The main “blog” text is from the point of view of Barney Stinson, a main character on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. All the comments are from the perspective of more minor characters in the show. They also each reference a quoted phrase from Barney, but these quotes are not among Barney's typical catchphrases. Instead, each is a line (or close to a line) that Barney delivers just before being slapped in the Slap Bet, a running gag in the show which involved Barney being “officially” slapped eight times.
There are eight slaps, eight characters, and eight digits in the “important numbers” that Barney describes. By identifying the characters and placing them in the chronological order of the slaps, the digits can then be used to index into the character names, resulting in the answer, BORN FREE.
| Person | Quote | Slap Episode | Stat | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilson | “Aww . . .” | “Slap Bet” | 1 | B |
| Bob (Barker) | “Two, three, four!” | “Stuff” | 2 | O |
| Carl | “What?! Wait, you . . ” | “Slapsgiving” | 3 | R |
| Nick | “This is the best Thanksgiving . . .” | “Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap” | 1 | N |
| Alfred (Mosby) | “Why do I have to be [Barney] right now?” | “Disaster Averted” | 3 | F |
| Patrice | “The worst is over.” | “Disaster Averted” | 4 | R |
| Becky | “Enough to take this [slap] for me?” | “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra” | 2 | E |
| Zoey | “I’ll be back in six hours, tops.” | “The End of the Aisle” | 3 | E |