Michael Jackson built the hee hee into a signature ad-lib during his solo peak in the late 1970s and 1980s, heard across hits from the Off the Wall and Thriller era alongside his shamone and ow shouts. Producers and fans isolated the short vocal as a standalone sting, and it later spread through meme edits, dance videos and soundboards as shorthand for his style. It remains popular because the sound alone evokes the moonwalk, the glove and sequinned jacket without showing any footage.