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How I Met Your Mother slammed for 'gross' Facebook tribute to Martin Luther King

Rob Moran

To a fledgling social media manager, it might've seemed a golden idea. To everyone else, it's "legen-wait for it-dary" for all the wrong reasons.

How I Met Your Mother, the hit sitcom which ran for nine seasons before wrapping up controversially in 2014, has drawn criticism following an awkward Facebook post attempting to pay tribute to civil rights icon Martin Luther King on his annual US national holiday.

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Sitcom Facebook post causes King of a stir

How I Met Your Mother has been slammed for posting a 'gross' tribute post to Martin Luther King Jr on its Facebook page.

The ill-conceived post rewrote King's revered "I Have a Dream" speech from the point of view of sex-obsessed pants-man, Barney Stinson (played on the series by Neil Patrick Harris).

"I have a dream that all bros will rise up and live out the true meaning of their creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident – that all boobs are created pretty good'," the post began.

"I have a dream that one day black and white chicks will come together in my bed," went another line, and that "all tee-shirts will be wet and boob jobs will be free."

Not content with its tacky misogyny, the piece was signed off with a sloppily misspelled "Barney Stinston".

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The site deleted the post this morning, after it had somehow racked up almost 10,000 likes.

The post sparked the usual back-and-forth between the "Relax, it's just a joke!" set, and those side-eyeing the tone-deaf idea of 'honouring' King with a bunch of sex gags.

"Promoting rape culture in the name of Martin Luther King? Not cool HIMYM..." one commenter wrote.

"Love the show, poor taste to post this in honour of someone who died fighting for equality," added another.

"If you know the show, the character and the context, it's humour and no one takes the character seriously," one countered, while another, admitting the "timing could have been better", called it "classic Barney".

The show faced a similar backlash during its final season, accused of "yellowface" following an episode in which the all-white cast appeared with stereotypical Asian costumes and accents.

The show's creator Carter Bays, who said it was supposed to be a "homage to kung fu movies", later apologised for the episode on Twitter.

A How I Met Your Father spin-off of the series, which tells the story from the point of view of a female character, is reportedly in the works from the team behind US sitcom This Is Us.

The idea had been previously shelved in 2014, when a pilot starring Greta Gerwig in the lead role and narration from Meg Ryan wasn't picked up for a series order.

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