Cuphead was released in 2017 by Studio MDHR as a hand-drawn run-and-gun game inspired by 1930s cartoons, and its coin pickup chime comes from collecting coins in its run-and-gun levels. The sound was shared on soundboards as players clipped short game audio for edits, streams, and memes, where its short length made it easy to reuse. It remains popular because the game itself stayed widely known, and the chime instantly signals a reward without needing any explanation or context from the original level.