Michael Jackson, known for distinctive vocal tics like the hiccup, the Hee Hee and short shouted exclamations, built these ad libs into hits across the 1980s and 1990s. Isolated clips of his Ow and Au shouts later circulated on soundboards and in video edits, detached from any single song. Their instant recognisability made them useful as a universal reaction sound, and editors now reuse the shout wherever a character gets hurt, startled or caught off guard on screen.