In “The Pineapple Incident,” Ted wakes up to find a pineapple on his nightstand. The fruit is one of the episode’s central mysteries, appearing alongside a mysterious woman, a sprained ankle, and Ted’s partially burned coat after his night of drinking.
The episode is the tenth installment of season 1 and originally aired on November 28, 2005. After Barney persuades Ted to drink five shots of Carl’s strong “Red Dragon” mixture, Ted blacks out. He later tries to reconstruct the evening by questioning his friends, bartender Carl, and the woman he invited over.
For years, the show treated the pineapple’s origin as an unresolved joke. Ted says he never discovers where it came from, although it was delicious. A deleted scene released much later explains that Ted stole it from the Captain’s porch, where it represented hospitality. That scene is often mentioned by fans, but the answer to the episode question remains simply pineapple.