Single Stamina
"Single Stamina" is the tenth episode in the second season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on November 27, 2006.
Plot
It is winter time in New York, and Marshall, Lily, Ted, and Robin are in "couples' hibernation mode". Barney tries to get them to go out, but the two couples consistently refuse. Tired of being his own wing man, Barney announces that he's invited his brother James (Wayne Brady) to town. Ted warns Robin that James is just like Barney, only gay, so she shouldn't be surprised. James arrives and Robin is very surprised to discover that James is black. Robin asks what the back-story is, and it is revealed that the two don't really know it; amongst other things, their mother says that Barney is white because she ate vanilla ice cream when she was pregnant with him, and James is black because she ate chocolate ice cream.
James tells them that they are young people living in New York and that they should go out and have fun. The six of them go out, and James helps Barney pick up a girl with a back tattoo. Lily, Marshall, Robin, and Ted comment on the differences between single people and people in couples. While they are discussing whether it is more difficult to pick up a girl or to deflect obnoxious guys picking you up, the group notices that James is acting strangely. He has been turning down an awful lot of guys tonight, complaining about his feet hurting him, and generally acting like the four of them. When they see James text messaging someone, they realize that he must be in a relationship and they have to tell Barney. Barney confronts James, grabbing James's phone, which has a picture of James and another man on it. James tells Barney that the man in the picture is Tom, his fiancé. James then asks Barney to be his best man. Barney says no, which crushes James.
