With no clear mainstream source attached to its name, Helstrøm Fan Tomas spread as a niche soundboard clip rather than a scene from film or television. Its appeal comes from how specific and unexplained it feels, so listeners treat the name itself as the joke. Small meme pages and Discord servers kept it circulating by using it out of context, where the randomness makes ordinary clips funnier. That out of context use is still how most people encounter it today, as a quick reaction rather than a reference they need to understand first.