What Is 'Terrified Noot Noot?' The Latest Pingu Meme Explained

If you're someone who's spent a good amount of time online in meme circles, you've likely seen this cute penguin named Pingu before. You've also more than likely seen him doing his classic Noot Noot, which has become synonymous with the character in meme culture.

So what is this Terrified Noot Noot meme all about?

Put simply, Terrified Noot Noot is not the same as the Noot Noot of long ago, and it's not even an official Noot Noot created by the studio itself. Instead it's originally from an independent animation YouTuber. The purpose behind Terrified Noot Noot, which is sometimes called "Staring Noot Noot," was to be another in a list of memes to have an unsettling or scary component, which has been steadily increasing in the previous years. Let's explain further.

Where Did "Terrified Noot Noot" Come From?

Terrified Noot Noot comes from a YouTube video uploaded by the channel Telepurte, who uploaded it on May 5th, 2022. In the clip, Pingu the penguin calls out "Noot, noot!" and then looks at the camera as it zooms in on his terrified face. In the background of the entire video, Mozart's song "Lacrimosa" is playing. Over the course of three weeks, the video received roughly 1.8 million views, cementing it in meme culture as it spread in the following days and weeks.

After its fame on YouTube, the Terrified Noot Noot sound found itself getting posted on TikTok, with May 8th, 2022, being the day that TikTokker _pingu1_ uploaded the original video and audio, gaining over 3.7 million likes in one month while proceeding to spawn a wave of others to use the audio for TikToks.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7098886094783237422

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7100357542953405742

How Can You Use Terrified Noot Noot?

As far as memes go, using Terrified Noot Noot is easy because of how TikTok has an effortless audio reposting feature, allowing you to quickly and easily make your own video that uses the same Terrified Noot Noot audio that everyone else is using. As for what to do with the audio, most people go for a simple case of using it to denote when a video is going well to something suddenly not being okay, which is a common type of contrasting content to make.

What Does "Noot Noot" Mean?

“Noot Noot” is the sound made by the titular character from the British-Swiss children's TV series Pingu. Due to its frequent utterance throughout the series, the soundbite of the catchphrase has been incorporated into a variety of pop music mash-ups and photoshopped images on Tumblr.

Who Is "Pingu" And Where Does He Come From?

Pingu refers to a British-Swiss stop-motion T.V. show aimed at children featuring penguins made from clay. The show was made to teach children basic lessons, like getting organized, table manners, how to cook, etc. The show is most famous for Pingu's "Noot Noot," which was made popular on the internet with numerous remixes on YouTube.

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For more information on "Terrified Noot Noot," check out our full entry here for more.