Pouic is a French onomatopoeia for the squeak made when you squeeze a rubber toy, similar to 'squeak squeak' in English. Doubled as Pouic Pouic, the phrase became a handy label for this type of short cartoon squeak online, where soundboards and short videos reuse it as a reaction noise. Because it needs no words and lasts under two seconds, it travels easily between edits, gaming clips and pet videos, signalling that something small, bouncy or ridiculous just happened without needing an explanation or a setup from the creator.