KEKW grew out of Twitch chat culture as an extension of the LULW emote family, using the image of Spanish comedian Juan Joya Borja, known as El Risitas, mid-laugh. Uploaded through third-party emote extensions, it became shorthand for hard, physical laughter at something genuinely funny rather than polite amusement. Clips labeled with KEKW, like this eight-second Xobias version, circulate as soundboard reactions that recreate that chat spam in audio form. They stay popular because the laugh is instantly recognizable to stream viewers and needs no context to land.