If you’ve ever stepped into a popular Twitch stream during a high-stakes match, you’ve likely seen the chat mutate from words into a wall of green, sweating frogs.

If you are new to the platform, this is confusing. Why is everyone posting a nervous cartoon frog? Is the streamer in trouble?

Welcome to the deep end of Twitch culture. You are seeing “MonkaS,” one of the most widely used emotes to convey tension, anxiety, and high-pressure situations. But it doesn’t stop there—there is a whole family of these emotes, including its loud cousin, MonkaW.

Here is a breakdown of what these emotes mean, where they came from, and why chat spams them during the most intense moments of a broadcast.

The Origin Story: Pepe and BTTV

First things first: You won’t find MonkaS in the standard Twitch emote menu.

MonkaS, like many of the most popular emotes on the platform (like PogChamp’s many variants or Pepega), is based on Pepe the Frog, a comic character created by Matt Furie that became an internet meme staple.

To see MonkaS in chat, you need browser extensions like BetterTTV (BTTV) or FrankerFaceZ (FFZ). These third-party tools allow streamers to upload custom emotes that their community can use, vastly expanding the visual vocabulary of Twitch chat.

MonkaS first appeared on 4chan around 2011 but was uploaded to BTTV in 2016, forever changing how chat reacts to pressure.

What Does MonkaS Mean?

Visual: A drawing of Pepe the Frog looking straight ahead with bulging eyes and beads of sweat pouring down his forehead.

Meaning: MonkaS is the universal Twitch symbol for anxiety, nervousness, or high-stakes tension.

It is used when the outcome of a situation is uncertain and the pressure is on. You will rarely see MonkaS used during casual gameplay. Instead, chat saves it for truly intense moments.

Common examples of MonkaS usage:

• When a streamer is the last player alive in a competitive shooter (like Valorant or CS:GO) and has to clutch the round against multiple enemies.
• When a speedrunner is on a world-record pace and approaching the hardest part of the game.
• When a streamer is about to open a high-value loot box or gamble a large amount of in-game currency.
• When the streamer is telling a risky story that might get them in trouble with Twitch Terms of Service (TOS).

What Does MonkaW Mean?

Visual: A highly zoomed-in version of MonkaS, focusing entirely on the sweaty forehead and terrified eyes.

Meaning: Panic. Sheer panic.

The “W” in Twitch emote variants usually stands for “Wide” or indicates a zoomed-in perspective. If MonkaS is nervousness, MonkaW is the alarm bell. It’s used when the situation has gone past tense and straight into terrifying or chaotic territory. It’s the visual equivalent of screaming.

You use MonkaW when the “intense moment” peaks—like when the streamer gets jump-scared in a horror game or immediately after they lose that crucial clutch round in heartbreaking fashion.

The Wider “Monka” Family

Twitch culture never settles on just one version of a meme. The “Monka” naming convention has spawned various other emotes to describe specific types of stress:

• monkaGIGA: A gigantic version of the sweating frog for overwhelming pressure.
• monkaHmm: Pepe thinking suspiciously, used when chat thinks the streamer is lying or something doesn’t add up.
• monkaTOS: Specific anxiety that the streamer is about to break Twitch rules and get banned.

Turning Intense Moments into Content

Chat uses MonkaS because they feel the tension radiating from the streamer. For a content creator, those high-pressure situations are gold mines. The moments that make chat sweat are usually the moments that make for viral clips on TikTok or YouTube Shorts.

But as a streamer, you might be live for eight hours. Finding those 30 seconds of peak intensity where you screamed, clutched a round, or got jump-scared can take hours of re-watching your own VODs.

This is where Eklipse steps in.

Eklipse AI is designed to recognize the same things chat recognizes. Our AI scans your stream VODs and identifies intense audio cues—sudden spikes in volume, shouting, high-action game sounds, or terrified screams during a horror playthrough.

Just as chat instinctively spams MonkaW when things get crazy, Eklipse automatically detects those intense moments and clips them for you, ready to be edited into vertical format and shared instantly.

Don’t let your best MonkaS moments disappear into the VOD abyss. Let Eklipse find them for you.

You are watching a stream. The streamer makes a bad joke, misses a jump, or simply bursts into laughter. Suddenly, the chat explodes. It’s not “LOL,” it’s not “LMAO,” and it’s not even the classic “LUL.”

It’s a wall of KEKW.

If you are new to Twitch, this grainy, wheezing face might look confusing. But in the streaming world, KEKW is the king of laughter. Here is everything you need to know about the emote, the legend behind the face, and why it took over the internet.

The Meaning: Pure, Hysterical Laughter

Simply put, KEKW represents hysterical laughter. It is used when something is so funny that “LOL” just doesn’t cut it. It is the visual equivalent of a wheezing, uncontrollable laugh.

