When asked if I would like to receive a copy of best selling author Barney Stinson’s latest book, The Playbook, I jumped at the chance. I mean, sometimes I feel like I’m a walking, talking Ted Mosby when it comes to my love life. If the Barney Stinson has advice for a guy like me, well, I would be a fool not to jump all over it … no?
In all seriousness folks, The Playbook is “written” by both Barney and How I Met Your Mother scribe Matt Kuhn (you do the math on that, and you can easily tell how the workload was distributed on this particular project). Stinson and Kuhn also “collaborated” on the best seller The Bro Code and Bro on the Go. If you’ve read their previous work, you’ve got a feel for what to expect from The Playbook: Barney Stinson-style humor, with the proverbial tongue in the proverbial cheek.
The book is exactly what it’s advertised to be — a collection of “plays” that bros-in-need can execute, with little to no prep time, in order to catch the fancy of a particular lady friend (known in The Playbook as “targets” … hopefully Julia isn’t reading this, ready to tell me how I’m the poster child for sexism just for reading The Playbook). The plays are separated into four distinct difficulty levels — Don Knots, Don King, Don Johnson, and, natch, Don Juan.
I certainly have some favorites … the number of 80’s movie references is astounding, from The Footloose to a personal favorite, The Project X. Several of Barney’s plays from the show are here, including details on how to pull off the Lorenzo von Matterhorn from the ironically titled HIMYM episode “The Playbook.” One of the more … complex plays is The Mr. President, which maps out in detail a political plan that would put oneself in the Oval Office … which has, if you ask Presidents Clinton or Kennedy, a certain cache to it.
I had a blast reading The Playbook, just as I did The Bro Code. I will have to, at some point, get the audio book. The Bro Code’s was read by Barney himself, which brought a whole different dynamic to the experience. The Playbook will enjoy a special place on my bookshelf, brought out anytime I need a quick laugh, or indubitably a little help meeting my “soul mate.”
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Dec 16, 2010 @ 16:41 EST5EDT
