Viral Japanese song Pen-Apple-Pineapple-Pen touted as 'next Gangnam Style'

Daimaou as his character Piko-Taro, performing Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM VIDEO

A new fruity music video is taking over the Internet and, as usual, no one has any idea what the catchy song means.

Japanese comedian and DJ Kosaka Daimaou's Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen YouTube video, PPAP for short, has all the classic hallmarks of a viral craze.

It is upbeat, there are quirky dance moves, the lyrics are nonsensical, and it makes you laugh, reminiscent of recent hits like Singapore actor Chen Tianwen's "Unbelievable - I so stunned like vegetable" music video.

(Perhaps involving agricultural produce has something to do with it.)

If you haven't seen the video, do spend 1min 8sec watching it, or 10 minutes watching it 10 times, as some people claim to have done.

Remote video URL

Already, the video that was uploaded on Aug 25 and watched more than 2.4 million times is being heralded as the "next Gangnam Style".

Daimaou began posting videos to YouTube a month ago as Piko-Taro, a "singer-songwriter" dressed in mixed animal prints.

The character was created by Daimaou, 43, for his stand-up performances, and became very popular, said a Japanese entertainment site.

Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen was the first video the comedian posted on the channel. A month later, it has spread beyond Japan to many other territories.

Various spoofs and remixes of the video have already surfaced online.

Of course, it still has some way to go to catch up to Gangnam Style by Korean rapper Psy. In the four years it has been on YouTube, the official video has chalked up 2.6 billion views, and is the most-watched video on the site of all time.

Chen's "Unbelievable" has 2.5 million views on YouTube.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.