The Ohio meme grew from jokes painting Ohio as a strange, cursed place where impossible events happen, and it spread widely on TikTok and YouTube in the early 2020s. Low quality versions became part of the humor, alongside goofy ahh sounds and other deliberately distorted clips, because bad audio made the joke feel even more unhinged. Creators keep reusing the sound for surreal edits, fake jumpscares and reaction posts where the poor fidelity signals that the moment is meant to be absurd rather than serious.