Happy Tree Friends began as an animated web series in 1999, built around cute forest animals whose episodes spiral into exaggerated cartoon mishaps. Flippy, the green bear character, became one of its most recognisable figures because his calm appearance contrasts with sudden panicked and manic moments. Clips of his reactions were later shared across video edits and soundboards, where this short scream survived as a standalone reaction sound separate from full episodes and is still used for panic and chaos online.