The air horn began as a stadium fan accessory before DJs and producers started sampling its blast for drops and hype sections in electronic and trap music. Around the mid-2010s it crossed into meme culture as the MLG airhorn, the signature sting layered over exaggerated plays in MLG montage edits on YouTube and Vine. Those edits trained a generation of viewers to hear the horn as a punchline, so it now works both as genuine hype and as an ironic wink.