Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Jason Segel.
Marshall met Ted Mosby and Lily Aldrin during their freshman year at Wesleyan University. He is a Columbia Law School graduate originally from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Even though he's six-foot-four, he is the shortest member of his family.
In the first season finale, his wedding plans are derailed when Lily pursues a painting fellowship on the West Coast, triggering a fight that ends their engagement. He and Lily rekindle their romantic relationship in mid-season 2 and get re-engaged (and are actually married for 12 seconds) in the episode "Atlantic City." Their wedding takes place during the last two episodes of season 2.
Marshall accidentally shot his fiancée Lily in the eye with a champagne cork the night he proposed. Another time, he (also accidentally) stabbed her with a sword during an impromptu duel with Ted.
Marshall is very good at games. He always wins, which prompts his friends to put him in charge of game night with the exception that he can't play. Marshall took this to mean he must make up a game, and so he does: Marshgammon. It incorporates the best parts of all other games. It is revealed in Season 1 that he, his brothers and his dad also play a made-up game every Thanksgiving: BaskIceBall, although Marshall states it's just an excuse for the men in his family hit each other. When the gang was gambling in Atlantic City, Marshall was the only person to figure out the crazy game Barney was playing.
Marshall has a great love of, and often preoccupation with, food. In episodes such as "The Pineapple Incident" and "Drumroll, Please," while other characters are curious about the details of Ted's love life, Marshall is more concerned about the origin of foods associated with these details. He eats very often, consuming food such as popcorn or ice cream as a result of emotional situations.
Marshall is coerced into interviewing for a job at the corporation Barney works for after Lily ruins a very expensive wedding dress. This effectively derails his plan to intern at the Natural Resources Defense Council (or hippie lawyers from granola mountain earth pals, according to Barney). When he was sixteen, he got his Fiero from his older brothers after several "tests." A cassingle of The Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" got stuck in the tape deck of the Fiero and played on repeat for years. Ironically, the cassette upon which the song is recorded is finally ejected as Marshall pays the car his last respects after it stopped dead just before reaching 200,000 miles. Marshall and Lily recently married in two wedding ceremonies. The first ceremony was their ideal wedding, a small outdoor wedding, which was only witnessed by Robin and Ted whilst Barney performed the ceremony. The pressure of getting married gone, Marshall and Lily went inside to have the larger wedding merely for the benefit of everyone who had come to the wedding.
Marshall is also prone to singing along and describing in the lyrics whatever chore he is doing.
