Harris describes Barney as a man who “likes to create crazy situations and then sit back and watch it all go down.” In the show, Barney is a confident womanizer in his early thirties who almost always wears a suit, likes women with Daddy issues and is always willing to offer his (sometimes hypocritical) opinion. 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 stubborn, 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. 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.”
Barney, just like Harris, is an illusionist. His favorite type of magic tricks 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, is telling them elaborate (and completely false) stories about himself; he often 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” (where he has Chinese Triads gambling friends) and “Monday Night Football”. Furthermore, he is something of a metrosexual; he enjoys manicures, and has an extensive knowledge of designer labels and gourmet food.
As far as talent goes, Barney has exhibited eloquence, wit and creativity numerous times throughout the series. He is very well-connected, the most affluent of the group and speaks at least one language other than English, using what is said to be Ukrainian (but is Russian in fact) with his tailor, Mandarin and Korean at least twice in business deals with shady North Koreans. He apparently also has above-average video-editing skills; he created and edited his entire video resume all by himself. Also, he seems to be a talented website designer, as shown in “The Playbook.” As shown on more than one occasion, he is proficient at playing the piano, as are Ted and Marshall. 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). Several episodes also showcase many of Barney’s crazier abilities, such as his physical ability to complete the New York City marathon without a single day of training (though his legs went numb while he took the subway moments later), being able to punch through walls, stay under water for up to 12 minutes and being knowledgeable enough to guess the exact price of prizes on The Price Is Right. He also juggles knives in “Doppelgangers”. Despite his eclectic and prodigious talents, Barney is lacking in several common skills, such as driving a car (as shown in “Arrivederci, Fiero.”)
As revealed in “Zoo or False,” Barney was born 7 years after first manned landing on the Moon, thus making 1976 his year of birth. His phone number is seen in season five, episode 15.
Although coming across as a very strong character with a penchant to committing daring and wild feats, Barney has an extreme fear of spiders as shown in the season 2 episode “First Time in New York”.
Barney has held an iPhone since the first 2G model, and in the later episodes of the 6th season it is seen, that he has the iPhone 4.
Childhood and family
Barney was born in 1976 and was raised in Staten Island.[7] 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] In “Natural History” it is mentioned that a man named Jerome Whittaker, who up to now Barney believed to be his uncle, signed a form claiming to be Barney’s dad. Barney has a brother, James (played by Wayne Brady), who, unlike Barney, is African American and gay. He also has a female cousin named Leslie, as seen in the episode “Okay Awesome”. In the episode “The Leap,” Lily revealed that Barney also planned on being a violinist when he was young. In “Robin 101″, it was hinted that Barney was diagnosed with ADD as a child, probably explaining his zoning out when people are talking to him.
Adult life prior to 2005 (“Pilot”)
“Game Night” reveals that Barney had once been an innocent, idealistic young man who wanted to join the Peace Corps with his first serious girlfriend, Shannon. When she left him for a suit-wearing womanizer, James arranged for the 23-year-old Barney to lose his virginity to their mother’s friend, Rhonda “the Man Maker” French. After he sleeps with Rhonda and is led to believe he satisfied her, he became a similarly suit-wearing womanizer, even going so far as to adopt some of his rival’s catchphrases. Barney is also revealed to have had a terrible gambling problem, enabled by his mother, who is a bookmaker. However, he assures the group that it is not a problem because he is so good at it. He revealed in “Atlantic City” that he lost his entire life’s savings playing a Chinese game. Also, he apparently lost every one of his many bets on the Super Bowl. He will go to any lengths to win a bet, even if it takes one year for just $10.
In the series (2005–present)
While Barney’s softer, generous side is not often apparent, it is not always relegated to flashbacks. When Marshall and Lily break their engagement in season one, Barney lures women away from Marshall so that he could remain faithful to the woman he truly loved. 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”. He is also known to write a blog (Barney’s blog), which is a habit that comes from Harris’ role in Doogie Howser, M.D.. The music played during his blogging sessions is Doogie Howser’s theme song.
