Barney Stinson’s Playbook was his legacy in How I Met Your Mother, and several of the maneuvers he recorded within were described in episodes of the hit TV series. The character’s main objective was always to pick up the most attractive girl at MacLaren’s Pub and convince her to sleep with him—through any means necessary. This was why Barney developed the Playbook and filled it with “plays” that would deceive women into hooking up. Each entry got more ridiculous than the last until the “Player King of New York City” had a book full of problematic scenarios all planned out.
Of course, by the end of How I Met Your Mother, Barney had learned his lesson about using horrendous means to trick women into having sex with him. This started with him pretending to burn the Playbook when he proposed to Robin, was taken further when the book was really destroyed by one of Ted’s worst girlfriends, and ended when Barney had a daughter and realized how awful his plays and methods had been. Still, when it comes to How I Met Your Mother audiences, Barney will always be remembered for his Playbook full of creative plays.
25 The Don’t Drink That
The first time that Barney’s Playbook was introduced in How I Met Your Mother was in season 5, episode 8, “The Playbook,” and the first play he described was slightly less eccentric than those that would follow. The “Don’t Drink That” involved Barney going up to any girl who had just ordered a drink and urgently telling her not to drink it. When she asked why, he would explain that he had seen some guy slip something in it. This would immediately turn Barney into a hero, which would mean an easy in.
24 The Mrs. Stinsfire
The next play Barney described in How I Met Your Mother season 5, episode 8, was “The Mrs. Stinsfire,” which was significantly more complicated than “The Don’t Drink That.” It required Barney to disguise himself as an old woman, just like Robin Williams did in the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire. Instead of nannying children, however, this play saw Barney become a maid in a sorority house full of college girls. It’s unclear how this got him to his preferred end result, but it can be assumed he worked his classic Barney charm.
23 The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn
Though most of the plays in How I Met Your Mother season 5, episode 8, were only described by Barney or read out of the Playbook by his friends, the “Lorenzo Von Matterhorn” was one that Barney pulled off for the first time during the episode. He explained that it required only a girl with a smartphone and moderate skill in web design. The idea here is that he would go up to said girl, introduce himself as Lorenzo Von Matterhorn in a way that indicated he was a pretty big deal, and walk away long enough for her to google him and find the fake websites he had created about himself. Once he returned, the girl was putty in his hands.
22 The SNASA
The SNASA is a great example of one of Barney’s How I Met Your Mother plays that would only work on the most gullible women. It really only involved Barney telling a moderately interested woman that he was an astronaut working, not for NASA, but for an organization known as Secret NASA (or SNASA). This specific play was read out of the Playbook by Robin in How I Met Your Mother season 5, episode 8, after which she said that any girl that fell for it was a “smoron.”
21 The Cheap Trick
As How I Met Your Mother season 5, episode 8, “The Playbook” continued, Barney became offended as his friends poked fun at his legacy. Lily called it a book of “cheap tricks,” to which Barney replied that that was only true for one play—”Cheap Trick.” This was another relatively simple play. It only required Barney to get dressed up like a rock star and claim to be the bass player from the band Cheap Trick (though he did mention that the hair extensions were anything but cheap).
20 The He’s Not Coming
“He’s Not Coming” is another of Barney’s more elegant (though entirely despicable) plays. All it required was a trip to the Empire State Building and patience. On the building’s observation deck, Barney would go up to one woman after another and tell her that “he’s not coming.” Most would react with confusion, but he knew that eventually, he would find some unfortunate girl who had been there expecting to meet with a man. Distraught, she would have nothing to do but turn to Barney for comfort.
19 The Ted Mosby
After Lily stole Barney’s Playbook in season 5, episode 8, the gang leafed through the pages until they stumbled upon “The Ted Mosby.” This was a simple play in which Barney would tell a woman he met at MacLaren’s Pub that he had just been left at the altar. Of course, this had been precisely what happened to Ted during his How I Met Your Mother journey to find a wife—and it worked well to help Barney find a date.
18 The My Penis Grants Wishes
Another play that the How I Met Your Mother gang read out of the Playbook in season 5, episode 8 was “The My Penis Grants Wishes,” which involved Barney going up to a woman dressed as a genie and announcing that his own “magic lamp” would release a genie if rubbed enough. This was significantly less elegant than some of his other plays and even less realistic since it included the furniture coming to life and performing a musical number with him.
17 The Scuba Diver
For all of How I Met Your Mother season 5, episode 8, Barney had been sitting in a bar dressed in scuba gear—though the gang had no idea why. Even once they stole the Playbook, they couldn’t find the answer since Barney had removed that specific page. However, after Lily had felt sorry for Barney and helped him get a date, she found the “Scuba Diver” page under the bar table. Ultimately, it turned out that this play involved manipulating Lily into talking him up to a girl so that she would agree to a date with him (and had nothing to do with Scuba diving at all).
16 The Duffel Bag
Though several of the plays in How I Met Your Mother were introduced along with the Playbook in season 5, several others had been described in seasons previous. Of course, since Barney hadn’t revealed his official book yet, these didn’t receive an on-screen page. Still, they were later included in the real-world publication of The Playbook: Suit Up. Score Chicks. Be Awesome., so they are considered official plays. The first was seen in How I Met Your Mother season 1, episode 3, “Sweet Taste of Liberty,” when Barney revealed a maneuver that required him to conceal himself in a girl’s duffel bag.
