Ship horns have long been used by large vessels to signal departures, arrivals and warnings in fog, and recordings of those blasts became a staple sound effect in film, games and online video. As meme editing grew, creators borrowed the horn not for nautical scenes but as an audio punchline for anything comically large or slow-moving. Its length and low frequency make it instantly recognisable even on small speakers, so it survives in compilations, livestreams and short-form edits where a normal horn would feel too small.