Gigachad began as an internet meme in the late 2010s, based on stylised photographs by Krista Sudmalis for the Sleek'N'Tears project showing an extremely muscular man nicknamed Ernest Khalimov. Shared on Reddit and other forums, the images became a shorthand for an exaggerated ideal of masculinity. As short video edits spread on TikTok and YouTube, creators repeatedly paired the character with this intense track, and the pairing stuck. The song now signals the joke on its own, even when the character never appears on screen.