Hornet first appeared in Hollow Knight, the action-adventure game developed by Team Cherry and released in 2017. As a recurring boss and ally in Hallownest, she speaks mostly in short vocal bursts rather than full dialogue, which made her laughs and calls easy to isolate as clips. Fans shared those lines across gaming communities and soundboards as the game grew in popularity, and interest in Hornet increased further with her lead role in Hollow Knight: Silksong. The laugh remains popular because it conveys her personality in under a second.