He was awesome. He was legendary. He was the best part of what would have normally been a pretty average sitcom. He was Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. Brought to life by everybody’s favor
He was awesome. He was legendary. He was the best part of what would have normally been a pretty average sitcom. He was Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother.
Brought to life by everybody’s favorite awards show host and world-renowned child doctor, Neil Patrick Harris, Barney Stinson leapt off the small screen as an outlandish and, to be quite honest, insane womanizer who thrived on high fives, sex, and interrupting the otherwise bland lives of his four best friends. And audiences loved him. Harris’ performance even garnered him four Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. Always equipped with a con, a good suit, and a plethora of lies, Barney was consistently a force to be reckoned with. His personality and characteristics were so crazy and exaggerated that even two years after the show ended, he still remains a relevant pop culture icon.
Taking all that into consideration, it seems impossible that any real-life human being could match the magnitude and awesomeness of Barney Stinson. That is, until you take a closer look at recent Oscar winner, Leonardo DiCaprio. You might know him best as the cute American Kate Winslet let freeze to death in the North Atlantic in Titanic, or the guy who actually ate raw buffalo liver on screen in order to win an Academy Award in The Revenant, but if you start examining some of the details of DiCaprio’s life, it’s hard to miss some of its Barney Stinson-like qualities.
Don’t believe us? Fine. Here are fifteen reasons Leonard DiCaprio is the real Barney Stinson.
They Both Play The Field
In an episode of HIMYM entitled “Right Place, Right Time,” Barney reveals that he is nearing his 200th sexual conquest. Two hundred. Two hundred separate women who agreed to make the beast with two backs with Mr. Stinson, although many of those occurred under false pretenses. And that happens not even halfway through the series’ ten season run. And while Barney does settle down occasionally, mostly notably with fellow series regular, Robin Scherbatsky, he never fully gives up his playboy lifestyle, even after fathering a baby girl.
DiCaprio, on the other hand, probably doesn’t have over two hundred notches on his proverbial bedpost, but his long string of romantic partners is well documented. The extended list of beautiful woman Leo has reportedly had relationships with includes Naomi Campbell, Gisele Bundchen, Bar Refaeli, and the A-list actress who eventually tamed Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively. Oh, and Rihanna. According to the always-truthful tabloids, DiCaprio had a fling with RiRi herself. If that doesn’t rival the sexual escapades of Barney Stinson, what does?
14They Always Look Good In Photos
In the episode “Say Cheese” an interesting phenomenon about Barney is discovered: he always (ALWAYS) looks good in pictures. Despite several desperate attempts to prove otherwise, it seems almost impossible to snap an unflattering photo of the perpetually well-dressed Stinson. Even more entertaining is the fact that he always seems to nail the same pose in every shot, regardless of the situation: an eyebrow slightly raised, one hand casually adjusting his tie, while he aims a smooth, coy look at the camera.
Now, while Barney Stinson’s ability to always look good on camera seems to be a superpower (to which his kryptonite, we later find out, is a chip dip containing allergy-inducing cilantro), DiCaprio has apparently harnessed the same power. Seriously. Do an image search for “Leonardo DiCaprio” and see if you can find a single, solitary picture of the man that’s no good. Of course, he’s not totally immune to the odd derp-tastic photograph, which you can find with the right search parameters. But considering how consistently he is in the spotlight, his ability to almost always look good is rather impressive.
13 They Are Great Actors
It doesn’t even matter if you actually like Leonardo DiCaprio— it is an inarguable, objective fact that the man is a top-notch actor and has been for over two decades. He was one of the youngest people to ever be nominated for an acting Oscar, when at nineteen he received a nod for his stunning portrayal of a severely autistic boy in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. And he hasn’t slowed down since, accumulating another four Academy Award nominations, the most recent of which finally culminated in a win.
Barney Stinson, on the other hand, never won any officially recognized acting awards, but at some point, he undoubtedly convinced some poor girl at the bar that he was an Oscar winner in order to get her into bed. And that’s the point. Barney’s acting ability never found its way to Hollywood, but his impressive repertoire of characters and disguises designed for the sole purpose of bumping uglies with beautiful and gullible women is hella impressive even without the accolades.
12They Have An All-Star Entourage
Okay, maybe entourage is the wrong word, but Leo’s social network is absolutely jam-packed with A-list celebrities. It includes, but is not limited to, Kate Winslet, Jonah Hill, Tobey Maguire, Lukas Haas, and Kevin Connolly. Some of that crew (Maguire, Haas, and Connolly) has been partying with DiCaprio since they were teenagers auditioning for the same roles in the early nineties, while others have become friends in more recent years, such as funny man Jonah Hill. Of course, Leo’s social circle isn’t limited to actors; during his environmental work, he’s been known to be friendly with several world leaders and politicians, including President Barack Obama and even Pope Francis. Yeah, Leo is bros with the freakin’ Pope.
