About

Death Whistle or the Whistle of Death refers to a melodic whistling made by Death in several scenes in Puss in Boot: The Last Wish that indicates his presence. In January 2023, a scene where Puss in Boots sees Death doing the whistle in a crowd of people went viral on YouTube as an exploitable meme format.

Origin

On December 21st, 2022, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish was released. In one scene of the movie, Puss hears the antagonist Death, who wants to kill Puss for wasting eight of his nine lives, whistling the "whistle of Death" then spots him in a crowd of people. Death raises his fingers to his eyes, a coin on each finger, then places the coins on his eyes and points at Puss. The scene was uploaded to YouTube^[1] in January 2023, garnering over 350,000 views in a month (shown below).

On January 6th, 2023, YouTuber^[2] LesommeildeMartin posted an edit of the scene, garnering over 409,000 views in four weeks (shown below). This is the earliest known edit of the scene. On January 7th, YouTuber^[3] eggyburrito posted a blue screen of the scene for use in memes, garnering over 371,000 views in a similar span of time (see 'Template').

Spread

The meme became increasingly popular on YouTube over the course of the month as creators used the scene to convey one person wanting to kill another. On January 9th, 2023, YouTuber^[4] Caffeinated_Spooder212 posted a meme using the format, garnering over 27,000 views in three weeks. On January 11th, YouTuber^[5] Nizaritoo posted a version of the meme referencing Minecraft, garnering over 627,000 views in three weeks (shown below).

On January 15th, YouTuber^[6] Ubiquitous posted an edit of various scenes where Death whistles, replacing the whistle sound with a comedic, failed attempt at a whistle, garnering over 161,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On January 19th, YouTuber^[7] Mishel D posted a version of the meme that garnered over 591,000 views in just over a week (shown below, right).

On January 22nd, YouTuber^[8] Miss Craftland posted a version of the meme that garnered over 332,000 views in eight days (shown below). On January 27th, YouTuber^[9] Lessons in Meme Culture posted a video about the meme, garnering over 250,000 views in three days.

Template

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References