Sometimes the best thing you can do for one of your bros is to point out just what he has done wrong, especially if it reflects poorly on your choice of bros. And toward that end, Master Bro Barney Stinson (from the CBS show “How I Met Your Mother,” played to sleazy perfection by Neil Patrick Harris) has released the legendary rules of bro-therhood that have heretofore been passed down solely through oral history, father-son talks and cocktail napkins. The Bro Code. And it is awesome.
Written by “Barney” and Matthew Kuhn, the HIMYM staff writer who handles Barney’s Blog, some of the rules have been seen (and illustrated) on the show itself, but many of them are here for the first time. Which bro buys the next round? Can a bro sleep with another bro’s sister and/or mother? Can a woman be your wingman? When a bro is showing off his new car, are his fellow bros expected to look under the hood and go “aaah” even if they have no idea what they’re looking at? How exactly do you rate a chick on the Hot/Crazy scale? Is it permissible for a bro to provide details of his sexual escapades? (Answer to the last: surprisingly, no, as too much detail will require your fellow bros to imagine you naked, and there’s no coming back from there) Every detail of a bro’s life is covered, or at least the ones involving scoring chicks, which are the only details that matter if you’re a bro.
Or give it to your single female friends as a scary reminder of what they’ll be facing that night when Barney-clones approach them with free drinks and raised eyebrows.
It’s available in paperback or as an audio book read by Neil Patrick Harris (listen to an excerpt here), and includes charts, questionnaires, diagrams, and the complete text of the original Bro Code written in the 1700s by revolutionary bro Barnabus Stinson. Just the thing for the undirected dude in your life.