I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Contrary to popular belief, Barney wasn't actually a magical life-sized dinosaur toy.
It's true. There was an actual human being inside that big ol' Barney costume and his name was David Joyner. Business Insider just did an interview with the 53-year-old actor and it'll make you laugh, cry, and go, "Wait, whaaaat?!"
This man played Barney the dinosaur for 10 years — here's what it was like
Here's all the Barney scoop that just made my day a little brighter:
1. The Barney costume weighed 70 pounds and it could get up to 120 degrees inside.
2. Barney is a Tyrannosaurus rex.
3. The feet of the costume were so big that Joyner had sneakers glued to the bottom of them.
4. The head of the costume didn't move at all and it was very difficult for him to see while he was in costume, so he'd practice walking around his apartment as though he was blind.
5. A different guy played the voice of Barney, so they did a thing called "dinosync" where Joyner listened to all the dialogue over a headset and matched his movements to that.
6. Joyner made bank as Barney. When he got his first residual check he was like, "Are you kidding me?!"
7. After 10 years as the big purple guy, Joyner moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. He had guest roles on Shameless, That '70s Show, ER, and 24.
8. But now he's back in the costume game in a YouTube series called Hip Hop Harry:
View this video on YouTube
9. He is so pure when it comes to the "I Love You" song.
10. And he really, really loved his time on the childhood classic:
I'M NOT CRYING, YOU'RE CRYING.
