Barney Gives Me the Creeps
6Not the purple dinosaur...the user that lurks around here. I will be casually reading a forum post when BAM!- there he or she is telling us how they love purple. When I see this, all I can picture in my head is an animatronic purple dinosaur popping out at me from the dark to rip my face off while screaming at me their color preference. I've probably played too much, "Five Nights at Freddy's," but still. 
- 27 comments, 43 replies
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@everyone Aww (purple blush). Thank you!
I love purple. I really do.
A few weeks ago Barney had a tough week and took a few days off. This place was just that much more fun again when she came back. And she has a great sense of timing. Sometimes there'll be a long thread and you'll be thinking "Where is she?" and the moment you think that is when you see her comment. There are even times I mention a color when I don't have to. And granted that's trolling, but it's the kind of trolling the gray Internet needs more of.
@editorkid I see what you did there.
@SSteve
@editorkid yeah, I was kind of blue when she wasn't here.
I'm way more creeped out by the purple dinosaur on tv and that awful song in the video above. Our Barney is just fine.
Barney is sort of a de facto mascot, or something. I like @Barney.
@Teripie I love @barney
There's a lot of nuance to our Barney. Sometimes she likes purple, sometimes she loves purple, sometimes she loves purple! Things like the discussion of (Microsoft) Azure give me the giggles, because no part of my mind interprets it out of context as a color until Barney starts that little treasure hunt. But my favorite is when someone makes Barney feel the way purple makes Barney feel, and we get an 'aww' out of her.
@brhfl So much agreement here. It's those moments when you have to go back and re-read someone's comment because you didn't even notice there was a color mentioned until you saw Barney's reply. I have a lot of 'aww' for Barney myself.
@Cinoclav I've had to do that too. Sometimes I don't even notice the color on the first re-read and have to go back and re-read a second time.
@brhfl I got an "aww" out of her once! I have to admit, that was pretty sweet.
@Barney responded to a comment of mine yesterday and I felt special-er for it. I like The Thing she's doing and I upstar every time. I feel like she doesn't overdo her schtick; it's selectively deployed and comes across as naturally random. Every forum needs healthy levels of weirdo character accounts and @Barney is working this one pretty well so far, I think.
I adore our Barney. I enjoy the sense of excitement and wonder at taking such great joy in such a seemingly-simple thing. I'm intrigued by the very gradual expansion of vocabulary. And I love when Barney pops up when least expected (like in a discussion of Microsoft Azure).
On an out-of-universe level, I love Barney as a piece of performance art. But I'm hesitant to talk about Barney on this level because I'm afraid it will ruin the magic.
I love purple, therefore, I love @Barney. Although, she did inadvertently get me heavily questioned by my husband once. It was the first time he'd noticed her posts and it was a thread I had posted in. At that time, Barney's gender wasn't known, so it was a bit awkward explaining her forum behavior.
She. And she has her own language, is basically what it comes down to.
@joelmw we've seen multilingual evidence of kærlig lilla
@nadroj TIL Danish for loving purple. http://goo.gl/6Ne6Ua
Yeah I like @Barney and her commitment to the cause of keeping Purple in our minds.
While we're here, I think that at some point, @Barney should be meh scapegoat, because, while I adore her and have come to appreciate her brief comments, there is something creepy, wrong, blameworthy and very goatworthy to what she does. It is a little stalkery, among other things. I strongly disagree with those who contend that Barney shouldn't be goat and with those who contend that that would somehow ruin the Barney mystique. The power of Barney is greater than that.
I have some strong feelings for and attachment to February, which I may reveal (almost surely will eventually). Let's just say that in addition to being the successor month to our first January (and Year of the Goat), I think February is special and deserves a special goat.
Honestly, though, there are two or three other contenders worthy of our consideration, IMO. But this is about Barney.
Hail Barney!
@joelmw NO!
@joelmw -Well, February is BLACK history month.
@KDemo
@KDemo
@KDemo Ever notice that a black light is actually purple. Coincidence? I think not.
@joelmw I actually went to that Prince concert. Awesome!
@KDemo I used to really like Prince, but I'm not sure I ever felt sexually liberated enough to attend one of his concerts. ;-) Purple Rain sorta sucked as a movie (I think I liked it anyway, fwiw), but it had some incredible music. When the Doves Cry still gets me.