Now, Barney Stinson’s friend circle might not include seven-time Academy Award nominee Kate Winslet, an American President, or the King of the Vatican, but his four closest comrades are no slouches either. Robin Scherbatsky, whom he marries in the final season, ends up as a world news anchor. Marshall Erikson becomes a State Supreme Judge, while his wife, Lily, takes on a career as a globe-trotting art consultant. And we can’t forget that the show’s main character, Ted Mosby, has the claim to fame of being the youngest architect to design a skyscraper that inhabits the Manhattan skyline.
11They Love Models
If you’ve ever seen the episode of How I Met Your Mother called “The Yips,” then you know how Barney Stinson feels about models. He loves them. Models are the pinnacle of the Barnacle’s sexual Mount Everest. In “The Yips” Barney, Ted, and Marshall swing an invite to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show after party and watching Barney bumble around interactions with cameos from real-life Victoria’s Secret angels, including eternal sexy symbol Heidi Klum, is truly a sight to behold.
DiCaprio, similarly, seems almost singularly interested in models when it comes to his dating life. His lengthy list of ex-girlfriends reads like fashion week runway itinerary, including flings with Naomi Campbell, Bar Refaeli, Gisele Bundchen, Eva Herzigova, Amber Valletta, Toni Garrn, Erin Heatherton, Madalina Ghenea, Anne Vyalitsyna, Helena Christensen, Kristen Zang, Bridget Hall, and his current supermodel squeeze, Nina Agdal. That’s an impressive list that would surely have Barney Stinson trembling with jealousy.
10They Suit Up
Few Hollywood men rock a well-tailored suit like Leonardo DiCaprio. Not only does he crush the red carpet on a regular basis, but he consistently shows up in movies like Inception, Django Unchained, and The Wolf of Wall Street donning some serious formal fashion and never failing to look mighty suave. Designers around the world must be lined up at Leo’s door begging for him to slip on one of their three-pieces because he always looks so damn fine in them.
To the best of our knowledge, however, DiCaprio has never broke out into a well-choreographed song and dance in tribute to his extensive collection of expensive suits. Barney Stinson, unsurprisingly, has. One of Stinson’s longstanding catchphrases comes in the form of demanding that his friends, “Suit up!” usually for a night out on the town. It is an extremely rare sight to see Barney dressed in something other than a fine Italian jacket and tie. He even wears silk ‘suitjamas’— pyjamas designed to look like a suit. Just in case he needs to look his best in the middle of the night.
The aforementioned song, “Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit,” comes at the tail end of an episode entitled “Girls Versus Suits.” In case you couldn’t guess, suits win.
9They Have Fancy Apartments
Barney’s apartment, also known as the Fortress of Barnitude, doesn’t make an appearance in the show until midway through the second season, when a homeless Lily Aldrin is forced to move in for a while. Boasting a life-sized stormtrooper costume, two 300-inch televisions that had to be shipped across the ocean on tugboats from Japan, a bedroom dedicated entirely to his suits, a professionally lit collection of adult entertainment, a king-sized bed with lion’s head stonework mounted above it, and several secret compartments, Barney’s apartment is the perfect bachelor pad.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in New York City, Leonardo is renting out his eco-friendly, $10 million apartment for a reported $25,000 per month. It might not have a pair of 300-inch TVs, but it does have a Vitamin C-infused shower, purified air and water, and a whole host of other health-conscious features. No word yet on whether or not Leo’s ‘fun’ collection is professionally lit.
8They’re Close With Their Mothers
If Barney Stinson has a soft spot deep inside his dark, dark soul, it’s for his mother, Loretta. Yes, the man who has slept with hundreds of women, lies compulsively, and is referred to by his best friend as a high-functioning sociopath, is a little mama’s boy. When Loretta is gravely ill and looks to be on her deathbed, Barney hires an actress to play his pregnant fiancée because his mother always wanted him to settle down. When Loretta unexpectedly recovers, Barney continues the ruse by hiring another actor to play his son, a lie he keeps up for years. All for the sake of his mommy.
Likewise, DiCaprio’s mother is treated well by her son. At the 2014 Golden Globe awards, for example, Leo took his mother as his date instead of whatever supermodel arm candy he was dating at the time. To add to the awe factor, the two turned the event into a double date with another A-lister, Bradley Cooper, and his mother. How cute.
7They Have Cool Jobs
It might not be for everyone, but it’s pretty hard to argue that being a high-profile Hollywood actor is a pretty cool career. He travels the world, dates beautiful women, and makes a crap-ton of money doing it. He’s played kings, con artists, undercover cops, Shakespearean heroes, famous literary characters, and dream-hopping thieves. All the while, he’s acted alongside living legends such as Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Kate Winslet, Daniel Day-Lewis, Michael Cain, Cate Blanchett, and countless more.
And while Leo pretends to do dangerous and exciting things in his movies, Barney lives those things, working in a mysterious position for a massive and shady international company. Case in point: in an episode called “Mosbius Designs,” a ninja infiltrates his workplace, leading Barney to evacuate the building after telling Marshall that this wasn’t the first time this had happened. If your job involves ninjas in any way, shape, or form, it’s a cool freakin’ job.
