Haunter debuted as one of the original ghost types in Pokemon Red and Green in 1996, evolving from Gastly and later into Gengar. In the games and anime the Gastly line is famous for mischievous haunting, disappearing, and laughing at frightened trainers, which made their cackles a natural shorthand online. Clips of the laugh spread through meme edits, soundboards, and gaming videos, and searches for gengar laugh often lead to the same family of sounds. It remains popular for Halloween posts and prank edits because one short cackle instantly signals a ghost is enjoying the chaos.