MovieChat Forums > Rules of Engagement (2007) Discussion > Is Russel Dunbar based off of Barney Sti...

Is Russel Dunbar based off of Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother?

posted 7 years ago by matjusm
4 replies | jump to latest

It took me a while to realize but both Russel Dunbar in Rules of Engagement and Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother have a lot of similarities that has to be more than a coincidence. HIMYM came out nearly 2 years before Rule of Engagement so this is perfectly plausible.

Both characters:

- Chase women consistently

- Never want to commit to a woman

- Look for girls with "daddy issues"

- Lie about who they are to sleep with a girl

- Boast about their antics to their friends

- Have a very well paying job at a large company but nobody is really clear on what they do there

- Have a very fancy apartment

- Have some sort of issues with their father (or lack of father)

There's just too many. Anyone else think the same or is this just in my head?

[–] Sam_Fisher_Agent_47 7 years ago

The similarities are there, however I don't think that one is based off the other. There are heaps of wealthy, sleazy men in sitcoms.

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[–] hurricane (1907) 5 years ago

I always thought that as HIMYM went on, Barney became more of a sympathetic character.

In the early episodes, say season one, I think the writers were making Barney just seem like some lame guy who tried silly plans to get chicks. Notice in these ones, a lot of his plans didn't work. Later, he became a character with his own family stuff. (Even his own "daddy issues".) He started having a lot more success with women, and despite a lot of the sleaziness of his character, he was written more to make the audience feel he was somehow cool.

I don't think we were ever meant to symapthise with Russell, or think he was cool.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

I think it’s neither. Having one of the main characters as the groups’ resident lothario, living in Manhattan, is a classic sitcom troupe. Here a few examples:

Joey in friends
Barney in HIMYM
Eliot DiMauro in Just shoot me!
Russell Dunbar in Rules of engagement

I’m positive there’s more examples I’m just forgetting. It’s so common, it’s almost like multiverse versions of the same character.

[–] Mustang (5194) 8 months ago

It's a pretty old and regularly used character type. I would say Russell is more of a David Spade vehicle as Spade just comes across as sleazy. Barney is more humorous and lighter whilst still having a sleazy vibe.