How Old Is Barney the Dinosaur?

We have not thought about this classic kids’ show in so many years. Often imitated; never replicated.

Barney and friends taught millions of kids about love, sharing, and respect through their television series. Barney and Friends ran from 1992 to 2010.

Children’s programming has a tendency to run longer than other TV shows, but this run is still impressive among its peers.

The TV show most of us know was based on an older VHS video series called Barney and the Backyard Gang.

This show was not as successful as its 1990s retool, but it still featured familiar friends like Baby Bop; Barney still had his optimistic attitude, too.

This original version featured David Joyner, who would go on the play Barney in the 1992 series.

What you might not know is that in both shows, the actor who played Barney in the dinosaur costume and the actor who did the voice were different people.

The costume doesn’t allow for the actor to speak, requiring them to bite down to move his mouth.

Barney’s Age

Do you remember the song? Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination. Big, purple, friendly, and fun, Barney knew how to entertain anyone.

In spirit, we’d like to think of him as ageless. The age of the actor? Who cares? Google David Joyner.

Barney himself tells us his age, though! We even celebrate his birthday.

How Old Is Barney?

Dinosaur years and human years are different, apparently. Considering how long it has been since dinosaurs went extinct, Barney needs to have been around for a WHILE.

In the episode where we celebrate the big purple dino’s birthday, it is revealed that Barney is two in human years.

But in dinosaur years, Barney is 250 million years old, a huge, historically accurate age for a dinosaur.

It’s not clear what he’s been up to between his birth and the 1980s, but we’re glad he stuck around!

Is Barney a Boy or a Girl?

What do you mean? Barney is Barney! This friendly purple dinosaur is whatever you need them to be and for anyone.

Technically speaking, Barney is a boy. The actor in the Barney suit has only been men: David Joyner, Carey Stinson, and David Voss.

It’s a funny coincidence that one of the Barney actors’ last names is Stinson; it is a premonition of the character Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother.

For the record, Barney Stinson is much younger than Barney the dinosaur. About 249,999,969 years younger, to be exact.