Cathy Jarboe, an amateur GIF artist from the late 1990s, created the iconic jazzskull.gif (also known as the trumpet skull, Mystical Trumpeting Skull, or doot doot meme) around 1999. She originally uploaded it to her personal websites, such as cjarboe.com and earlier pages like home1.gte.net/cajarboe/.
The animation gained wider fame in the mid-2000s through sites like Heather's Animations, and exploded as a meme in the 2010s. One of the earliest popular YouTube videos featuring it was uploaded in 2011, helping spread the "doot doot" phenomenon far and wide. For a deep dive into its origins and Cathy's story, check out Jeffiot's excellent 2023 documentary:
no one knows who created skull trumpet (until now) – YouTube
