Bernard "Barney" Rubble, a fictional character in the popular television animated series The Flintstones, is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and adoptive father of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. His best friends are his next door neighbors, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Barney lives in the fictional prehistoric city of Bedrock, a world where dinosaurs coexist with barefoot cavemen and the cavemen enjoyed "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles and washing machines. Barney's personality was based on that of Ed Norton on the 1950s television series The Honeymooners, played by Art Carney. As such, Barney tended to be much more jovial minded and easygoing than his friend Fred, who was slightly smarter than Barney in some matters and slightly dimmer than him in others. While the two sometimes argued, Barney usually (though often reluctantly) supported whatever scheme Fred had in mind, with often disastrous results. He was also on occasions verbally and physically abused by Fred. But in one episode, where Fred dumps him as partner in the annual Water Buffalos sports competition for Joe Rockhead, Barney gives Fred a black eye (on which Fred puts a huge raw bronto steak). Barney's interests included bowling, playing pool, poker, tinkering around in Fred's garage and playing golf, though there were episodes where Barney didn't know how to play golf. He, like Fred, was also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos lodge and its predecessor in earlier episodes, the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs. He is also a talented pianist and drummer. In the first episode of the original series he was an inventor of a hand-powered helicopter. Though clearly depicted as being in better shape than Fred, he isn't shown to be quite as enthusiastic sportsman as Fred is. This distinction can be attributed to Fred's fondness of food, though Barney is shown to be at least as capable of excessive appetite on a number of occasions.
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Biography
While the mid-1980s spinoff series The Flintstone Kids depicts Barney as a child, the series seems to be mostly apocryphal due to its presenting Barney as a childhood friend of Wilma and Betty (vs. the original series' assertion that they first met as young adults). Still, the series' assertions that Barney had at least one younger brother, Dusty, was a childhood friend of Fred, and was the son of artist Flo Slate Rubble and car dealer Robert "Honest Bob" Rubble might be taken as valid. The original series also suggested in one episode that Barney was the nephew of Fred's boss, Mr. Slate, though subsequent episodes and spinoffs don't seem to support this claim. As a kid Barney worked in "Rock City". As young adults, Barney and Fred worked as bellhops at a resort, where they first met Wilma and Betty. Eventually, Barney married Betty (as Fred did Wilma). Several episodes and spinoffs suggest that Barney, along with Fred, spent some time in the army early in their marriages. While the subject of Barney's occupation (or whether he even worked) was never given during the original series, subsequent spinoffs suggest Barney went to work at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company quarry alongside Fred, at some point after the original series' episodes take place, possibly in some office role. One episode had Fred inadvertently getting him fired, then helping Barney finding work as a repo man who ended up having to repossess Fred's TV set. One of the original series does have a brief scene of Barney working at the "Granite Building" {Empire State Building?}. Another original series episode has Barney helping Fred at a Hamburger joint they had bought. When speaking to an upper-crust snob, Betty declares Barney is in "top secret" work but that may merely be a cover for a low level job or unemployment, or perhaps an in-joke meaning that Barney's job was unknown even to the show's writers. In one episode Barney's boss tells him to "put down his broom," which implies some sort of janitorial works is involved. It may be that Barney sometimes changed jobs between episodes. Barney seems to know most of Fred's coworkers and is often around the quarry so perhaps Barney works at a different part of the quarry or at least somewhere very close to it. In a majority of spin-offs and movies, Barney has been portrayed as working in the quarry as a dino-crane operator, alongside Fred. Around the fourth season of the original series, Betty and Barney found an abandoned infant on their doorstep, by the name of "Bamm-Bamm." A court battle ensued between Barney and Betty and a wealthy man who also had wanted to adopt Bamm-Bamm, the wealthy man's attorney being the noted prehistoric lawyer "Perry Masonry" (wordplay on Perry Mason). Barney and Betty were successful in their efforts to adopt Bamm-Bamm, after which he became a staple character on the series. In the fifth season, the family buys a pet hopparoo (a combination of a kangaroo and dinosaur) named Hoppy.
In other media
In "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" Billy knocks on Barney's door and makes weird noises and faces because he thought they didn't speak English, so Barney hits Billy in the head with a club then Betty asks who it was and Barney says "Proof against evolution." Barney was smiling the whole time even when he broke the club hitting Billy (at the end of "Modern Primitives / Giant Billy and Mandy All-Out Attack"). He has also appeared in the show in a much earlier episode A Grim Prophecy, were he appeared in Grim's death list.
Trivia
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- Barney participated in a celebrity roast for Fred Flintstone on the TV-special Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue (1977).
- In the Spanish dubbing, his name is Pablo Mármol ("Paul Marble").
- Darts world champion Raymond van Barneveld, whose nickname is Barney, often wears captioned shirts featuring the Barney Rubble character during matches. In the televised match on Sky Sports with The Power, several fans were seen on camera, wearing Flintstones outfits.
- Professional poker player "Barmy" Barny Boatman has been known to use a small Barney Rubble statuette as a card protector.
- Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone appear as pitchmen for Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles breakfast cereals. Barney usually tries to trick Fred out of said cereal through various tactics, usually via a disguise.
- Barney Gumble of The Simpsons is meant to be an homage to Barney Rubble.
- On the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory, someone who strongly resembles Barney is one of Dexter's father's close friends.
- In the Family Guy episode "Peter's Got Woods", Peter Griffin can be seen visiting Barney, sitting on a pelican toilet ("You think you've got a crap job!"), in one of his "flashbacks". He is also mentioned on the Family Guy: Live in Vegas CD, wherein Peter claims that Barney made crude anatomy-related comments to a woman while drunk.
- Canadian punk rock band Hot Nasties have a song called "Barney Rubble is my Double"; this song has also been covered by another Canadian punk rock band, The Evaporators, on their album Ripple Rock.
- In an episode of Robot Chicken, Barney hangs himself in the end of the sketch after killing Fred, Dino, and all the appliances in the house. Oddly enough, Barney actually attempted suicide in the original Flintstones series, in the same episode where Bamm-Bamm debuted. As seen in the episode, the court's original decision awarded custody of Bamm-Bamm to another, and the despondent Barney left the courthouse and tied himself to a boulder which he then planned to push off a bridge into the river, thereby forcing him to bottom of the river to die by drowning. In his absence, the winner renounced custody to the Rubbles, and Fred rushed the good news to Barney just as the latter was about to drop the boulder ("Goodbye, cruel woild!"). The jubilant Barney accidentally pushed Fred off the bridge instead, although Fred, of course, survived (as it turned out, the water was barely waist-deep, so Barney's suicide attempt was doomed to failure anyway).
- Internet users have used the Buffalo Sabres' new logo as Barney's hair.
- The friendship between Fred and Barney was put to the test in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones when, in the future, Fred works for Spacely Sprockets and Barney works for the rival company, Cogswell Cogs. However, there is no reference ever made on The Flintstones that Barney worked for the rival company of where Fred worked, as is stated by one Flintstones website.
- In the 1985 comedy film Better Off Dead, Barney Rubble appears on a television, asking the lead character about dating his ex-girlfriend.
Portrayal
Voice artist Mel Blanc was the principal voice of Barney Rubble, although Daws Butler briefly assumed the role while Blanc recovered from a car wreck.[1] Since Blanc's death, Frank Welker, Jeff Bergman and Kevin Michael Richardson have all performed the role. In the 1994 live action Flintstones movie, Barney was portrayed by Rick Moranis. In the 2000 prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, he was portrayed by Stephen Baldwin.
Notes
See also
- List of sidekicks
