The pufferfish augh became popular online as a reaction meme built around a short clip of a pufferfish making an unusually human-sounding groan. It spread through reposts, meme pages and short-form edits, where creators used it for discomfort, confusion and surreal punchlines. Its staying power comes from how instantly recognizable and oddly expressive the noise is despite coming from a fish. It often appears in the same reaction-sound space as awkward moment clips and exaggerated anime ahh edits.