Some sound effects are borrowed from movies or games. This one comes straight from fast food advertising — a single, low, unmistakable chime that closed out Taco Bell commercials for years and eventually took on a comedic life entirely of its own.
Where the sound actually comes from
The chime originated as Taco Bell's audio signature, a short branded sound used at the end of television commercials to close out the ad with a distinctive, recognizable note. Repeated across enough commercials over enough years, the sound became instantly familiar to anyone who grew up watching television advertising during that era.
A branding tool that outlived its original context
What makes this sound effect interesting is how completely it's escaped its original advertising purpose. Most people using it today aren't thinking about Taco Bell commercials specifically — the chime has become a standalone audio cue, recognized on its own rather than as part of the ad it came from.
Why it works as a comedic sound effect
The humor comes from applying a bit of polished, corporate advertising weight to a moment that has nothing to do with fast food at all. 
A dog is holding a fan of cards in front of a brick wall with a ring notification on th... — view on SoundGIFs Dropping this specific, recognizable chime onto an unrelated, often mundane moment creates a small ironic contrast that lands as genuinely funny.
The irony is the entire joke
Unlike sound effects that work through genuine dramatic weight, this one works almost entirely through incongruity — a familiar piece of advertising polish showing up somewhere it clearly doesn't belong, treating a small moment with an odd, mismatched level of production value.
How editors typically use it
This chime tends to show up as a quick punctuation mark at the end of a short clip or joke, closing out a moment the same way it once closed out a commercial. Its brevity — a single chime lasting roughly a second — makes it easy to drop into an edit without needing careful timing around a longer sound.
Similar borrowed-advertising sound effects
This chime belongs to a small category of meme sounds pulled directly from advertising or branding rather than film or games, similar in spirit to how a cash register cha-ching sound effect borrows its comedic weight from a different everyday, real-world source.
Conclusion
The Taco Bell bong sound effect turned a piece of ordinary advertising audio into a small, flexible comedic tool, entirely through the irony of using it somewhere it doesn't belong. Browse SoundGIFs' meme sound effects collection for more everyday sounds that picked up a second life as internet audio.