15 The One Week To Live
In How I Met Your Mother season 3, episode 14, “The Bracket,” Barney used a tournament-style bracket system to determine which of his endless list of scathed women could be warning his exploits before he could hoodwink them. As he explained to his friends how he had hurt these various women, he described “The One Week To Live,” another play that wound up in the published version of The Playbook. This one was relatively straightforward—Barney would tell a woman that he had only a week to live to gain sympathy points.
14 The Time Traveler
How I Met Your Mother season 4, episode 4, “Intervention,” saw Barney pull off another rather complicated play that would end up in the published Playbook. It involved disguising himself as an old man, finding a gullible girl at the bar, and urgently telling her that he had come from the future and that it was imperative that she sleep with his younger self. He then ran out, removed his wig and makeup, and reentered to find a girl who believed that hooking up with him was the only way to save the future.
13 The Naked Man
Technically, Barney Stinson can’t take credit for “The Naked Man,” but it was still included in the published Playbook. The official naked man was a date of Robin’s named Mitch, who claimed in How I Met Your Mother season 4, episode 9 that it worked on every two out of three women. All he would do was go with a woman to her apartment, find a reason to ask her to leave the room for a moment and strip naked before she returned. The shock was supposed to make it so charming that she would sleep with him. It worked on Robin, but when Barney first tried it, he wasn’t quite so lucky.
12 The Trojan Lesbian
The “Trojan Lesbian” was less a play than a challenge, but it still wound up in the official Playbook. Of all Barney’s maneuvers, this one was among How I Met Your Mother‘s most controversial. Featured in season 4, episode 13, “I Heart NJ,” this play saw Barney dress up as a masculine woman to trick a lesbian woman into giving him her number—hopefully, this was the extent of it.
11 The Call Barney Stinson
Though many of Barney’s Playbook schemes wound up biting him in the butt, none got more out of control than the “Call Barney Stinson” play. In How I Met Your Mother season 5, episode 5, “Rabbit or Duck,” Barney was lucky enough to get tickets to the Super Bowl—and naturally took advantage of the situation to pick up as many dates as possible. Knowing he could end up on TV, he made a sign that read, “Hey ladies, Call Barney Stinson,” accompanied by his phone number. His phone ended up with so many calls and texts from women that he couldn’t pick between them and threw it out.
10 The Two Can Play At That Game
When Barney realized he was still in love with Robin, he became serious about putting away the Playbook for good. Of course, this all started with another grand deception, in which he dated Robin’s nemesis, Patrice. In How I Met Your Mother season 8, episode 10, “The Over-Correction,” Robin grew jealous of Patrice and showed her the Playbook and one of its plays. The “Two Can Play At That Game” was just despicable enough to make Patrice think twice since it involved Barney knocking on a random apartment, telling the women within that his wife had been having an affair with her husband, and suggesting that they do ‘something’ to get even.
9 The Robin
“The Robin” was Barney Stinson’s ultimate play in How I Met Your Mother. Seen in season 8, episode 12, “The Final Page – Part Two,” this play was revealed to have been taking place over several episodes. It started with Barney pretending to date Patrice, burning the Playbook to prove he was ready to get serious, telling Ted that he was going to propose to Patrice in Robin’s favorite spot in the city (knowing Ted would spill the beans), and waiting ready to propose to her instead on top of the WWN building. It was all a great big lie, but that was perfect for this mismatched HIMYM couple.
8 The Royal Archduke Of Grand Fenwick
Though Barney (supposedly) burned the Playbook, it didn’t stop him from talking about some of his favorite plays. In How I Met Your Mother season 8, episode 17, “The Ashtray,” Barney revealed the “Royal Archduke of Grand Fenwick.” This play was similar to the Lorenzo Von Matterhorn but required Barney to obtain a professional painting of himself in a uniform instead of a series of flattering websites. All he had to do was get into an art exhibit, remove a painting, replace it with his own, stand in front of it, and wait for an impressed woman to ask questions.
7 The Weekend At Barney’s
Though “Weekend at Barney’s” was in Barney’s Playbook, he never pulled it off. This fact haunted him in How I Met Your Mother season 8, episode 18, “Weekend at Barney’s,” when he dreamed that he, Ted, and Marshall had gone through with it. In truth, it never made much sense since this play required one of the group to be dead—like in the 1980s film Weekend at Bernie’s. Still, when Barney was too hungover to function during his wedding day in season 9, they came as close to completing this play as they ever would.
6 The Special Delivery
After Barney woke up from his dream in How I Met Your Mother season 8, episode 18, “Weekend at Barney’s,” he decided that if he could no longer work his plays, he would help Ted pull them off. This was the moment it was revealed that the Playbook hadn’t been destroyed—so he pulled it out to help Ted find a hookup. The first play they ran was “Special Delivery,” which saw Ted approach a girl at the bar with a postal package and tell her that he had been instructed to give it to the prettiest girl in the bar. It was a pretty good pick-up line—until Barney ordered him to follow it up by telling her he had a different “package” for her as well.