The bell toll has been part of Taco Bell's branding and television advertising for decades, heard at the end of commercials as the chain's sonic logo. Online it broke away from the ads and became a standalone meme effect, shared on soundboards and in short edits where a single dramatic bong works as punctuation. Its popularity grew with brainrot and fast food meme culture, where familiar brand sounds are reused out of context for comic timing, and the long clean ring makes it easy to cut into almost any video.