The Ohio joke grew from the 'only in Ohio' meme that spread on TikTok and YouTube in the early 2020s, where strange clips were captioned as if they could happen nowhere else. Bubble Bass, the picky fish customer from SpongeBob SquarePants, became a frequent face in remixes because his serious food talk sounds funny out of context. Fans paired lines like this with goofy ahh sounds and other brainrot edits, and the deluxe wording made the moment feel like a fake premium version of an already absurd meme.