How I Met Your Father includes several references to its parent series, How I Met Your Mother. The newest connection between the two shows could be related to Barney Stinson’s Playbook!
Set in the same fictional universe, HIMYF is a spin-off of the iconic 2004 sitcom-How I Met Your Mother. It follows his protagonist, Ted Mosby narrating to his children how he met their mother. HIMYF follows a similar premise, where the protagonist, Sophie, narrates to her son how she met his father.
HIMYF features several easter eggs, parallels and references to HIMYM. Two iconic characters from the original series, Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) also made cameo appearances in HIMYF. These cameos tend to bridge the gap between the storylines of HIMYM and HIMYF.
One such storyline set up by HIMYM relates to Barney’s infamous Playbook and could connect with HIMYF. In HIMYM season 9, episode 17, Barney passed on the knowledge of his Playbook to two young men, Justin and Kyle.
The Playbook is a book consisting of all of Barney’s antiques to grab the attention of girls and lead the life of a successful playboy. We see Barney put many of the techniques of the Playbook into action in HIMYM. In the aforementioned episode, Barney takes Justin and Kyle to a strip club, and a house party, hoping to pass on his legacy to someone.
In the HIMYM universe, Barney’s handing over the Playbook took place in 2014, almost a decade before the events narrated in HIMYF. Since Justin and Kyle clearly entered the dating life a little late, there could a fair chance of them coming across Sophie in the HIMYF timeline.
They may be a little old during Sophie’s time but could still be exploring Barney’s tricks from the Playbook. Sophie too is now putting herself out there and slowly moving into her ‘Ted Mosby’ era of looking for “the one”, so this could be the best time for the writers to bring in another big HIMYM reference.
Having said all that, it could be a bit of a problem to bring in Barney’s Playbook on television today even for the sake of evoking nostalgia. Many of Barney’s pranks and tricks were borderline misogynistic, degrading women and portraying them as brainless idiots who fall for anything.
While Barney’s brand of humor was quite popular when HIMYM aired and still remains the most loved part of the series, it could seem a bit dated now. The humor in HIMYF is quite different from what we saw in HIMYM, in terms of how it treats women, the LGBTQ community or non-conforming people in general.
Neil Patrick Harris himself has admitted that his character’s humor would not be taken in a good light in today’s day and age, so it will be interesting to see how Barney has changed especially since he is all set to be a significant part of HIMYF season 2. He has already made an appearance in the season 2 premiere and Sophie promises we’ll get to his story soon.
Let’s hope we get to see a more politically correct version of Barney Stinson in HIMYF, but also without him losing the very spark of his character.
About How I Met Your Father
How I Met Your Father (HIMYF) is a spinoff series of the incredibly successful CBS show, How I Met Your Mother. The original show ran for nine seasons, from 2005 to 2014, quickly making its mark with a dedicated cult-like fanbase.
HIMYF was announced to start production in April 2021 with the Lizzy McGuire star Hilary Duff playing the lead called Sophie, narrating her journey to her children in the future.
The show’s flashbacks will start from Sophie and her close friends navigating love, life and struggles in the modern era of dating, paying bills and more, in 2021.
Created by writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger of This Is Us fame and directed by the original show’s director, Pamela Fryman, the first season of HIMYF is revealed to have 10 episodes. No further details have yet been released.
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