Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Jason Segel. Series co-creator Craig Thomas explained that he based Marshall and Lily on himself and his wife Rebecca.
Character overview
The series revolves around the adventures of the five main characters: Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) and his best friend Marshall, his friend and Marshall's girlfriend (later fiancee and wife) Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and friend/love interest (and future love interest and wife to Barney Stinson) Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders).
Marshall met Ted and Lily during their freshman year at Wesleyan University in 1996, and they moved into an apartment in New York City together after graduation. In the show's pilot episode, he proposes to Lily, inspiring Ted to start looking for the love of his life.
Marshall is fascinated by the paranormal, and has absolute faith that mythical creatures such as Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster are real. He has even discovered a paranormal event himself: a bizarre creature he names "the cockamouse". He is also a huge fan of the Minnesota Vikings, much like his father.
Although very few references were made to identify Marshall's birthday, it can be assumed he was in the same school year as best friend and roommate Ted Mosby and then-girlfriend Lily Aldrin. In "The Yips" Marshall says he is 29. This episode aired in November 2007. This confirms Marshall's birth year to be either 1977 or 1978. Ted turned 30 on April 25, 2008 in "The Goat". The dialogue in this episode implies that Lily, Marshall and Robin have not yet reached this milestone. In "Glitter", Lily says Marshall is 384 months old, thus 32 years, 1 week, 1 day and 21 hours old. Since the episode plays somewhere between November 9 (the date the previous episode played in) and November 24, 2010 (the date the next episode plays in) it can only be concluded that he was born between November 2 and November 14, 1978.
Life before first episode
Marshall was born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the youngest of three brothers. His last name, the fact that he is from Minnesota and his references to lutefisk suggests that he might be a Scandinavian American. He has been shown to be extremely close to his family, particularly his father, Marvin (Bill Fagerbakke). His relationships with his two older brothers, Marvin, Jr. and Marcus, was depicted in several episodes as involving pranks and brutal fighting matches when they were teenagers. By the time the series begins, both of his brothers are married and have started families. It was depicted that his brothers were the ones who gave Marshall his very first car, a Pontiac Fiero, which had a cassette single stuck in it containing the song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)".
In an episode it's shown Marshall starts smoking while still in high school and struggles to stop until his children are born.
After graduating from an unnamed St. Cloud high school, Marshall attended and received his B.A. from Wesleyan University. He met both Lily and Ted during the move-in process. Ted was his first roommate in college. Marshall is shown to frequently smoke marijuana, though in the show, Future Ted refers to this as "eating a sandwich" in order to hide their past drug use from his children. In fact, Marshall is shown to have smoked marijuana before initially meeting Ted and confuses him for the dean of the school. Marshall is also shown to enjoy drinking to the point of intoxication in college. One of those times, he is involved in a hazing where he becomes so drunk that he streaks and proclaims himself "Beercules" following the drinking game "Edward 40-Hands", a reference to the film Edward Scissorhands, but instead of scissors for hands, the participant tapes 40 fl. oz. drinks to their hands.
Marshall and Ted became good friends after this. During a break during school, Marshall plans to drive back to Minnesota in his Fiero. Marshall offers Ted a ride to his own home in Shaker Heights saying that it is on the way, which Ted eventually accepts. They bond during a blizzard and over the song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". Ted's friendship with Marshall is shown to help strengthen Lily and Marshall's early relationship, by him inviting her into their first roommate photo, Ted encouraging Marshall to commit to Lily, despite Marshall not having much prior relationship experience. Ted and Marshall would also take frequent roadtrips to Chicago to get pizza from their favorite shop. They also begin their tradition of watching the original Star Wars trilogy while in school together.