About
Spinning Horse, also known as Cavalo (Portuguese for “horse”), is a viral video and sound effect featuring a frantically spinning fake horse from a movie set while someone says “cavalo” over the footage. The clip first appeared online sometime in 2019 and has since been remixed with other memes and videos, sometimes seen as a standalone catchphrase. Due to the bizarre nature of the meme without context, it shares many similarities with the Juan meme.
Origin
The original audio used in the meme of a man saying “cavalo” comes from a video uploaded by YouTuber Jhonatan8558 on August 21st, 2011, under the title “Cavalo vinhetas,” which received over 202,000 views, 2,200 likes and 500 comments in over nine years (shown below).
Although the exact first video was posted by TikToker animalpla sometime in the first half of 2019, their account and the video have since been deleted. The earliest known version was reposted by Twitter user onemegawatt on July 24th, 2019, which accumulated over 378,000 views, 9,800 likes and 2,300 retweets in roughly a year and a half (seen below).
the horses in FE3H battle animations pic.twitter.com/UxfUOQiyxj
— Watt@Hiatus (@onemegawatt) July 24, 2019
The original context of the horse flipping in the clip is unknown, but since it appears to be shot with a film crew using a bluescreen, some have speculated that it stems from a movie or TV show. One of the most common guesses is that it possibly comes from season two of Netflix’s The Witcher, but nothing has been confirmed.
Spread
On March 3rd, 2020, YouTuber Maneiro Gaimer posted the earliest known version of the Cavalo meme variant with links to the originals, receiving over 1.5 million views, 35,000 likes and 2,500 comments in nine months (seen below, left). On March 28th, YouTuber Nytos posted a one-hour version of the meme, receiving over 831,000 views, 28,000 likes and 5,200 comments in roughly eight months (seen below, right).
On July 9th, 2020, YouTuber Memes em Alta posted a compilation of Cavalo memes, accumulating over 409,000 views, 18,000 likes and 865 comments in four months (shown below).
On July 16th, 2020, a GIF version was uploaded to Tenor by user AnaRogerio1845 (seen below). Elsewhere online, the video was reposted to the /r/HUEstation subreddit on August 14th, 2020, by Redditor BaratinhaVoadora where it received 218 upvotes and 13 comments in three months.
Search Interest
Know Your Meme Store
External References
Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/spinning-horse-cavalo