Ok. I’ve got a question for the internets; check this out:

In the above photo (from How I Met Your Mother, season 4 - episode 22) Marshall Eriksen is showing some charts he made to determine Barney Stinson’s “stats”. He says out loud, and it’s printed on the chart, that Barney has had “16 years of sexual activity.”

Am I late to the game on this one, or did it strike no one else as odd? Consider the ‘facts’:

Barney Stinson lost his virginity when he was 23 (as explained in episode 15 of season 1).

Season 4 took place during 2008-2009 (as explained in episode 13 of season 4 when Ted mentions the “blizzard of ‘09” and following the show’s pattern of the story taking place in the current year).

So, in this charming episode about Barney’s quest for 200, we are to believe that he is 39?… Thirty… Nine, and 42 in the current season?? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I never had any idea Barney’s character was that old nor do I think the age makes sense with his character at all.

Of course, ‘the rest of you’ probably did not waste a bit of this fleeting life examining the alleged ages of fictional characters. I, however, did. Obviously. 

Now, if I’m missing something or there is some sort of alien-abduction, secret testing, ancient mayan prophetic explanation for this, I’m all ears - especially if it’s the latter - but if not, I want an explanation from Craig Thomas, Carter Bays or NPH himself! (ok I really just want to hang out with NPH, who’s gonna blame me?)