The effect is credited to the 1938 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Trailer, released May 6, 1938, where Disney animators paired exaggerated electrical noises with the trailer's chaotic road trip gags. Early Disney shorts relied on tightly timed sound effects to sell physical comedy before dialogue carried a scene, and this buzzing zap became a reusable template for cartoon shocks. It has since circulated on soundboards and in edits as a generic Disney-style electricity sound, valued because modern viewers still associate its crackle with harmless, old-school slapstick rather than realistic electrical danger.