Hagan; HIMYM Pt. 2

My report is a little funky, and instead of going forward it jumps back a chapter to something that intrigued me. Last time, I focused on Barney’s nonsensical manner of avoiding his feelings. This time around, I’m going to focus on why we like Barney Stinson so much even though he’s a terrible human being. Even by his friends’ standards, he’s a moral wreck, with his friend Lily even saying that he’s emotional equivalent of a sewer rat. I’m going to go through the different reasons that audiences love to watch such disgusting characters, and analyze the philosophies that underlie it.

First, we reason that Barney’s “not so bad.” We see him do things that get on our nerves or make us feel something negative, but some of the time we get a look behind the scenes of these actions. In the episode, “The Scorpion and the Toad,” we see Barney stealing girls from Marshall while he’s trying to get over Lily. Later in “Bachelor Party,” it’s revealed that Barney did this in hopes of Marshall getting back together with Lily. We see him as a naughty little child. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just immature.

Next, maybe we’re not meant to identify with Barney. The three main men of the series are Ted, Marshall, and Barney. Ted was created for single men to identify with, Marshall was meant for married men representation, and Barney...well, he’s for us to laugh at. Throughout the beginning of the series he’s someone that we laugh at, and even his friends call him a “dork” and a “loser.” There’s always the possibility that Barney is just a the comic relief of the show.

Another idea is that of Schadenfreude, the feeling of happiness at others’ misfortune. Instead of laughing alongside Barney, we’re meant to be laughing at him. In “The Ducky Tie,” Barney’s disgusting objectification of Lily’s body is seen being punished after he loses a bet and is forced to wear a tacky tie with rubber ducks on it for a year. Another example of Barney’s objectification of the female body is seen in “Burning Beekeeper,” when after sleeping with a friend that Lily specifically warned him not to, he is stung by a swarm of bees.In almost every episode Barney gets what’s coming to him, and we are provided with countless evidence that Barney may just be someone that we like seeing facing the consequences.

An interesting idea is that we like imagining from the inside when it comes to Mr. Stinson. We connect with the character on an emotional level, and we try to reason with his actions. It’s like when you’re watching a movie and the main characters commit a robbery, and the police are on the way to catch them. You know the situation is morally wrong, but you can’t help hoping they escape with the money. With Barney, we give the reasoning of “there’s nothing evil about the evil character’s situation.” This connects to emotional contagion, an automatic and unconscious action. You put yourself in the character’s shows and that emotional connection you’ve created furthers your interest in the character. This doesn’t fully explain why we have such a positive reaction to Barney, but this next idea might.

We like to live vicariously through Barney. We ourselves wouldn’t commit the actions that he is because we know better, but this is a fictional character. Our emotional contagion allows us to feel as though we have committed these sociopathic behaviors, even though we would never do so in real life. We do this because it’s amoral for us to commit them, but it’s not to watch Barney do so. “Being bad has it’s appeal, but an indirect and vicarious one.”

Quiz Questions:

1. What audiences were the characters of Marshall and Ted meant for?
2. What was the concept of Schadenfreude?
3. What allows us to feel as though we’ve committed the actions of a character we’re watching?

Discussion Question:

1. Why do you think we like bad/immoral characters in fictional media?