It quickly became popular after the music video for the song was uploaded to YouTube on April 22, 2007, and has since been viewed more than 140 million times as of February 2025.

[6] Garth Montgomery of The Daily Telegraph described the song as having a "hypnotic quality," with "curious vocals that sound like a man much older than the young artist," playing over a "cheesy" drum loop.

[7] During a brief interview on The Opie and Anthony Show, Zonday called the song "cheesy" and commented how its lyrics dealt with racism.

Major musical artists such as John Mayer[14] and Green Day drummer Tre Cool[15][16] have spoofed the song on TV and YouTube.

On April 2, 2008, South Park aired "Canada on Strike", in which Zonday appears talking about "Chocolate Rain" (along with other Internet memes), only to be killed when a stare from the Dramatic Look Gopher makes his head explode.

In The Office episode "Business Ethics," Michael Scott confesses that when he discovered YouTube, he "watched Cookie Monster sings 'Chocolate Rain' about a thousand times".

While making a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in April 2007, Paul Reubens debuted a spoof educational movie called Journey to Banana Land that beckoned "Chocolate Rain" when the narrator mentions cocoa trees; Zonday's YouTube video is used as Reubens sings along (Zonday himself performed the song on Kimmel in August 2007, to a mixed audience reception.)

On July 28, 2017[20] the rock and roll jam band Phish paid tribute to the song by performing it as the opening number to their Baker's Dozen chocolate donut–themed concert at Madison Square Garden.

In November 2007, Tay Zonday licensed the song to and recorded spoof lyrics for Comedy Central as a promo clip for their show Last Laugh with Lewis Black.

[22] Zonday has expressed his own thoughts on the licensing situation on his Myspace blog, stating, "I want non-profit radio and small mom/pop cafes to be able to play my music for free.