The Bro Code

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 show more down adding the prefix bro- to every other word you think. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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.

The Bro Code

I Picked Up This Book Because: Needed a Hoopla book to get #BookspinBingo

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Hoopla via P Public Library
Dates Read: 4/29/22
Stars: 3 Stars
Narrator(s): Neil Patrick Harris

The Story:

Some things just do not age well and this book is unfortunately one of them. It was nostalgic and brought back many good memories from the show but a few points were so cringy. Well, Barney is cringy so I guess we got what was advertised.

Overall I enjoyed it and it served the purpose it was supposed to.

The Random Thoughts:

Really funny in some places ("the Spartan seamen broke through the Trojan barrier"), if you can get into a machismo state of mind. Not recommended to be read in one sitting, because although you're aware it's humor, it gets kinda disgusting. It'd be cooler if NPH offered up a code or two, but that's just wishful thinking. The illustrations and formulas, and even the blurbs were a nice touch.

Completely tongue-in-cheek, of course, I really enjoyed this testament to manliness. I laughed, I cried, I actually decided to watch the tv series because I read this book. What a strange world we live in.

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.