The image of the dog alone is striking, but the sound makes the meme unforgettable. The visual is almost always muted and replaced with a high-pitched, breathless TikTok reaction sound.
Most commonly, the clip utilizes an unhinged laugh remix originating from the late Spanish comedian Juan Joya Borja, better known as El Risitas. His legendary television appearance from 2007, characterized by toothless, wheezing gasps at frequencies that barely register as vocalizations, remains one of the most sampled reaction sounds in internet history. When editors pair Borja’s manic wheeze with the chihuahua's trembling, open-mouthed shudder, the lip sync feels shockingly natural.
Other iterations draw from alternative sound libraries. Creators frequently layer the cackling wheeze sound effect from vintage cartoons, muttering snickers, or the infamous laughing baby audio tracks that circulated on early 2000s forums. In 2024 and 2025, audio remixers began speeding up the tracks by 1.25x and adding bass distortion, creating a manic energy tailored specifically for chaotic TikTok storytelling. The sound functions as an auditory punchline that instantly signals to the viewer: whatever just happened was an absolute disaster, and laughing is the only coping mechanism left.
