The pet videos that travel furthest are often the easiest to understand with the sound off. A clear visual setup and a single readable caption can carry the whole joke.
Creators have also learned to avoid over-editing moments that are already funny. A reaction, a pause or a badly timed jump often works better when the camera is allowed to keep rolling.
Why it matters
That simplicity makes the format highly repeatable, which is why trends can spread across thousands of accounts without every post looking identical.
The best clips still depend on something that cannot be engineered: an animal doing exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right time.