Earrape audio became a staple of meme culture in the mid-2010s, when YouTube editors and Discord users started deliberately clipping loud clips for comedic shock value. The keyboard variant grew out of soundboard spam culture, where short obnoxious noises are blasted during streams and voice chats. Like the MLG air horn and vine boom, it works because the joke is the volume itself. It remains popular in TikTok edits, gaming montages and Discord soundboards as a quick way to exaggerate frustration or fake intensity.