# How I Met Your Mother - Is Barney no longer acceptable/funny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 25, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425 "2022-04-25T18:07:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/61 "2022-04-26T20:00:57Z")
Just saw that one the other day (in it, we also learn that Otis hit his mother-in-law badly enough to send her to the dentist for treatment (he was aiming at his wife - but missed)). ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/62 "2022-04-26T20:04:35Z")
Cringe. But I did stress “occasionally” and “inconsistently.” I might not have bothered to post it, though, if I had had that particular incident in my catalogue of memories. Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/63 "2022-04-26T20:23:57Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Howard Wolowitz from _The Big Bang Theory_ … > The character was toned down a bit over the course of the series, once he settled down with Bernadette, but he still objectifies her, sees things like housework as something that only his wife should do (while he sits and plays video games), and belittles her accomplishments. I don’t see how you can interpret Howard and Bernadette’s relationship that way. It was the other way around: Howard was always belittled for making less than Bernadette, she would “joke” about giving him an allowance, she would control what he spends money on etc. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/64 "2022-04-26T20:27:16Z")
No problem. I think that Otis is supposed to represent a more extreme version of the attitudes that Andy is learning from Opie not to have ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/65 "2022-04-26T20:31:16Z")
> [@Polerius](#): > > I don’t see how you can interpret Howard and Bernadette’s relationship that way. It was the other way around: Howard was always belittled for making less than Bernadette, she would “joke” about giving him an allowance, she would control what he spends money on etc. Maybe “belittles” isn’t the right word to describe how Howard treats Bernadette. True, she absolutely belittles him for making less money than she does, while for him, it’s more that he always struggles to view women (other than his mother) as more than two-dimensional sex objects and/or housewives. Also, as she’s one of the few people who’s actually shorter than him, Howard seems to often throw short jokes at her. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/66 "2022-04-26T20:39:20Z")
But still, domestic violence wasn’t taken seriously back in that era. It was a lot more common and, for the most part, accepted. At worst, it was considered unfortunate but a private family matter. While so many adults were freaking out about how songs like “Puff the Magic Dragon” and Anne Murray’s “Snowbird” might me about drugs, no one blinked an eye at the horrific lyrics of The Beatles hit “Run for Your Life”. _I’d rather see you dead, little girl Than to be with another man You’d better keep your head, little girl Or I won’t know where I am_ _You’d better run for your life if you can, little girl Hide your head in the sand, little girl Catch you with another man That’s the end, little girl_ Sometimes I’m astounded at the stuff that was normal when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/67 "2022-04-26T20:40:21Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > No problem. I think that Otis is supposed to represent a more extreme version of the attitudes that Andy is learning from Opie not to have And at the time, it might have been written off as a fairly insignificant joke about the stereotype of the mother-in-law who’s relentlessly overbearing, with the unspoken implication that as such, she probably had it coming. Today, you could have characters talk about something like that happening, but Otis should be truly regretful about it, and Andy should say something like “Damn, dude, you need to get some help. Seriously.” ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/68 "2022-04-26T20:46:41Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > The Beatles hit “Run for Your Life”. > > _I’d rather see you dead, little girl > Than to be with another man > You’d better keep your head, little girl > Or I won’t know where I am_ WTF? Was this a big hit of theirs? (I hadn’t heard it before, though I’ve heard lots of Beatles hits) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/69 "2022-04-26T20:53:11Z")
> [@Polerius](#): > > WTF? > > Was this a big hit of theirs? It was on _Rubber Soul_, but was never released as a single. FWIW, I’m a big Beatles fan, but this is one of my least-favorite songs of theirs. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/yzHXtxcIkg4/maxresdefault.jpg "Run For Your Life (Remastered 2009)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzHXtxcIkg4) ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/70 "2022-04-26T20:53:44Z")
It may not have been a huge hit, but it got plenty of airplay. And that’s not a selective lyric, the whole song is equally horrible. > **[The Beatles - Run For Your Life Lyrics | AZLyrics.com](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/runforyourlife.html)** > > The Beatles "Run For Your Life": Well, I'd rather see you dead, little girl Than to be with another man You better keep your head, li... ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/71 "2022-04-26T21:04:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > but this is one of my least-favorite songs of theirs. Apparently, it’s their least favorite song, too, from various interviews from back in the day. ETA: From wiki: “Since release, the song has garnered a mixed response from music critics. Lennon designated it as his “least favourite Beatles song” in a 1973 interview.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/72 "2022-04-26T21:08:21Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > But still, domestic violence wasn’t taken seriously back in that era. It was a lot more common and, for the most part, accepted. At worst, it was considered unfortunate but a private family matter. Quite so. And while domestic violence wasn’t off limits to discuss sex still was. Heaven forbid a child get the notion that the husband beating his wife might also have sex with her. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > While so many adults were freaking out about how songs like “Puff the Magic Dragon” and Anne Murray’s “Snowbird” might me about drugs, no one blinked an eye at the horrific lyrics of The Beatles hit “Run for Your Life”. Anne Murray and Snowbird? I never really listened to the lyrics but it assumed it was about mayonnaise on white bread sandwiches. Is nothing absurdly pure and wholesome anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/73 "2022-04-26T21:43:28Z")