6They Have Been Attacked By Beautiful Women
It should come as no surprise, given Barney Stinson’s penchant for lying, sleeping around, and more lying, that he has often received a formidable bitch slap from whatever lovely lady he has most recently scorned. In fact, Barney being slapped in the face is running gag throughout the show, and isn’t restricted to female slapper either; Ted and Marshall both get in on the act. The eighteenth episode of season six features a triple slap: Barney is decked by then-girlfriend Nora, followed by a solid smackeroo from Lily, and finished off by a crisp, open-hand face clap by his own doctor.
Less humorous is the time that Leonardo nearly had his jugular sliced open by an angry Canadian model, Aretha Wilson, at a party back in 2005. DiCaprio had to get 17 stitches in his neck after the crazy Canuck hit him with a jagged piece of glass as he was leaving the glitzy shindig.
5They Party Hard
You know you party hard when somebody ends up in the hospital after an altercation with a Canadian model at an event thrown by Paris Hilton’s ex-boyfriend. But that certainly isn’t the extent of Leo’s hard-partying lifestyle. The mythology around DiCaprio’s parties has been steadily growing since his days of hanging around clubs with a group of friends known as the “P*ssy Posse.” A shining example of a Stinson-esque night occurred at Leonardo’s 40th birthday party when he reportedly left the nightclub with upwards of twenty women.
Likewise, Barney Stinson has never been one to shy away from a good ol’ fashioned party. Actually, “good ol’ fashioned” is probably the exact wrong way to describe how Barney parties. For example, in the final season, the rehearsal dinner party he throws for Robin starts with him running away from the wedding, moves to him in jail, and finishes in an ice rink with Alan Thicke, a figure skater, and a signed picture of Wayne Gretzky. And it was all part of the plan.
4They Both Care About The Environment
… sort of.
Everyone knows that Leonardo DiCaprio is a hardcore environmental activist. He has been a vocal advocate of legislation that protects the environment, he regularly speaks at events about climate change, and even his $10 million apartment in New York, as noted earlier, is eco-friendly. He is even releasing a documentary this year about climate change for National Geographic called Before the Flood.
And Barney…well…Barney works for a corporation that revels in clear-cutting forests, polluting oceans, and destroying the planet in general. An environmental activist Stinson is not. However, prior to his suit-clad, womanizing, tree-killing days, Barney was a virginal, liberal hippie and all-around tree hugger, who wore hemp and planned on going to Nicaragua with the Peace Corps. It’s not quite DiCaprio-level tree-hugging, but it’s something.
3They Like To Be Mysterious
One of the things that Barney thrives on is keeping secrets from his friends and everyone else around him. As mentioned earlier, he had an entire fake family on hire for years without anyone being the wiser. Likewise, it takes almost two seasons before anyone except his one-night stands sees the inside of his apartment. And it takes almost ten seasons before the exact nature of his job is actually revealed; whenever anyone asked, he would simply scoff and reply, “Please…” which turns out to be an acronym. P.L.E.A.S.E.— Provide Legal Exculpation and Sign Everything.
While DiCaprio probably doesn’t habitually lie or keep secrets from his friends and family, he is a notably private person. He has even given interviews explaining that he feels keeping his personal life mysterious makes him a better actor as audiences only see him as his characters, not as him in real life. Interesting strategy.
2They Can Make Anything Look Cool
Vaping has never looked cool. It looks douchey and ridiculous. When you vape, you look like you’re sucking on a complicated exhaust pipe and spewing out campfire smoke. It is not a good look.
Unless, of course, you’re Leonardo DiCaprio. Because Leo can make damn near anything look cool. When he was spotted looking suave as can be at the SAG awards whilst vaping, the world was stunned. How is this possible? Vaping should only be reserved for mediocre hipster tattoo artists and crappy action movie bad guys. But there was Leo, making it look oh-so good.
You can’t pick up a girl talking like a dolphin. Everyone knows that. You certainly can’t pick a girl up talking like a little boy. And there’s no way in hell you can pick a girl up dressed head-to-toe like an old man, makeup included.
Unless, of course, you’re Barney Stinson. Because you can and you do. It might be slightly inaccurate to say that Barney makes talking like a dolphin cool, but he still manages to take a beautiful woman to bed while doing it, so “cool” isn’t that far off the mark.
1They Are Legen… Wait For It…
…dary! LEGENDARY!
As that is one of Barney Stinson’s most famous catchphrases, it has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Neil Patrick Harris’ rendition of the hyperbolic, sleazy, charming, deceptive, high-fiving, crude, suit-clad, Price Is Right-obsessed, gambling-addicted, high-functioning sociopath with daddy issues and an awesome apartment is the stuff of legend and will undoubtedly go down in pop culture history as one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time.
And as for Leonardo… when you’ve been nominated for five Oscars and then Golden Globes, worked with every A-list actor in Hollywood, become Martin Scorsese’s go-to leading man, starred in one of the highest grossing films in history, dated countless supermodels, chilled with the pope, thrown party after party on a multimillion dollar yacht, made vaping look cool, and eaten raw buffalo liver on film… of course you’re a legend. And he’s only just crossed into his forties. Imagine how legendary this real-life Barney Stinson will be if he makes it to 100!
