The clip comes from Pee-Wee's Playhouse, the American children's television series that ran in the late 1980s, where Laurence Fishburne played the cheerful cowboy character Cowboy Curtis. The short woo wee line became easy to lift from the show because it works on its own, without needing the scene around it. As the show gained a second life through clips shared online, editors began using the reaction for surprising, impressive, or funny moments, and its brief length and unmistakable retro delivery have kept it useful for short-form video.