Long Island jabs in 'How I Met Your Mother

'How I Met Your Mother" writers Craig Gerard and Matthew Zinman have relied on their East Meadow backgrounds to add a quirky sense of place to the show and have influenced some of its other writers to do the same -- whether it's riffing on restaurants, enthusiasm for high school athletics, "The Drunk Train" or the Island's historic folklore. Here are some of the quips that originated in the writers room:

Marshall (Jason Segel), on living in East Meadow:

"What kind of life is this? Going to canasta tournaments and high school field hockey playoffs?"

Also in East Meadow:

Marshall: "You shouldn't have come to East Meadow, Long Island, Robin, if you didn't want to be entertained."

He and Lily bowl with "The East Meadow Alley Cats."

Of "The Uniondale Miniature's Museum," Marshall says, "You'll come for the 19th century thimble art, but you'll stay for the Dutch masters on bottle caps."

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Robin (Cobie Smulders), writing in her diary about East Meadow living: "So far they have welcomed me, and given me a rare glimpse into their bizarre way of life. By entertainment, they mean table shuffleboard, macramé classes, and other non-stimulating activities which are only used in Manhattan to calm down drug addicts and the criminally insane."

Robin, on restaurants: "A preliterate society, their menus display pictures of the food they offer. Everyone is forced to sing 'Happy Birthday' four or five times a meal, and dessert has fireworks in it."

Robin, on, presumably Snuggies, and sleep schedules: "In their lairs, they often don a primitive shroud called a Snuggit, and it is not uncommon for them to go to sleep before 9 p.m., fearing, as they do, the night."

On the drunk train: Barney (Neil Patrick Harris): "I was all, do I look like I'm from Ronkonkoma?"

Driving on the Long Island Expressway from Manhattan to "Farhampton": "Fun facts about our unsung neighbor to the East, Long Island," as told by Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor): "Just up ahead, the historic home of Florian van Otterloop, the Dutch bucklesmith who revolutionized the belt industry."

"Mennonite windmills."

"A 40-foot-tall butter churn in Ronkonkoma."