HIMYM’s Official FB Page Is Getting Rinsed For An On-The-Nose MLK Day Post

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Published

January 17, 2017

There is just no way that a character like Barney Stinson would be written today. The loveable sleezeball whose methods of sexually harassing and gaslighting women into bed, yet one we actively rooted for getting the girl in the end? Not a goddamn chance.

But 2005 was a different time, and Barney was How I Met Your Mother‘s most iconic character.

By the time HIMYM approached its highly controversial season finale in 2014, he’d undergone enough character development to not be quite so much of a misogynistic dickbag. Falling in love with Robyn had a lot to do with that.

Which brings us to our next point.

Bearing in mind where the show left Stinson’s character (not a model citizen, but it stopped mining his predatory behaviour for gags), the fact that it ended in 2014, the fact that it’s currently 2017, the fact that Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr Day in the United States, AND the fact that this week America is going to swear in a president who brags about sexually assaulting women, against whom multiple sexual assault allegations have been laid, and who this week attacked civil rights icon John Lewis – bearing all of that in mind – then why, for the love of sweet baby jesus, did the *OFFICIAL* HIMYM Facebook page post this status?

MAAAAAAAAAAAAATES.

There’s two options here: either it’s satire (does “that ‘second base’ replaces the handshake” sound familiar?), in which case it missed the mark, or else it’s meant to be a bit of light-hearted comedy in the voice of one of television’s most iconic characters, in which case it really, really missed the mark.

The comments section has now dissolved into a fight between people saying this comment was badly-timed (it was) and badly written (they spelt his NAME WRONG) and people who’re ragging on others who ‘can’t take a joke’ (a phrase that’s used exclusively to silence people and has nothing to do with humour whatsoever).

Obviously, Barney – despite his flaws – has a place in many people’s hearts, and despite social politics moving on from the mid-2000s remains a beloved relic of that time.

But there’s a thing called ‘reading the room’, and whoever manages the 23 million-strong Facebook page either didn’t do it, or did and just didn’t give a shit.

Neil Patrick Harris is yet to comment, but something about this last tweet says it’s not really his style.

‘I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.’ – Martin Luther King, Jr.

— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) January 16, 2017