Barney Stinson

Barney Stinson
Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson (2006)
First appearance	Pilot
Created by	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas
Portrayed by	Neil Patrick Harris
Information
Nickname(s)	Broda, Barn, The Barnacle, Barnito supreme, Swarley, Swarles, Swar-(wait for it)-ley, Swarhili, Bob Swarley-mon, Swar-lay, Swarles Barkley, Swarlos, Jennifer, Starney Binson
Aliases	Jack Package, The Commodore, Larney, Swarley, Ted Mosby - Architect, Barack Obama Jr.
Gender	Male
Age	34 (in season 4)
Occupation	Head of the Search Committee at Goliath National Bank
Family	James (brother) Bob Barker (purported father) Leslie (cousin) Loretta (mother) Unnamed Nephew Tom (brother-in-law) Barnabus Stinson (supposed Revolutionary War-era ancestor) Unnamed sister

Barney Stinson is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris.

Role on How I Met Your Mother

Barney Stinson is one of five main characters on the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother. Opposed to his claimed best friend, Ted Mosby (who almost every time Barney says so corrects him that Marshall is actually Ted's best friend), who wants to settle down, Stinson offers many strategies designed to help Ted meet women.^[1] Through several seasons of the show, four of the main characters were couples, as Ted began dating Robin Scherbatsky and Ted's roommate Marshall Eriksen became engaged (and later married) to Lily Aldrin. This left Stinson the only single character, and, according to Neil Patrick Harris, who portrays the character, Stinson was "resentful" that the other characters had paired up.^[2]

Harris was invited to audition for the character by Megan Branman, the casting director for the show. He assumed that he was invited solely because the two were friends and did not believe he had a chance of winning the role. Harris later said that "Since I (considered) myself the long shot, I didn't care that much, and I think that allowed a freedom."^[1] His audition centered on a scene of laser tag, and Harris executed a dive roll, accidentally knocking over a chair and slamming into a wall. CBS executives enjoyed his performance, and Harris was quickly offered the part.^[1]

Character

Harris describes Barney as a man who "likes to create crazy situations and then sit back and watch it all go down."^[3] In the show, Barney is a womanizer who almost always wears a suit, likes girls with Daddy issues and is always willing to offer his opinion.^[1] He tends to be opportunistic and manipulative, and will attempt to manipulate a situation so that it goes his way; in the episode "Shelter Island", for example, Barney successfully attempts to get Robin (in whom he was exhibiting romantic interest) to come to Ted's and Stella's wedding, even though it was not in the couple's best interests to do so. He is also highly competitive, and will take on "challenges" to complete (sometimes) outlandish tasks in order to prove his worth. He is proud and attempts to stand by his word no matter what; in "I Heart NJ", for example, he refuses to put down his fist unless someone offers him a fistbump. By the end of the episode, he has said fist elevated and in a sling after struggling to keep his fist up throughout the episode.

Although The Early Show described him as "utterly devoid of morality", Barney lives by the "Bro Code", his own code of rules, which includes a lemon law for blind dates.^[2] Despite his overall questionable character, according to creator Craig Thomas, Barney is "a pretty fragile character who's really afraid of being alone. He just wants people to like him, to be important to people, and to have disciples who follow his word."^[4]

Also, Barney, just like Neil Patrick Harris, who portrays him, is an illusionist. His favorite type of magic tricks seem to be those which include fire, which his friends seem to hate (as seen in the tenth episode of the second season, Single Stamina and in the fourth episode of the fourth season, Intervention). Barney uses them mostly to pick up women. His most common method of picking up women, however, is by telling them elaborate (and completely false) stories about himself; he sometimes goes under an alias.

Barney is also seen to have a gambling problem that he occasionally gets under control, only to relapse as seen in several episodes such as Atlantic City and Monday Night Football.

As far as talent goes, Barney has exhibited eloquence, wit and creativity numerous times throughout the series. He is very well-connected and speaks at least one language other than English. He apparently also has above-average video-editing skills; he created and edited his entire video resume all by himself. As shown on more than one occasion, he is proficient at playing the piano. He seems to have a thorough understanding of human behavior and uses this mainly to manipulate situations to his advantage (mostly to pick up women).

Childhood & Family

Barney's family life was defined in flashbacks in the episode "Showdown", which established that Barney's mother (younger version voiced by Megan Mullally, played by Frances Conroy) was a promiscuous woman who claimed that his father was Bob Barker, longtime host of The Price is Right.^[1] Barney also has a brother, James (played by Wayne Brady), who, unlike Barney, is African American and gay. In Robin 101, it was hinted that Barney was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, probably explaining his zoning out when people are talking to him. He has mentioned a younger sister on at least one occasion, but to date she has never been seen on screen.

Adult Life Prior to 2005 ("Pilot")

"Game Night" reveals that Barney had been an innocent idealistic young man who wanted to join the Peace Corps with his one and only serious girlfriend Shannon. When she left him for a suit-wearing womanizer, Barney almost immediately went out and lost his virginity to his mother's friend Rhonda French. Following his perceived success with satisfying Rhonda, he morphed into a similar suit-wearing womanizer, even going so far as to adopt some of the man's catchphrases.