Career
Barney’s occupation has not been fully specified, though the company he works for (Altrucell) 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, less innocuous sources, such as logging, oil drilling, small arms, tobacco farming and missile construction). In the season 3 episode “The Bracket,” it was mentioned that he is good enough at lying to avoid perjury charges. As of Season 4, his company was involved in a hostile takeover with Goliath National Bank (GNB), but he remains a powerful executive and continues to use the same office he has had since it was first shown in Season 1. Despite this, he has suggested there is the possibility he will one day wash up on shore with no teeth or fingerprints and supposedly has come under attack by ninjas in the past during work. In Season 4, during the episode “Happily Ever After”, Barney states to a woman that he is an “Attorney in Law”, though this was probably just part of a pick-up line as he immediately followed it with “Let’s talk about getting you off”. His video resume was published in Season 4 episode “The Possimpible”.
In the Season 4 episode “Woooo!,” the leader of the Swedish architecture firm SVEN reveals Barney to be the head of the search committee. It is likely that the “search committee” was simply a project team to manage to the project of designing a new GNB building, and that “head of the search committee” is not his primary occupation. Whatever his profession, Barney is apparently quite wealthy and is probably 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, including Clone trooper and Imperial Stormtrooper costumes from the Star Wars films. He frequently buys expensive items, such as a last-minute plane ticket to San Francisco or thousands of dollars in postage stamps, on the spur of the moment. Barney is also shown to be a fan of the rock groups AC/DC and Bon Jovi.
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 that he would 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, and then smiles to himself.
The season 4 final episode “The Leap” 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 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 Lily). 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.
Episode “Twin Beds” sees Barney reconsidering his relationship with Robin, because Don is now dating Robin and has asked her to move in with him. In spite of Ted, Barney decides he wants Robin back and manages to convince Ted that he does too. The episode ends with neither Barney or Ted managing to get anywhere with Robin who has decided to be with Don and to effectively cut them both out of her life. Barney is still resolved to “get” Robin and she returns in the following episode, “Robots Versus Wrestlers.”
The episode “Doppelgangers” has Barney masquerading as a cab driver to further his goal of sleeping with a lady from every country. He fails at this task and later becomes the object of Lily’s fixation with finding a Barney doppleganger. While Barney masquerades as both a cab driver and an Estonian knife juggler, Barney’s doppleganger is not seen in this episode.
In 2008, the book The Bro Code, ostensibly written by Barney, was published.
In 2010, Barney was featured in a Super Bowl commercial that showed him in the stands at the Super Bowl with a sign stating “Hey Ladies Call Barney Stinson 1-877-987-6401. A call to the number results in a recorded message inviting you to meet him at McLaren’s Pub on Monday, October 12, 2016, even though that date falls on a Wednesday. The scene was worked into the show itself a day later.
Barney has met Ted’s kids before, as shown in the episode “Miracles,” because Ted refers to Barney as Uncle Barney.
Relationship with Robin
Barney’s relationship with Robin was his first major one (that we know of) after becoming a suited-up, well-groomed bachelor. His first ever real relationship though was with Shannon, as shown in the episode “Game Night.”
Signs of some sort of connection between Barney and Robin, could be seen back in the season one episode “Zip, Zip, Zip,” where Barney is teamed with Robin because he is unable to use Ted as his wingman. Robin is also alone during this episode and decided to act as Barney’s wingman leaving to her attempting to set up Barney. It is perhaps the last part of this episode that lays the groundwork for any future relationship, as Barney decides to go ‘bare pickle’ in front of Robin as a precursor to sex, only to have Robin state that she has feelings for Ted. Throughout the first three seasons, there were instances such as in “Moving Day” where Barney discovers that Robin isn’t wearing makeup and says, “Holy crap, you’re beautiful!;” and in “Ten Sessions,” where Barney mentioned his proposition to Robin for sex and implied that he was still bothered by its failure, where it was hinted that Barney was attracted to Robin, though he never acted upon the attraction after “Zip, Zip, Zip.”
