The Wither was added to Minecraft in the 1.4.2 Pretty Scary Update released in 2012 by Mojang, as a player summoned boss that drops the Nether Star. Its idle noises were part of the mob sound set recorded for that update and were later extracted by players into soundboards and video libraries. As Minecraft clips spread on YouTube and TikTok, editors began using the growls outside gameplay for horror and meme edits, and this third idle variant remains popular for its short, raspy texture.