Few sound-and-visual combos are as instantly recognizable as the to be continued sound paired with its freeze-frame arrow. Originally a genuine cliffhanger device in anime, the pairing has become one of the most widely used ironic editing tricks online, applied to moments that are anything but dramatic.
What the to be continued sound actually is
This sound is a short, dramatic musical sting, typically paired with a freeze-frame of the current action and a bold arrow graphic sweeping across the screen. Together, the audio and visual signal that the story is pausing mid-moment, deliberately leaving things unresolved until a next installment.
Why the pairing works so well
The freeze-frame captures a moment of genuine tension or action, and the arrow gives that stillness a sense of forward motion despite nothing actually moving. The sound sting then punctuates that combination, adding weight to what would otherwise just be a paused image.
From genuine cliffhanger to ironic meme
What started as a real storytelling device in anime — signaling an actual unresolved plot point — has become widely used ironically, applied to completely mundane moments for comedic effect. 
The wii internet channel sound is slowed on this screen — view on SoundGIFs Freezing on someone tripping, dropping something, or making an awkward comment, then hitting it with this sting, treats a small moment with wildly exaggerated dramatic weight.
The comedy comes from mismatch
The humor in the ironic version comes almost entirely from the gap between the moment's actual stakes and the dramatic weight the sound and freeze-frame imply. A genuinely low-stakes moment framed as a major cliffhanger is funny specifically because the framing so obviously doesn't match reality.
Using it in your own edits
For comedic use, timing the freeze-frame right at a small, ordinary mistake or awkward moment, then letting the sound and arrow do the rest, tends to land better than trying to force it onto something already genuinely dramatic. The format works best on moments that are clearly too small to deserve this level of treatment.
Pairing it with other dramatic sound cues
This sting occasionally gets used alongside other exaggerated dramatic sounds within the same video, similar to how a suspense sting sound effect might lead into a moment before this cliffhanger sound closes it out.
Why this format keeps getting reused
Part of the format's staying power is how flexible it is — it works for almost any small, ordinary moment, requires minimal editing effort, and the joke is instantly understood by anyone familiar with the original anime device, even without knowing its specific source.
Conclusion
The to be continued sound sting turned a genuine anime storytelling device into one of the internet's most reliable ironic editing tricks, purely through mismatched dramatic weight. Browse SoundGIFs' meme sound effects collection for more sounds that work best applied somewhere they don't quite belong.