Despite having a confusing but addictive tune, the novelty song “PPAP” (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen) continues to take Asia and the world by storm. Besides the song by DJ Kosaka Daimoau, also known as Piko-Taro, reaching 115 million hits on YouTube, it has made music history by being the shortest song to make it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Most of those who have viewed the viral video agree the hilarious song makes no sense. But because of its catchy tune, those who became hooked on the novelty song – such as Italian hotel worker Giorli – have watched it over 20 times, Global Times reported.
Since the video launched on Aug. 25, it has elicited comments, reaction videos and parodies from all over the world. A month after the launch, Canadian singer Justin Bieber said that “PPAP” is his favorite video on the internet. His tweet got 120,000 “likes” and was retweeted 65,000 times.
On Wednesday, the 45-second video made music history by entering the Billboard Hot 100 record as No. 77 and being the shortest song to make the chart.
“PPAP” broke the record of The Womenfolk’s “Little Boxes,” for more than 52 years, according to Paul Haney of Record Research. The highest the one-minute, two-second song reached in 1964 was No. 83 on the Hot 100, according to Billboard.
Giorli said “PPAP” has a LSS effect on her. She added it meets the four characteristics of an Asian shenqu, or weird and quirky videos. These are having a cheerful beat, meaningless lyrics, catchy melody and quirky but hilarious dance performance.