The Bro Code

By Barney Stinson

From the hit TV show How I Met Your Mother comes Barney Stinson’s words of wit, wisdom, and awesomeness, The Bro Code—the New York Times bestseller (really!) with more than a million copies in print all around the world.

Everyone’s life is governed by an internal code of conduct. Some call it morality. Others call it religion. But Bros in the know call this Holy Grail The Bro Code.

The Bro Code is a living document, much like the Constitution. Except instead of outlining a government, or the Bill of Rights, or anything even resembling laws, The Bro Code provides men with all the rules they need to know in order to become a “bro” and behave properly among other bros. Historically a spoken tradition passed from one generation to the next and dating back to the American Revolution, the official code of conduct for Bros appears here in its published form for the first time ever. By upholding the tenets of this sacred and legendary document, any dude can learn to achieve Bro-dom.

Containing approximately 150 “unspoken” rules, this code of conduct for bros can range from the simple (bros before hos) to the complex (the hot-to-crazy ratio, complete with bar graphs and charts). With helpful sidebros The Bro Code will help any ordinary guy become the best bro he can be. Let ultimate bro and co-author Barney Stinson and his book, The Bro Code share their wisdom, lest you be caught making eye contact in a devil’s three-way (two dudes, duh).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Touchstone
• Release date: Oct 14, 2008
• ISBN: 9781439152935

Barney Stinson

Barney Stinson is awesome. He works for a powerful bank in New York City but somehow finds time to “suit up” and help the less fortunate, in particular his lovelorn and all together pathetic bro Ted Mosby—seriously, that dude’s got probs. When Barney’s not staging private bikini calendar shoots, test-driving tanks, or elbow-deep in another legendary activity, like riding a tiger bareback or blowing up a guitar, he can be seen on the hit CBS show How I Met Your Mother with his friends Ted, Robin, Lily, and Marshall.

Reviews for The Bro Code

[bravenewbks · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book is funny for exactly as long as you can hear Barney Stinson's voice in your head reading along with you. For me, the limit was about ten pages at a time. Once Neil Patrick Harris stops lending his humor and charm to the word, you realize how awful the content really is. I wouldn't be surprised if Tucker Max was the ghostwriter, except most of it is simultaneously more offensive and less creative than Max's usual misogynistic crap out there. So I'd put the book down in disgust... But then twelve hours later, Barney's voice would return and I'd chuckle at the next ten pages. Oh, that Barney! Tee hee.

But there is absolutely no excuse for the fact that Broccasion (Bro Occasion, because it's The Bro Code and so it's clever) is twice spelled Brocassion. Ugh. Except apparently a Bro never spellchecks, so maybe the misspellings were just an unintentional illustration if The Code in action. In which case, still ugh.

[bensdad00 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Exploitative tie-in publication. More a rehash/collection of bits from the show as opposed to original material. If TV related reading is your craving, "How To Archer" is far superior.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It's what could be a funny aside joke stretched to a book (booklet, pamphlet?) and bled absolutely dry. Repetitive and not very imaginative - nothing will surprise you.

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up to see if I could safely rec it for high school boys. I've never seen How I Met Your Mother, but I still really, really laughed at this. A lot. It is deliciously feminist in its complete and total embrace of sexism. Um. That sentence might not make a lot of sense, but I can't really think of a way to phrase it better.

Honestly, it's so perfectly over the top. Read it. It will take you almost no time at all to get through, and you'll run into lines like this: A Bro is under no obligation to open a door for anyone. If women insist on having their own professional basketball league, then they can open their own doors. Honestly, they're not that heavy.

The only downside? You'll walk around for a few hours after you put it down adding the prefix bro- to every other word you think.

[buffycharpentier · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a quick must read for any fan of How I Met Your Mother. Matt Kuhn does a wonderful job of bringing the humor of the show into each quick article of the Bro Code. I found myself hearing Barney Stintson’s voice in every word, and could not help but recall many of the episodes where parts of the Bro Code appeared and laughing even harder. Not a book for the easily offended and there are many jokes made at women’s expense. The outrageous stereotypes outlined throughout the code are what make it funny. I am sure those not familiar with the show will find enjoyment as well, but it certainly helps the humor to have that background knowledge. Prompt: Read a humor book

[ferrisscottr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

made me laugh out loud following by periods of non-laughter that went on too long

[jorgecarvajal-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm being generous with 3 stars, it's a 6 out of 10. Now don't get me wrong it IS very funny and very entertaining, and essential in every bro's repertoire. But, I must say, many articles need some work, and there are some things that are just wrong. Like getting Barney in a 1-10 rating scale in one of the articles, even as 10, that is unacceptable, the rating scale should have been 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Barney. There's also the exclusion of many bro's and the lack of internationality of the tome. It just doesn't get as awesome as Barney would have it. In the absence of a better bro code, this is the one. The good part is, it's got an amendment section at the end where you can write your own amendment, alas, there's space for only one.

[yougotamber · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brotastic! Loved all of it... Highly recommend.

[Arnoldo Chavez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book, it taught me how to be a great bro. This is better than religious holy books.

[J12 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Fan of the show, Fan of reading, Fan of reading stuff about Bros and the Game. But this book is very superficial and not at all insightful. Got it, read it from front to end, and deleted it. Not worth the 20 minute read.

[laneliterati · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Funny but pretty predictable, it's kind of a fun read for fans of "How I Met Your Mother." I listened to the audiobook, and one of the best things about it was Neil Patrick Harris's narration. Basically, it's humor disguised as advice for men who subscribe to the idea of "bros before hos."

[henrimoreaux · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Picked this up as I like the TV show 'How I Met Your Mother' and find the Barney Stinson character to be quite funny in the over the top egotistical & narcissistic way.

Whilst some parts of the book are genuinely funny the majority is really just Barney Stinson statements from the show reformatted into a 'code' of sorts.

If you haven't seen much of the show you will probably enjoy the book and have quite a few laughs, if you have seen most of the show you probably won't get much out of the book.

It's not bad, but at the same time it doesn't bring much to the table either.

[laura_frederick_14 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Bro Code is a funny book. A quick read and especially fun while reading it aloud to a group of friends. I prefer it over Barney Stinson oher book; The Playbook. I actually gave it to a friend of mine as a birthday present and he got a kick out of it!

[booksandbosox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tony and I listened to this yesterday since we are such huge fans of the show. It was entertaining enough, though it got a little old in some places and some "articles" were far less amusing than others. Overall, though, I found it funny. Neil Patrick Harris reading was key. It was amusing to see how many articles Tony had broken.