CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother has a couple of likable main characters but Barney Stinson is often credited with the success of the show. Aside from the great character development, the star power of actor Neil Patrick Harris definitely helps. The role earned him several Emmy nominations and a few wins.
Thanks to Barney’s popularity, he has been used outside the series a couple of times. In 2010, he appeared in the Super Bowl stands with a sign that read “Hey Ladies Call Barney Stinson 1-877-987-6401.” Barney has also written Bro Code books that are available for purchase. The following are details fans missed about Barney.
10 Year Of Birth
Barney’s exact age is never mentioned in the sitcom but it can be determined using a number of facts. In the Season 6 episode “Natural History,” Barney confesses to the gang that he knocked down the blue whale exhibit when he was around 6-years-old. When the security guard checked the footage, it was dated July 23, 1981.
This means that Barney was either born in the year 1974 or 1975. In the Season 2 episode “Columns,” which aired in January 2007, Barney states that he is 31. And in the Season 7 episode “Drunk Train,” Marshall mentions that Barney is a Scorpio. These details place his date of birth between October 23 and November 21 and confirm his year of birth as 1975.
9 The Wedding Music
Robin and Barney’s wedding was difficult for Ted fans to watch. There are a lot of fans who still feel that Robin always deserved to be with Ted more than Barney. This makes sense because Robin and Barney divorced after just three years.
Anyway, during the wedding, the song Sandcastles in the Sand plays when Robin walks down the aisle to make her vows to Barney. It’s easy to miss the fact that this is the same song that played when Robin and Barney hooked up for the first time in the sitcom.
8 His Twitter Account
Barney’s Twitter account is revealed in Season 5’s “Robin 101” in which Robin thinks Barney is cheating on her but he is actually taking classes from Ted. The handle which is revealed as @broslife is still active at the moment. It’s maintained by the CBS network and not Neil Harris.
Harris’ Twitter handle is @ActuallyNPH. As of the moment, Barney has 366, 000 followers on Twitter. Not bad for someone who doesn’t exist. Sadly, he doesn’t tweet frequently.
7 Barney’s Pretend Family
In the Season 4 episode titled “The Stinsons,” viewers are introduced to Barney’s fake family. Barney laments that the child pretending to be his son is a terrible actor. He goes the nostalgia route by claiming that the child actors in the ’80s were way better than the modern ones.
This is a reference to actor Neil Patrick Harris’ own acting past. He was a child actor in the ’80s TV series Doogie Howser, M.D. In it, he portrayed the titular character for a total of 97 episodes.
6 The Only Character To Not Move Out Of His Apartment
Barney is the only character in the sitcom who never moves out of his apartment, otherwise known as The Heart Of Bachelor Country or The Fortress of Barnitude. Everyone else moves to a new place at some point.
His apartment has two bedrooms. One bedroom is occupied by his suits while the other is occupied by Barney himself. He has a life-sized “Stormtrooper” in the living room as well as two 300-inch flat-screened TVs. He must be wondering what the fuss about cinemas is all about.
5 His Favorite Rock Band
Barney’s favorite band is Van Halen, which is often credited for bringing Rock back to the mainstream. In Season 8’s “The Final Page – Part Two,” Barney dresses as the band’s lead singer David Lee Roth for Halloween, experimenting on several costumes he whore through Van Halen’s musical history.
In Season 6’s “The Perfect Cocktail,” he plans to wire a fuse to Eddie Van Halen’s guitar in order to trigger the demolition of the Arcadian when he plays the song Hot For Teacher. He also gets very excited when a song by the band plays at a nightclub in Season 2.
4 He Fist-Bumped The Queen
In the Season 6 episode “Cleaning House,” Barney tells the gang that he once fist-bumped the Queen of England. They don’t believe him but he sticks to his story.
The odds of him fist-bumping the queen are minimal, considering the fact that Barney isn’t exactly a frequent traveler. The Queen doesn’t look like the kind of person to bump fists with anyone, either. But let’s just take Barney for his word. Great achievement there! Not many get to fist-bump members of the royal family.
3 The Slaps
In the Season 7 episode, “Disaster Averted,” Marshall uses some of his slaps on Barney as part of a bet they made. Barney encourages him to slap him as hard as he can.
Marshall states that he’ll save the final slap for a rainy day. In the Season 9 episode “The End Of The Aisle,” Marshall decides to use his final slap on Barney. When he does so, it’s actually raining outside. Coincidence? Or did Marshall really make sure he was going to slap Barney on a “rainy day?”
2 His Favorite Numbers
Barney tables out plenty of fake statistics in the sitcom and one thing that’s evident is that the numbers 8, 3, or 83 are always involved. Even when he gives out a fake phone number, 8 or 3 have to be included. This is a fact that Ted points out in the Season episode “Brunch.”
It’s not known why Barney is so obsessed with these specific numbers. He also uses a variation of these numbers whenever he feels the need to. In the Season 3 episode “Ten Sessions,” he claims that a woman decides whether she is going to sleep with a man within 8.3 seconds of meeting him.
1 Obsessions With Suits And Ties
Barney has only been seen without a suit or tie 12 times in the show. He also treats his suits and ties as living beings. In Season 5’s “Girls Versus Suits,” he weeps when he tears a suit. He goes ahead to give it a proper sendoff by creating it. Why not just take it to a tailor, Barney?
In Season 8’s “Lobster Crawl,” he tries to revive a tie by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on it. Reason? The tie has gotten a stain. And the award for being weird goes to…
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