OHHHHHHHHH

Origin

The "OHHHHHHHHH" in this meme is a rap battle crowd's exclamation. It comes from "The Rap Battle [Parody]," uploaded to YouTube on May 25, 2011, featuring a character called Supa Hot Fire played by comedian DeShawn Raw (Know Your Meme entry). Wearing glasses and a jacket, he repeatedly announces "I'm not a rapper" mid-battle while tossing out lines with almost no rhyme and no content.

The joke is not the rapping but the reaction. The lines say nothing, and yet the crowd around him detonates with "OHHHHHHHHH" as though they had just heard the punchline of their lives. It is a precise parody of how, in freestyle battles, crowd response decides the winner more than the actual content — which is exactly why the exclamation broke off and became a meme in its own right.

Spread

The clip was posted to WorldStarHipHop on June 14, 2011 and drew over 379,000 views, and on June 17 the Huffington Post reblogged the original under the headline "Hilarious Rap Battle Parody Featuring Supa Hot Fire," carrying it beyond hip-hop circles. Supa Hot Fire was not a one-off: he became a recurring character, and DeShawn Raw performed as him for years afterward.

Outside the English-speaking world, including Korea, the sound "OHHHHHHHHH" is usually detached from the character entirely. It needs no dialogue — the noise alone signals that a decisive blow has just landed — so it transplanted without subtitles.

Usage

• As the sound effect for someone landing a decisive hit
• To mock a remark by attaching an absurdly outsized reaction to it
• To mark the moment someone gets refuted in an argument
• As a drop-in reaction sound in video edits

Sources

• Know Your Meme, "Supa Hot Fire" — the May 25, 2011 release of "The Rap Battle [Parody]," the June 14, 2011 WorldStarHipHop post, and the June 17 Huffington Post write-up
• IMDb, "The Rap Battle - Parody" (2011) — confirming DeShawn Raw as the performer of Supa Hot Fire