Top Five HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER Guest Stars

How I Met Your Mother is known for a lot of things. An extensive list of rules for behaving like a true Bro, mysterious hybrid household pests, Canada jokes, Bob Saget’s ominpresent voice, and Star Wars allusions. It’s also known for its parade of big name guest stars, from pop stars to Broadway veterans to Improv veterans, all easily mixing into the tight knit main cast. Here are five guest stars that have stood out over the years on HIMYM.

It’s a question for the ages really. What would a gay Barney Stinson be like? Wayne Brady as his brother James answered that question for all of us. In addition to just being a hysterical character, James’ plot lines have led to a lot of growth for Barney’s character, from coming to terms with his daddy issues to learning to accept players getting into committed relationships. At least if there’s a baby involved.

Where it all began, the Barney Stinson origin story. Lithgow gives two great performances as Barney’s dad, both as the boring family man who’s long outgrown his partying ways, and as the wild cool dad of Barney’s imagination, the father who’s willing to try anything to win the respect and affection of his estranged son, even encourage the passive aggressive insulting of his eleven year old son.

There were a lot of questions about Britney’s ability to pull of a sitcom role, especially after the train wreck that was Crossroads, but she came off as perfectly socially inept secretary that cries if you yell at her and falls hard for Ted, or, as she sees him a young, more handsome Tom Selek. Or a knight. It’s not important which one she lands on, they all paint her as wonderfully awkward.

Another one of How I Met Your Mother’s skills is creating characters that are people everyone recognizes, and Katy Perry as the girl who laps up every line a guy hands her as the absolute truth would have been perfect on her own, but the fact that Barney takes advantage of one of his most gullible victims by unloading his emotional problems onto her instead of making a move made it even better. Her episode gave a whole new sense of depth to the question, “Who’s your daddy?”

Poor JLo. Your ego has to take a pretty big hit when the ultimate manwhore turns you down. Lopez as the author of the awesome-titled book, “Of Course You’re Single, Take a Look at Yourself You Dumb Slut” tries to seduce then fake out Barney, but when he makes a promise to Robbin to not sleep with her, she comes crawling to him willing to break her seventeen date rule so they can get together. The poor woman was probably up all night re-reading her book trying to figure out where she could have gone wrong.

Does this list over your favorites? Are there any other stand out characters you think I missed?