Many people and things that are creepy are actually either sweet or mysteriously meaningful or both. The creepy is just a sensor that says something special is going on. Sure, special can be bad, but it can be good too. I find our Barney adorable.
This is my favorite thing about the other Barney.
This one is better quality of the same clip, but you have to go to the site:
@joelmw I'm not sure if that video helped or made me more paranoid. O_O
I Agree!!! Barney is so very funny. I just love it when (she ) popps up! She makes me giggle every time. And I have noticed that there are gradually more words. Awwe
Initially I read that as Barney giving you the crepes, I think I need to get my eyes checked.
@ilovereality Good work finding such a purple crêpe!
@ilovereality I love purple crepes.
I will have to atone for this. I have sinned against Meh because I didn't understand Barney at all. I hope my fellow Meh-ers? can forgive, especially Barney, herself. Though I did enjoy reading the little stories some of you had.
@ABitterWoman There's nothing to forgive as far as I see. You feel what you feel. Given new information and new perspectives, feelings can change.
@ABitterWoman No one said anything about understanding. Some things just are.
@editorkid True. I just feel like the person who saw the Meh unicorn and screamed, "What the hell is that freaky horned horse doing here??"
@ABitterWoman I love freaky horned horses
@ABitterWoman I'm sorry.
@Barney No, I'm sorry. I understand now. <3 :D
@ABitterWoman Okey-dokey.
@joelmw Has convinced me, otherwise. Maybe it isn't creepy. I will let this thread quietly die and not speak of it again. But if I come up missing, I blame you, sir. ;D
i love @barney
seriously. anyone that sings this kind of song with little kids needs to be watched carefully:
@carl669 I agree with you!
I love @Barney -- she solves homework problem quandaries!
Barney is conspicuously missing from this conversation. Feels wrong. Yoo hoo, PURPLE.
@KDemo There was another Barney thread with plenty of colors sprinkled around for bait, Barney did not show there either. From this, we can conclude that Barney does not like being the center of attention.
@brhfl -Guess I'd make myself scarce if people were talking about me.
@KDemo Welp, just in case you missed it.
@brhfl - Mauve over, the periwinkle is plum lilac. (& thanks).
does anyone know where @Barney lives? not like an exact Address,I don't wanna stop by for a visit, but what part of the Country (maybe within view of the Rocky mountains near pikes peak IE: the "Purple Mountain Majesties" of "America the Beuatiful")
If @Barney is from the DFW area, I wonder if they had anything to do with the production of that other Barney, as they shot all the episodes in Allen, Irving and Carrollton,TX over the years.
I love @Barney. Though I do wonder if her love of purple only resides in the Meh forums.
I love Barney!
Our @Barney is great- she adds a great touch to the forums.
The other Barney- well, there's a reason there was a group on Usenet called alt.barney.die.die.die.
Did I somewhere miss the confirmation of @Barney being male/female?
@Ignorant Yes. I can't remember the thread, but in it, someone posted for her letting us know that a friend of hers had passed away and she'd be away from meh for a while.
@PurplePawprints I read it that way at first too, but then re-read it and thought they were saying that the friend was female.
EDIT to add:
https://meh.com/forum/topics/todays-the-28th---no-whose-the-next-goat-discussion-yet#547bb6912485d044067930b8
"This is because a close friend and mentor of Barney's has passed away. And for the next week or longer Barney will be traveling and helping out her family with funeral plans."
@Ignorant You may be right, then. I just know most people started referring to Barney as a female afterward and assumed it was because of that post. I'm really not sure otherwise.
@Ignorant That was how I interpreted it, too. I was actually going to post this in here, but I'm only just now getting here so I appreciate you getting it first (and finding the relevant post).
@Ignorant The gender specificity took on a life of its own and has been reinforced in this thread. I'm pretty sure Barney’s gender is unspecified (and maybe undefined).
Barney is just passionate about the color purple, or maybe he's a robot... Probably both.
@axleman1011 At least she's not a fan of Georgia red.
@axleman1011 I fear what I don't understand.
@joelmw for that alone, meh.
@ABitterWoman I'm fascinated by what I fear. :-)
@axleman1011 Barney is definitely not a robot. We've covered this previously with my all time favorite Barney response.
@Cinoclav But it didn't say no!
I am ambivalent to @Barney. Plus I love blue...
@BillLehecka blue + red = purple.