About

Explosion Meme is a very short footage of an explosion with over-saturated sound. It has been heavily used in video compilations and remixes, especially on short loop websites such as Tik Tok, as a punchline for people getting hurt or to express something mind-blowing in a manner not dissimilar to the classic WTF BOOM meme.

Origin

On December 4th, 2011, YouTube user teterfilm uploaded a two part video^[1] capturing the shockwave effect and delayed soundwave from the explosion of a C4 Trident I first stage rocket motor in Utah (shown below). The video has garnered a little more than 1 900 000 views in the next 11 years.

On December 12th, 2017, user Not hing uploaded a 1-second cut of the actual explosion^[2] with a yellowish filter and saturated sound that were not part of the original footage (shown below). It's the earliest edit that would be used from then on in variations of the meme. This video itself has accumulated to over 4 800 000 views in the next five years.

Spread

[WIP]

In December 2020, the explosion footage became a punchline for the Say Ara Ara meme.

Compilations

External References

^[1] YouTube – Huge Explosion and Shockwave

^[2] YouTube – explosion meme