Popi Popi Po Popipo

Origin

‘Ppoppippoppippo Ppoppippo’ is how Korean listeners transcribe the refrain of the Vocaloid song ‘PoPiPo’ (ぽっぴっぽー). The original was made by producer Lamaze-P using Hatsune Miku and uploaded to Niconico on December 11th, 2008. The ‘PoPiPo 15th anniversary upload festival’ held on December 11th, 2023 was dated from that day.

The lyrics praise vegetable juice from beginning to end. Lamaze-P has explained that the theme came from Hatsune Miku’s release date of August 31st: 8-3-1 reads as ‘yasai’, Japanese for vegetable. What actually functions as the meme is not the lyric but the meaningless repeated refrain ‘popipopipopo popipo’, which settled in Korean as ‘ppoppippoppippo ppoppippo’.

Spread

The song drew covers and derivative works on Niconico immediately after release, and went on to appear on commercially distributed CDs, in ringtone and karaoke services, and in the game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd. Within the Vocaloid fandom, in other words, it was standard repertoire from 2008.

It escaped that fandom fifteen years later, in 2023, by way of TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Short videos in which the camera is pushed towards a person or animal and pulled back in time with the refrain became a format, and a great many users came to know the sound without knowing it was a Vocaloid track. In 2025 McDonald’s Japan released an official collaboration version, ‘PotettoO’ (ぽってっとー), promoting a limited-period offer of medium and large fries at 250 yen — a fifteen-year-old Vocaloid song returning as a corporate advertising jingle.

Usage

• As backing audio for zoom-in/zoom-out videos timed to the refrain
• Laid over cute animal footage, especially slow-reacting animals such as capybaras
• Humming ‘ppoppippoppippo’ mid-conversation for no reason at all

The lyrics do mean something, but in Korea almost nobody asks what; it is used purely as sound. The practical reason for the trend is that the refrain is short and regularly metred, which makes it easy to cut short video to.

Sources

• Niconico Encyclopedia, ‘PoPiPo’ — Lamaze-P’s Hatsune Miku track, the 2008 upload, the vegetable-juice lyrics, and its CD, ringtone, karaoke and Project DIVA 2nd releases
• Niconico News Original, ‘PoPiPo 15th anniversary upload festival & Lamaze-P interview’ — December 11th, 2023 as the fifteenth anniversary of the upload, and the producer’s account of deriving vegetable juice from Miku’s August 31st (831 = yasai) release date
• Namuwiki, ‘PoPiPo’ — how the Korean rendering ‘ppoppippoppippo ppoppippo’ took hold, the 2023 TikTok and Shorts trend, and the 2025 McDonald’s Japan collaboration ‘PotettoO’