Pen Pineapple Apple Pen (PPAP) by Piko-Taro

This may very well be the greatest thing on the internet right now. PPAP, which stands for Pen Pineapple Apple Pen, is an infectiously addictive song and dance created by singer-songwriter Piko-Taro. It has every ingredient for a viral youtube video: a simple but catchy track, an even simpler dance routine, nonsensical lyrics and of course the whole thing is hilarious. Watch the video and then we’ll discuss who exactly this mad genius is.

Piko-Taro, in his signature wardrobe featuring mixed and matched animal prints

Kosaka Daimaou, the comedian behind Piko-Taro

Piko-Taro is, of course, not real. He’s a character dreamed up by comedian and DJ Kosaka Daimaou (real name: Kazuhiko Kosaka). Kosaka first introduced the character Piko-Taro in live, stand-up performances. It was so popular that he decided to develop the character even further and, in late August of 2016, uploaded what would be Piko-Taro’s first Youtube video: PPAP. As of the writing of this article, the video had almost 2.5 million views on Youtube.

Piko-Taro has since created several other videos, each done in the same formula: white backdrop, simple dance track and moves and nonsensical lyrics. Each are each funny in their own right, but will have limited appeal because you need to understand Japanese to get the humor.

You can follow along with Piko-Taro on youtube and also on Twitter.

UPDATE [10/12/16]: Piko-Taro reported that between 9/30 – 10/6, PPAP was the most viewed video…in the whole world. WOW