In the Series (2005-Present)

While Barney's softer side is not seen often,^[4] it is not always relegated to flashbacks. When Marshall and Lily broke their engagement in season one, Barney lured women away from Marshall so that he could remain faithful to the woman he truly loved.^[3] It is revealed that it was Barney who convinced Lily to come back to New York, even buying her a plane ticket home. Barney's story arc in season four has him secretly in love with Robin. In the finale of season four he and Robin come to an understanding that they both have feelings for one another, but being afraid of having a relationship they agree to "sort this out later".

Barney's occupation has not been fully specified, though the company he works for was said to be the world's largest producer of the yellow fuzzy stuff on tennis balls (but future Ted implies that the company's main profits come from other sources, at which point short clips of weapons factories and missile launches are shown).^[2] In the season 3 episode "The Bracket," it was mentioned that he's good enough at lying to avoid perjury for what he does at work. As of Season 4, his company was involved in a hostile takeover with Goliath National Bank (GNB), he remains to be a powerful executive with the new company and continues to use the same office he has had since it was first shown in Season 1. In Season 4, during the episode "Happily Ever After", Barney states to a woman that he is an "Attorney In Law". His video resume was published in Season 4 episode "The Possimpible".^[5] Whatever his profession, Barney is apparently quite wealthy and is unarguably the richest out of the five. He lives in an upscale apartment and is rich enough to own two television sets that are each the size of a wall, as well as expensive memorabilia such as an original Clone trooper costume from the Star Wars films.

A fourth season episode has Barney celebrating sleeping with his 200th woman, a fact even his friends find disgusting. Barney finally explains his conquests by relating that back in seventh grade, a classmate named Matthew Panning claimed to have slept with 100 girls and Barney bet he'd double that number one day. He calls Panning and presents the list, to which an incredulous Panning says he was lying at the time and Barney has based his whole adult life "around something I lied about when I was 12." Barney displays disbelief in Panning's revelation and after Panning leaves, he asks himself what his driving motivation should now be. He then sees Robin waving at him from the bar as it seems to sink in just how empty his life has been.

'The Leap', which is the season four finale of How I Met Your Mother, has Barney finally confront Robin about his feelings. Robin attempts to 'Mosby' Barney, only to have Lily tell Barney that Robin had deliberately done that to drive him away. Barney and Robin confront each other in a hospital room where Barney finally tells Robin he loves her.

The two of them continued to date awkwardly, not wanting to give specific names to their relationship. Eventually though, the two embraced their dating life - even considering themselves the best couple (between them and Marshall and Lilly). However, the relationship began to bring out the worst in each other. Barney took on poor eating habits and Robin stopped taking care of herself because of her frustration with Barney. The two eventually decided to break up and resume their friendship.

In 2008, the book The Bro Code, ostensibly written by Barney, was published.

Catchphrases

In the show's pilot, Barney first utters his most recognizable phrase, "Suit up!", as he tells others to dress like him. According to creator Thomas, this is a sign that Barney "thought of his suit as some kind of superhero outfit that separated him from the pack."^[4] The phrase is repeated in many episodes, and is often modified to fit whatever clothing Barney is wearing, such as "Flight suit up!" when telling Ted to be his wingman in Halloween or "Snow suit up!" when inviting Ted to build an igloo in Central Park, mid winter or when Ted is waiting for a women at a Halloween party " I even penguin suited up up for you!" or "Slut up!" when Robin and Lily go to a prom. The phrase has also led to an International Suit-Up Day on Facebook. Besides "Suit up!", he often describes schemes as "Legendary!". He also frequently intersperses the phrase "Wait for it" between syllables of a long word.^[4] The season two finale closed with Barney saying "Legen - wait for it...", and he opened season three with "..Dary!".^[4]

In the show Barney frequently approaches attractive women with Mosby in tow and asks "Haaaaaave you met Ted?" as a way to start a conversation with strangers. Thomas says that this phrase is based in real life, as a one-time friend of his often used a similar line to meet women.^[4]

Barney also will tell elaborate, outrageous stories or assert his own "awesomeness", followed by "True story." Also, whenever asked what his job is he replies with a little laugh followed by "Please." His brother James reacted similarly when asked how the two were of different races. Barney often makes up statistics (usually 83%) in order to make his arguments sound credible. Marshall always catches him and out 'lawyers' him.

Barney is frequently asking for high-fives in different variations. 'Relapse five', 'Phone five', 'Tiny five', 'Freeze-frame high-five', 'hypothetical five', 'wordplay five', 'arthritis five', 'self five', 'foot five', 'claw five', 'solemn low-five' and 'door five' are a few.

Reception

According to The Early Show, Barney is one of the main reasons that the show has been a success.^[2] Maclean's says that Barney is the show's most popular character and explains that the most likeable characters are often those with the best catchphrases.^[4] In 2006, TV Land named Barney's "Suit Up" one of the 100 Best Catchphrases. Barney's signature phrase is one of only four from contemporary television shows, as writers are now less likely to have a character repeat a phrase in many episodes.^[4]

From 2007-2009, Harris was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work playing Barney.^[6] In 2008, Fireside published The Bro Code. Ostensibly written by Stinson, although actually penned by a writer for the show, the book reveals the code by which the character supposedly lives his life.^[7]

References

Bibliography