The Dutch words nou kaasje translate roughly as now, little cheese, and the clip circulated as a short user-generated soundboard sound rather than as a line from a named film, show or song. At only about one and a half seconds long, it is easy to share, download and drop into edits, which helped it travel through chats, streams and meme videos as an absurdist reaction. Its appeal is not a story or a character, but the contrast between the ordinary words and their playful delivery, keeping the phrase useful whenever a creator wants a quick, light and strange joke.