.

On March 31, How I Met Your Mother co-creator Craig Thomas shared on the podcast How We Made Your Mother that The Great Gatsby inspired the season 1 episode Purple Giraffe, where Ted throws parties to win Robin back.

"I remember one of the things that sparked the idea for this episode was The Great Gatsby,"Thomas said.

Craig Thomas and Josh Radnor humorously add,

"Like any CBS sitcom in 2005, we were mostly inspired by Fitzgerald."

The parallels are striking. Ted throws multiple social soirees, at the expense of his friends' comfort, to lure Robin back, in the same way that Gatsby hopes that one day Daisy might happen upon one of his parties. Both characters cling to idealized visions of their love interests and refuse to accept the world with its full complexity.

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How I Met Your Mother Co-creator Craig Thomas's Debut Novel

While How I Met Your Mother established Craig Thomas as a master at blending humor with heartwarming storytelling, his first novel marks a new chapter in his career.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Thomas is gearing up to release his debut novel, That's Not How It Happened, on November 4, 2025, with How I Met Your Mother stars Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders lending their voices for the audiobook.

The story follows Paige, the protagonist of the book, who unintentionally becomes a stay-at-home mother while her husband Rob's screenplay career prospers. After her children, including her son Emmett with Down syndrome, have grown up, Paige decides to publish a memoir about the difficulties of motherhood.

When a Hollywood producer wants to adapt Paige's novel into a movie, each member of the family has a different perspective on the prospect. The multi-perspective story tracks each family member as they decide if the new film will strengthen their bonds or, in the end, cause them to drift apart.

Thomas heavily draws from experiences in his own life, being a father of a son with Jacobsen syndrome. He hopes his novel will encourage a wider discussion about disability and "about how love stories can come in many different shapes and sizes".