In the season 3 episode, “Sandcastles in the Sand,” Barney and Robin sleep together for the first time after watching her second Robin Sparkles music video. However, both are unnerved and Robin eventually reveals what happened to Ted, who tells Barney he does not want to be friends anymore. In the season 3 finale, Barney has a horrible bus accident while rushing to the hospital to see Ted despite their feud, and the gang gets back together. Marshall mentions that during Ted’s car accident, Ted had seen his life and the things he loved flash before his eyes. He asks Barney what he saw. As the group laughs at the possibilities, Barney realizes his feelings for Robin.
In the season four premiere, “Do I Know You?,” Barney admits to Lily that he has feelings for Robin, and continues to struggle with them throughout the season. Finally, in the season four finale, “The Leap,” Robin discovers Barney’s feelings for her and eventually decides to “Mosby” him—scaring him off by saying “I love you” too soon. However, Barney discovers her intentions and confronts her, leading to a revealing discussion that ends with a kiss.
This relationship came to realization in season 5 in the episode “Definitions” and continued until “The Rough Patch.” This episode concluded with Robin and Barney deciding to “become friends again”. After their break up, Barney dives back into his bachelor life. However, in the episode “Twin Beds,” Barney decides despite his better instincts and Ted’s advice to continue pursuing Robin. Their future as a couple is still unknown.
In an interview with the creators of the show, they stated that if they had their time again they would not have broken up the pairing of Barney and Robin so soon. As episodes are written months in advance, the chemistry between the two characters was never realized until it was too late to do anything about it.
In Season 6, there are moments where Barney is shown to still have some feelings for Robin although nothing as notable as was depicted in Season 4. In the season 6 premiere, Big Days Barney makes a comment that Robin who is currently still getting over Don has ‘Lost it’ . Robin seems to take this message to heart and leaves returning later dressed in a sundress where it appears she is using it as a bait to see if she can still pick up men. This tactic proves successful and seems to have been done for the benefit of Barney. Barney compliments her on her change and beauty which she accepts.
In the season 6 episode, Subway Wars Barney is seen to help Robin win the bet to get to a restaurant where Woody Allen is supposedly eating. According to the recollection of Future Ted, Barney deliberately trips Ted as they are running neck to neck with Robin. Future Ted surmises that Barney did this as Robin was feeling quite depressed and sad about her life in New York. Earlier in the same episode. Barney does not listen to Robin as she attempts to talk to him about an unknown topic. He uses her in one of his ‘plays’ and she reacts badly to this. Barney’s actions at the end of the episode could be seen as trying to make up for this, or perhaps because of his latent feelings for Robin.
Natural History shows Barney and Robin together as they attend a Black Tie Dinner held at a museum. They spend most of the episode trying to one up each other by touching and misusing items in the museum until finally both are caught by security. Barney is shown to have caused significant damage to some exhibits when younger to the surprise of Robin. Later he learns that the man who took him to the Museum was his father. Barney is seen talking to Robin as she tries to ease his mind, before he asks her to not tell anyone about his potential father.
Family
Barney has one sibling, James an African American who is gay and married with an adopted son.
Raised by his mother Loretta, Barney was found to be no good at sports and from various episodes it is shown had few friends. (one scene shows that nobody attended his birthday party). Barney’s father has proven to be an ongoing concept in the series with his mother pointing to the tv once after a young Barney had asked who his father was. As the Price is Right happened to be on tv at the time, Bob Barker the host was nominated as Barney’s father. This lie led to Barney confronting Bob in the season 2 episode Showdown, until he panicked at the last minute and could not go through with it.
[edit] Catchphrases
In the show’s pilot, Barney first utters his most recognizable phrase, “Suit up!”, as he tells others to dress like him to go out. The phrase “Suit up!” came from an ad for a suit sale in a later episode about his past with Shannon. 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.”[6] 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 woman at a Halloween party ” I even penguin suited up for you!” or “Slut up!” when Robin and Lily go to a prom. Also when he was getting naked in Robin’s apartment and she asked what he was doing he replied “birthday suiting up!” The phrase has also led to an International Suit-Up Day[13] on Facebook. He used the phrase “law-suit up” in an episode in which Marshall passed the Bar exam.