On Twitch, it is often used in two scenarios:

1. Genuine Comedy: The streamer did something hilarious.
2. Mockery: The streamer made a stupid mistake, and chat is laughing at them (in a friendly way… usually).

The Origin: The Legend of “El Risitas”

The face behind the emote belongs to Juan Joya Borja, a Spanish comedian and actor better known as “El Risitas” (The Giggles).

The image comes from a 2007 interview on a Spanish variety show called Ratones Coloraos. In the clip, Borja tells a story about leaving paella pans in the ocean to clean them, only to find the tide had washed them away. As he tells the story, he breaks down into his signature, high-pitched wheezing laugh.

That laugh was infectious. Years later, the internet rediscovered the clip. People started adding fake subtitles to the video—making it look like he was laughing about everything from Apple MacBooks to video game developers.

How it hit Twitch: Around late 2019, the emote was added to FrankerFaceZ (FFZ) and BetterTTV (BTTV), the popular browser extensions that add custom emotes to Twitch. It was popularized by communities like xQc and AdmiralBulldog, eventually dethroning “LUL” and “LULW” as the go-to laugh emote.

Wait, What Does “KEK” Mean?

To understand the name, we have to go back to World of Warcraft.

In WoW, if a Horde player types “LOL” in chat, Alliance players see it translated as “KEK”. It’s a reference to the Korean onomatopoeia for laughter (“kekeke”).

• KEK = LOL (in Orcish/Gamer slang)
• W = Widen/Zoom (Standard Twitch naming convention for exaggerated emotes)

So, KEKW literally means “LOL, but zoomed in and exaggerated.”

Don’t Miss the Laughter

When your chat starts spamming KEKW, it usually means you just created a “clip-worthy” moment. High chat velocity and specific emote spikes are the best indicators of viral content.

But you can’t stop playing to clip every funny moment manually.

This is where Eklipse helps. Our AI technology monitors your chat in real-time. When it detects a spike in “KEKW,” “LUL,” or laughter, it automatically captures that segment, crops it to vertical, and generates captions—so you can post that hilarious moment to TikTok before you even finish your stream.

If you have spent more than five minutes in a Twitch chat, you have probably seen it. A wall of text scrolling by, filled with a single, two-character code: o7.

It’s not a typo. It’s not a bot error. It is one of the oldest and most respectful traditions in gaming culture.

If you are new to the streaming world, don’t worry. In this guide, we will break down exactly what o7 means, where it came from, and how to capture the legendary moments that make people type it.

The Meaning: Look Closer

The definition of o7 is visual, not textual. It is an emoticon that represents a person saluting.

• o = The head
• 7 = The arm and hand bent in a military salute

Unlike standard Twitch emotes (like Kappa or PogChamp) that require an image to load, o7 is universal. It works on Discord, YouTube, Twitter, and even in old-school text messages. It is the universal sign of respect, solidarity, or saying goodbye.

The Origin Story: Commanders in Space

While the exact origin is debated, internet historians generally agree that o7 was popularized by the player base of EVE Online and Elite Dangerous.

In these massive space simulation games, players act as “Commanders.” Because the games rely heavily on text communication, players needed a quick way to greet fellow pilots or wish them luck before a dangerous warp jump. Typing “Safe travels, Commander” takes too long. Typing “o7” takes a fraction of a second.

From the depths of space, the salute migrated to Reddit, then to League of Legends, and finally became a staple of Twitch culture.

When Should You Use o7?

Context is key. You don’t just throw out a salute for no reason. Here are the three main scenarios where an o7 is appropriate:

1. The Goodbye (Signing Off) When a streamer ends their broadcast and says, “Alright guys, I’m heading out,” the chat will instinctively spam o7. It is the polite way to thank the streamer for the entertainment and wish them a good night.

2. The Ultimate Sacrifice (In-Game) Did a teammate jump in front of a bullet to save the streamer? Did an NPC character die a tragic death in a story game? Drop an o7 to pay your respects. It is the modern equivalent of “Press F to Pay Respects.”

3. The Clutch (or The Valiant Fail) Sometimes, a streamer tries something impossible. Whether they pull off a 1v5 clutch or die trying in a blaze of glory, an o7 shows that you respect the effort.

Don’t Let Your ‘o7’ Moments Disappear

Usually, when chat starts spamming o7, something memorable has just happened. It might be a heartfelt goodbye, a hilarious in-game death, or a victory against all odds.

As a streamer, these are the moments you need to save. But if you are busy playing, you can’t hit the clip button every time chat reacts.

This is where Eklipse helps. Our AI analyzes your stream in real-time. It detects high-intensity moments, funny reactions, and even victories automatically. While your chat is typing o7, Eklipse is already working in the background to clip that moment, crop it to vertical, and get it ready for TikTok.