The classic How I Met Your Mother episode (sort of) foreshadowed Cobra Kai

One of the funniest gags in How I Met Your Mother is how Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) always rooting for bad guys in movies and shows. He believes King Joffrey was a “fair and wise ruler” on Game of Thrones and applauds Hans Gruber throughout Die Hard. It’s a joke that makes some sense to Barney, an amoral agent of chaos who should probably be in jail, but it’s the kind of thing you can spend all day dissecting the logic behind. How far does Barney’s villain worship go? He’s also rooting for Frank Booth in Blue Velvet or something Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds? I hope not!

Thankfully, “HIMYM” limits its examples of Barney villain worship to less serious films. Most notable is “The Karate Kid,” where Barney roots for blond bully Johnny (William Zabka) instead of edgy outsider Daniel (Ralph Macchio). In Season 4, Barney explains his reading of the film, saying, “This is the story of a hopeful young karate enthusiast whose dreams and desire lead him to the All Valley Karate Championship. Of course, unfortunately, he lost in the last round to this nerd, but he learns an important lesson about how to gracefully accept defeat.”

It seems like a one-off joke, but four seasons later, the real William Zabka shows up on Barney’s Bachelorette, thanking him for showing that someone else “finally” understands what “The Karate Kid” is really about. This is one of the best moments in Barney’s life, set in one of the best episodes of Season 8. Zabka continued to appear regularly in Season 9 of the show, even briefly serving as Barney’s best man.

Many fans believe that this storyline foreshadowed Cobra Kai, the popular television series that debuted in 2018 and follows the lives of Daniel and Johnny from The Karate Kid. Johnny is actually portrayed in a more likable way in this show than in the original movie. However, How I Met Your Mother did more than just predict this new TV show; it also played a small part in making the show in the first place.

In a 2020 interviewCobra Kai co-creator Josh Heald credited How I Met Your Mother with keeping The Karate Kid alive in the public mind, helping to prove that a television spin-off could indeed be profitable. As he explained:

“We definitely appreciate the parallel fandoms that this show has, whether it’s the How I Met Your Mother storyline — which was amazing — we get asked all the time about that YouTube video, if Daniel was a real bully… All those things just gave us a little boost when we were thinking about the show and comparing the storylines to put the show on because it gave us confidence that we weren’t the only ones, and we didn’t think that yes, but it was nice to see what other creators thought of The Karate Kid.

“Cobra Kai” was originally approved by YouTube Red in 2017, just a couple of years after “HIMYM” ended its run (underrated!) series finale. While the show technically has nothing to do with the popular CBS sitcom, it’s funny to watch it and think how much Barney Stinson would have enjoyed it. Or perhaps now that Johnny is portrayed sympathetically, Barney may feel betrayed and begin to confront him. It’s hard to say for sure; it is only known that Zabka himself is grateful for what “KHIM” has done. Neil Patrick Harris recently interviewed the actor for his websitewhere Zabka explained how big a deal it was to him “CHEMISTRY”.

“After decades of being cemented in pop culture as an ’80s ‘bad guy,’ fans suddenly sympathized with me and even rooted for me,” Zabka explained. “All the love and goodwill I felt as a result of it still carries over to this day and definitely added fuel to the Cobra Kai fire!”