What does Barney Stinson do for a living? Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas discuss the iconic sitcom character's backstory on HIMYM rewatch podcast

The hit CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, first aired back in September 2005. It ran for nine seasons before concluding in March 2014. In an episode of their rewatch podcast, How We Made Your Mother, actor Josh Radnor, who played Ted Mosby, and series co-creator Craig Thomas discussed the character Barney Stinson's backstory.

Throughout the series, the details of Barney Stinson's job were shrouded in secrecy. It was generally assumed that Stinson lived in luxury and was seen wearing expensive, tailored suits. Whenever the other members of the friend group asked Barney about his job, he would always reply with "Please."

Although his friends assumed that Stinson was dodging their questions, it turned out that he was being honest all along. According to Comic Book Resources, in season 9 episode 15, it was revealed that Barney Stinson's role was to "Provide Legal Exculpation and Sign Everything," which was the expansion of P.L.E.A.S.E.

Barney took on the position of a scapegoat for Goliath National Bank and signed his name on any document given to him, which could have implicated him in criminal proceedings. It was also revealed that unbeknownst to the company, Barney Stinson was working with the FBI to help them arrest his boss, Greg Fisher, who stole his old girlfriend Shannon.

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Barney Stinson's backstory explored in the How We Made Your Mother podcast

As reported by People on April 16, 2025, Josh Radnor, who played Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother, and series co-creator Craig Thomas took to their podcast to refer to Barney Stinson as a "broken man." Thomas talked about Barney's behavior in the early episodes of the series.

"The emotion I liked behind it is just how pathetic it kind of is. My favorite thing about Barney and rewatching it is just, he's such a broken man."

On May 12, 2025, in the latest episode of How We Made Your Mother, Thomas spoke about the show's writers' idea of possibly incorporating that Barney Stinson was personally affected by the 9/11 tragedy.

"Could we somehow imply in the show by way of explaining some of Barney's brokenness and some of Barney's desire to, like, have Ted be his best friend starting at a certain moment in time, could we ever somehow in the right way imply that Barney, who worked downtown in the financial district, knew people, had lost people in 9/11?" he stated.

He continued, explaining how such a loss could be the reason for Stinson wanting to be a part of a new friend group.

"There's just every chance that something really impacted him, maybe there was a loss there. Why did he all of a sudden want this whole new friend group through Ted around not long, you know, after that time?" Thomas elaborated.

Thomas stated that ultimately they decided to go against this storyline as they were afraid of viewers thinking that they were being "glib" and making a mockery out of a tragedy.

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Neil Patrick Harris opens up about his salary on How I Met Your Mother

As reported by UNILAD, Neil Patrick Harris, who played Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, appeared on The Howard Stern Show on May 14, 2014. Harris revealed that by the end of the series, Harris, as well as the rest of the cast, was earning $250,000 per episode.

Howard Stern, however, seemed to be unimpressed with that figure and asked whether Harris was happy with his salary.

"Are you kidding $250,000 a week? Yes I was happy with that," Harris replied to that.

He also admitted to trying to negotiate more money for himself than his castmates, which was not well-received as some of them had been negotiating their salaries as a group.

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How I Met Your Mother is available to stream on Hulu.