Suit up!

     Barney Stinson is one of five main characters on How I Met Your Mother. He is a histrionic in his mid-thirties, wears a suit, likes women with "daddy issues" and is frequently willing to offer his (sometimes hypocritical) opinion. Throughout the earlier seasons, Barney is a huge womanizer, and has been described as a "high functioning sociopath" by his best friend, Ted Mosby, who wants to settle down. Stinson has a plethora of strategies and rules designed to meet women, sleep with them, and discard them. 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 Harris, Stinson was "resentful" that the other characters had paired up. Later on, in season 5, he dated Robin. They end up breaking up not long after, once they both realize they are making one another miserable.

     Harris describes Barney as a man who "likes to create crazy situations and then sit back and watch it all go down." 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 convinces Robin (in whom he was exhibiting romantic interest) to come to Ted 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 fist bump. By the end of the episode, he has the same fist elevated in a sling after struggling to keep his fist up throughout the episode. Although he thinks of himself as worldly, Barney is extremely naive at times, believing many lies his mother told him well into adulthood, such as believing that Bob Barker is his father.

Barney, like Harris, is an illusionist. His favorite types 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 lies about himself, often using an alias. Many of his schemes for picking up women are in a book he has written called ˝The Playbook˝, which is exposed in the episode "The Playbook". He has commitment issues, as evidenced in his reluctance to put a label on his relationship with Robin and the fact that she is one of the few women he has actually dated since the show started.

Barney is very well-connected and is the most affluent member of the group. He frequently buys expensive items—such as a last-minute plane ticket to San Francisco, thousands of dollars in postage stamps, or two televisions specifically for smashing in frustration—in the spur of the moment. He is also something of a metrosexual; he waxes his chest, enjoys manicures and has an extensive knowledge of designer labels and gourmet food. However, he 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 Triad gambling friends, and "Monday Night Football".

     As far as talent goes, Barney has exhibited eloquence, wit and creativity numerous times throughout the series. He speaks several languages, using what is said to be Ukrainian (actually Russian) with his tailor, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean at least twice in business deals with shady North Koreans. He has extensive skill with business, as evidenced when thinks that an imprecision in a contract would result in war was "a Tuesday" for him in "The Goat". He apparently also has above-average video-editing skills; he created and edited his entire video resume all by himself. 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 (although this seems to be through sheer willpower rather than physical strength, as 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", is able to sense how long it has been since a woman has last had sex and has taken classes to be an expert Teppanyaki chef in the episode "Ducky Tie". Despite his eclectic and prodigious talents, Barney is lacking in several common skills, such as driving a car ("Arrivederci, Fiero") or using a screwdriver ("Legendaddy"), although he seems to have learned the former over the course of the series, as he tries to prove in "As Fast As She Can" that he can get out of a speeding ticket. In "Robin 101", Barney stated "They said I had A-D... something. Can we have class outside?" referring to ADHD, which explains his habit of zoning out when people are talking to him.

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." He has displayed acts of kindness on multiple occasions, such as reuniting Lily and Marshall and preventing Marshall from sleeping with other women. Although coming across as a very strong character with a penchant for committing daring and wild feats, Barney has an extreme fear of spiders, as shown in the season 2 episode "First Time in New York". He also has a habit of eating ice cream when he is upset, although this is common among all the main cast.

In "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns", it is revealed that he is one quarter Canadian which is ironic as Barney frequently belittles the country to Robin (who is Canadian).

     Throughout the series' history, one major character development is apparent in Barney: At the beginning of the show, his character is an almost-sociopathic womanizer who completely objectifies sex and women and wants nothing to do with dating and relationships. Although he does date Robin in Season 5, he continues his promiscuous ways immediately after their breakup. But later on, his character undergoes a noticeable maturity period, especially in Seasons 6 and 7, where he begins to confront his personal issues, like his relationship with his father, and his approaches towards dating and relationships with women also change. He realizes that he does indeed have a soft side, who can really love and care about a woman, as apparent when he is dating Nora and then his admittance of wanting to be with Robin. By the time late Season 7 rolls around, Barney has finally "grown up," and has now warmed to the idea of a commitment and marriage, culminating in his proposal to Quinn, which is a major surprise to the rest of the gang. Although he briefly retreats to his escapades after his breakup with Quinn, he does make one major final leap in his maturity when he burns The Playbook and proposes to Robin in Season 8's two-part episode "The Final Page," after finally admitting to himself that he was still in love with her. Robin accepts and they plan their wedding in the second half of the season.