Woahhh Ohhh Woahh Ohh Oh Oh Ohh Oh / Highlander (The One)

About

Woahhh Ohhh Woahh Ohh Oh Oh Ohh Oh refers to a sound and song used in video memes where a screaming singer vocalizes over a guitar riff. The soundbite is originally from a 2002 song called "Highlander (The One)" by the power metal band Lost Horizon. It's associated with being patriotic, American or badass, as well as related to signifiers of classic rock. It was first used in a YTMND fad from 2006 where it's known as Face Melter. During the late 2000s and 2010s, the snippet was also regularly used for humorous effect in various video edits, later being used in memes such as Monki Flip on Instagram in 2020 and in a TikTok trend where creators used the audio to over-dramatize contextless videos in 2022. It has notably gained a reputation for being hard to search for.

Origin

On February 13th, 2002, the power metal band Lost Horizon released their song "Highlander (The One)" as part of their album A Flame To The Ground Beneath.^[1] On April 13th, 2016, the song was uploaded to YouTube, where, over the course of six years, it received roughly 1.2 million views. At the 10:29-minute mark, the lead singer vocalizes using many "woahs" and "ohs," being the snippet sampled in memes going forward (shown below).

On March 4th, 2006, a YTMND page was made by user davedevil16 called Kramer Belts Out a Face Melter!^[8] It started a trend on YTMND where users added the vocalized part of "Highlander (The One)" over images, GIFS and videos of people who appeared to be screaming. The trend then spread to YouTube by the late 2000s. For instance, on March 11th, 2010, YouTuber Nik Gothic posted a video of Goku belting out a face melter, earning roughly 142,900 views over the course of 12 years (shown below).

Spread

Monki Flip

On August 12th, 2020, Instagram^[2] user yodaposting posted a Virgin, Angel, Experienced, Devil meme which cut off into a bait-and-switch ending, showing a clip of a bonobo doing a backflip with the vocalized section of "Highlander (The One)" in the background. The video received over 38,100 views and 10,300 likes in two weeks (reupload shown below).

On December 28th, 2021, TikToker^[3] tomanymemes posted the clip of the bonobo doing a backflip with the "Highlander (The One)" snippet as the audio, earning roughly 14.1 million plays and 1.9 million likes in six months (shown below). The video essentially repopularized the Monki Flip meme on TikTok.

2022 TikTok Trend and Sound

Inspired by the aforementioned Monki Flip video, TikTokers started using the sound for any contextless video in order to over-dramatize it in an absurd or ironic way beginning in early 2022. For instance, On January 5th, 2022, TikToker^[4] tangybarbequesauce used the sound for a video of him flipping fried eggs, earning roughly 3.4 million plays and 442,300 likes in five months (shown below, left). On January 10th, 2022, TikToker^[5] bottleofdjinn used the sound for a TikTok of him, wherein, he surprises the viewer by splitting his tongue in half to take a bite from a fork, earning roughly 1.7 million plays and 357,000 likes in five months (shown below, right).

Continuing into early 2022, the sound was used en masse by TikTokers. It started to become notorious, however, alongside its growing notoriety was a growing awareness of its difficulty in searchability. As a result, TikTokers started making content about this contradiction. For instance, on March 21st, 2022, TikToker^[6] itsmadimay posted a video that showed varying search attempts, earning roughly 252,000 plays and 28,100 likes in two months (shown below, left). On May 19th, 2022, TikToker^[7] dantheebaker started their video by saying, "I can't find the sound but-" and then doing a loud impression of the vocalization. Over the course of five days, the TikTok received roughly 7 million plays and 1.1 million likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References