I often find changing social mores challenging. Recently, there was some issue of Dr. Seuss books with unfavorable material not being published, and many people - on these forums, IIRC - said the representations of Asians/Africans was inappropriate. Some people suggested they should not be included in libraries. And then there are the repeated instances of blackface or questionable representation of Blacks, with such info being edited out of TV shows/films. All right - I go along with that. That was then, this is now. But I have a hard time figuring out how these things are fine to air and laugh at: Barney - seducing drunk women; Ralph Kramden - threatening spousal abuse (tho - wink wink, we all KNOW he didn’t MEAN it!); or Otis - yes, the humor of a substance abuser. I’m not advancing any particular position. Hell, I’m just trying to figure out what my position IS (and to avoid having too many people criticize me for being a Neanderthal.) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/74 "2022-04-27T00:17:15Z")
Barney was one of the main reasons I never got into HIMYM. Excuses about the story being told from the POV of an unreliable narrator don’t mean that I wasn’t watching a total creep being presented as a great friend and mostly good guy apart from the creep thing, as if that wasn’t that big a deal. There are too many real-life men who get away with that sort of thing. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > Recently, there was some issue of Dr. Seuss books with unfavorable material not being published, and many people - on these forums, IIRC - said the representations of Asians/Africans was inappropriate. Some people suggested they should not be included in libraries. The Seuss heirs, who still control the copyright, decided not to continue publishing the six books they considered inappropriate, because the representations were pretty hard not to call racist. Those were never his biggest sellers and all but one were virtually unknown, which probably helped. I’m not sure cancel culture really applies when it’s the copyright owners themselves who decide not to publish something any more. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/75 "2022-04-27T07:13:02Z")
> [@Polerius](#): > > > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > > > The Beatles hit “Run for Your Life”. > > > > _I’d rather see you dead, little girl > > Than to be with another man > > You’d better keep your head, little girl > > Or I won’t know where I am_ > > WTF? > > Was this a big hit of theirs? (I hadn’t heard it before, though I’ve heard lots of Beatles hits) We listen to the Beatles Channel on SiriusXM, and I hear that song no less than eight days times a week. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/76 "2022-04-27T08:49:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Community pulled, what’s often considered, one of their best episodes, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. For doing blackface, that wasn’t really blackface and was acknowledged, in the episode, that it was both offensive (for being blackface) and not blackface. Did they? Because I saw that episode on Netflix only last year. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/77 "2022-04-27T09:29:12Z")
Barney was supposed to be over the top. What next, you guys will think that Wil E Coyote is unaffected by gravity until he notices that he has walked off the cliff face? And for the slow learners, the few times Barney has a chance to do something (sexually\*) unethical, he absolutely refuses to do it Howard is expressly shown as a loser in TBBT. \*non sexually unethical things he will do without second thought. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/78 "2022-04-27T11:35:59Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Did they? Because I saw that episode on Netflix only last year. They pulled it on June 26, 2020. You can check Netflix and Hulu, it’s not there. It should be S2E14. You can see it (if you pay for it) on Youtube, but that’s about it. In fact, even trying to find a clip of the specific scene in question is hard. Having said that, I _think_ “Community” didn’t pull the episode, but rather Netflix and Hulu pulled it. As stated, you can still get buy it from Community’s Youtube channel, and I see it on Amazon’s (for free, started playing as soon as I clicked on it). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/79 "2022-04-27T11:39:10Z")
Hmm, you’re right, I must have seen it earlier than last year, then. Who knows what was when, the last two years. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425/80 "2022-04-27T11:52:27Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Hmm, you’re right, I must have seen it earlier than last year, then. Who knows what was when, the last two years We went on a Community binge a while back, having never watched it when it was on; I remember watching the AD&D episode (on Netflix) and maybe a week or two later hearing it was taken down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-is-barney-no-longer-acceptable-funny/963425.md?page=5)