The phrase comes from African American slang where goofy ass describes someone acting foolish, later respelled online as goofy ahh to soften it for memes. On TikTok and YouTube in the early 2020s, creators attached cartoon boings, slide whistles and wobbly voices to the phrase, creating a whole category of goofy ahh sounds. Short edits using the audio spread as a reaction to cringe, fails and absurd behavior. It remains popular because it signals unserious and silly instantly, even without context, and fits almost any short meme edit format today.