The word bamboula refers to a traditional drum and to Afro-Caribbean and Louisiana Creole dance music built around its rhythm, with roots in African musical practices carried to the Americas. Performances were famously associated with Congo Square in New Orleans in the nineteenth century. Online, the name has become shorthand for this kind of upbeat percussive clip, shared in meme edits where a burst of drumming can signal celebration, mischief or a character suddenly dancing. Its appeal is its immediacy, understood even without context.