Flashbang sounds come from tactical shooters like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty, where the grenade blinds and deafens players with a bang and ringing ears. Online, creators exaggerated that familiar game effect into an extreme version for memes and edits, pushing the volume and ring to comic levels. Clips using it spread across YouTube, TikTok and Discord soundboards, where it became a shorthand for being stunned or overwhelmed. It remains popular because almost every gamer instantly recognises the effect, even without seeing the explosion on screen.