The sound comes from The Purloined Pup, a Pluto cartoon released on July 19, 1946, in which Pluto's underwater antics gave animators room for exaggerated bubbling and swallowing effects. Like many vintage Disney cartoon sounds, the clip later circulated on soundboards as a short, reusable effect divorced from its original scene. Creators still reach for it because the old-fashioned cartoon timing reads instantly, even without context, and the three-gulp pattern fits jokes about drinking, drowning, or nervous swallowing better than a single gulp would.