The sound is tied to Team Fortress 2 and its Capture the Intelligence mode, where teams fight to steal the enemy briefcase, with the Soldier as one of the playable classes. Clips of loud, unexpected character shouts from the game were cut out and reused on soundboards and in edits as a generic scare. It is shared alongside other jumpscare sounds like the FNAF jumpscare scream, and it stays popular because the blast works even without context, turning any calm moment into a sudden joke scare for gaming audiences.