It has nothing to do with the show. It's a general reference to the way a character acts. The context of the comment or story wouldn't change if there was no mention of Barney's technique.

EDIT Thank goodness new episodes start Monday. Maybe something worth reading will reappear on this sub. I know, "if you want to complain submit something!" ... but that's a cop out when the community encourages still images with captions that evoke the idea of "Oh yeah, I remember that joke!" or the 10th thread this week about bump girl.