Marshall Eriksen claimed he was mugged by a monkey in How I Met Your Mother season 5, but aspects of the incident still remain a mystery. The character, played by Jason Segel, was always the most good-natured member of the group. Throughout Carter Bays and Craig Thomas' CBS sitcom, Marshall was showcased as having the biggest heart, resulting in his morals sometimes getting in the way of his friends' shenanigans.
Marshall's morals came into focus during the How I Met Your Mother season 5 episode "Zoo or False." After being unable to pay for the pizza ordered for the group, Marshall was forced to explain that his wallet was stolen by a man with a gun in Central Park. Marshall's wife, Lily, immediately took an interest in purchasing a gun for safety. Concerned about Lily buying a gun, Marshall then changed his story, claiming that he was actually mugged by a monkey in the Central Park Zoo, but he was too embarrassed with the truth. He later told Ted and Barney that the monkey story was made up in the hope that Lily would stop worrying.
Marshall's story became more complicated when Robin asked that he tell his story on her TV news program. The station brought in Bobo, the monkey from the zoo, revealing that he will be separated from his mate due to the crime. Feeling the guilt by Bobo's fate, Marshall changed his story back, stating that he was mugged by a man, not a monkey. His friends wouldn't stop asking what really happened, causing Marshall to leave. Future Ted reiterated that nobody ever found out the truth about Marshall's mugging, which was also the case when it came to viewers.
Unlike the "Pineapple Incident," the popular sitcom never cleared up the truth regarding Marshall's stolen wallet in Central Park. The decision to leave the episode a mystery was meant to be unclear so that fans didn't know what to believe. The episode, however, went deeper than the truth about the monkey. The point of Marshall's internal struggle was to show how much he attempted to appease his loved ones. He altered his story so that his wife wouldn't feel unsafe, but then he changed the details again so a monkey wouldn't be separated from its mate. In the end, the truth got to be too much, forcing everyone to move on.
More than likely, Marshall was probably robbed by a human while walking in Central Park. He surely wanted support after the terrifying incident, but due to Lily's reaction, he dumbed down the incident. Marshall had a habit of getting himself into goofy situations, so he may have figured his friends would believe the monkey mugging. When he got himself in over his head with the TV news story, Marshall couldn't lie any longer. Rather than unearth the lies, Marshall left the topic ambiguous. With all that said, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for How I Met Your Mother to feature a character being robbed by a zoo animal.
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