At the time of its release (with a duration of 0:45), it became the shortest single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, a record that was later broken by Kid Cudi's "Beautiful Trip" (0:37).

[citation needed] Kosaka, the creator of "PPAP", said in an interview that he came up with the song sitting in his house.

He thought about his background of being from Japan's biggest apple-producing region (Aomori Prefecture) as he also realized that he had an open can of pineapple slices on the table.

[9] The song is written in the key of C♯ minor with a common time tempo of 136 beats per minute.

In the video, Pikotaro, dressed in a yellow snake/leopard animal print costume, dances around, and then sings English lyrics like "I have a pen, I have an apple.

[13] On 17 November, Pikotaro made an appearance on the Japanese edition of Sesame Street, where he joined Elmo and Cookie Monster in singing their version of the song titled "CBCC (Cookie-Butter-Choco-Cookie)".

[16] "PPAP", alongside three other works by Pikotaro, was released to digital storefronts through Avex Music Creative on 7 October 2016.

[19] The video had since gone viral, averaging over 1.5 million hits a day, and being touted as the new "Gangnam Style" by various newspapers and online media.

The previous shortest song was "Little Boxes" by The Womenfolk, which reached number 83 in 1964 and was 1 minute and 2 seconds in length.