Besides “Suit up!”, he often describes schemes as “Legendary!”. He also frequently intersperses the phrase “Wait for it” between syllables of a long word. The season two finale closed with Barney saying “Legen — wait for it…”, and he opened season three with “..Dary!”. Another way of stating the word “Legendary” “It’s gonna be legend-… wait for it… and I hope you’re not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is DARY!”
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. He is also prone to using “Daddy’s Home” as either a chat-up line or for grand entrances and “True Story” as an ending to stories or theories that are generally erroneous.
Barney also will tell elaborate, outrageous stories or assert his own “awesomeness”, followed by “True story.” Especially when the story told is most likely not a true one. 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 in order to make his arguments sound credible. When he makes up a statistic, he always uses the figure 83%, which is not lost on his friends. When Marshall catches him and calls him out on these bogus facts, he begins his own catchphrase in having ‘lawyered’ (proven wrong) Barney.
Barney states: “When I get sad I stop being sad and be AWESOME instead. True story!” in episode 1 Season 2 of HIMYM. When talking about Marshall and how sad he is. At one point barney catches a cold and tell this to Robin: “Whenever i start feeling sick, i stop being sick and be awesome instead.” This is something he calls “Mind over Body”
Barney is frequently asking for high-fives in different variations, similar to Todd Quinlan in Scrubs. ‘Relapse five’, ‘Phone five’, ‘Cell Five’ ‘Tiny five’, ‘Freeze-frame high-five’, ‘hypothetical five’, ‘wordplay five’, ‘arthritis five’, ‘self five’, ‘foot five’, ‘claw five’, ‘solemn low-five’, ‘door five’, ‘Motility-five’ and ‘high-six’ are a few. Though at his early life he only gives “high two’s”.
Barney also uses the phrase “What up”, often elongating the word “up” in a high pitched tone. Most of the time it is finished with him asking for a high five.
Barney often uses the phrase “Challenge accepted” in earlier seasons when someone mentions something that supposedly cannot be done. It is usually quickly followed by “the challenger” telling Barney they were not remotely challenging him, but Barney ignores this. Starting in season 4 Barney adapts the phrase to “challenge accepted”. This can be seen in “Aldrin Justice” when Marshall mentions his mean constitutional law professor, Barney calls her a cougar and accepts the challenge to tame her. In Murtaugh when Ted mentions the “Murtaugh List” can not be completed, Barney accepts the challenge to do everything on it. In “As Fast As She Can” Barney takes the challenge of talking his way out of a ticket by saying “Challenge accep…”, leaving out the last syllable and replacing it by pointing at Ted. In “The Window” Barney challenges himself to pick up a woman while wearing overalls, whilst in “Baby Talk” he challenges himself to pick up whilst only speaking like a little boy. This is the only time he admits to a failure to complete a challenge, though he later manages to pick up whilst speaking like an eight-year-old without even trying.
Another phrase often used by Barney is “Get your head out of your ass, Lily.” This phrase is often heard when Lily presents a point Barney interprets as overly idealistic or naive. A variation of this is seen in the song, “Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit” in “Girls Versus Suits.”
In “Say Cheese” in the fifth season, Barney says he never takes a bad picture, always staying in the same pose (one of his hands on his tie and smiling). Robin tries to take him a bad picture by handing him a chip, dropping her phone and telling him he has a hole in his suit jacket, but inexplicably he has the same pose. The only time Barney took a bad picture is when he sneezes during the picture taking moment. Whether intentional or not, it is a recurring theme that in the season finale of a season (excluding the first) that Barney quietly asks Ted an important question. In the second season, Barney asks to be Ted’s wingman again. In the third, he asks if he and Ted can be best friends again and in the fourth, he asks for Ted’s blessing so Barney can pursue a relationship with Robin.
