Pikotaro teams up with idol unit Momoiro Clover Z as he releases the companion song to “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen.”

It’s hard to imagine Pikotaro, the singer of “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen,” as being a man of subtlety or restraint in his absurdist musical stylings. In his newest song, though, the just-released “Vegetable,” it takes about 45 seconds for the full weirdness, and catchyiness, to kick in.

For his latest endeavor, Pikotaro (also known as Daimaou Kosaka) has teamed up with four-member idol unit Momoiro Clover Z (themselves well-known for their lavishly offbeat aesthetics and performances), who’re credited under the name Momoclo-chan Z. Pikotaro is billing “Vegetable” as the companion song to “PPAP,” saying “After apple and pineapples, the only place to go is vegetables,” and that half-formed rationale is really about as logical as things ever get.

The video opens with Piktotaro flanked by the color-coded members of Momoclo: Ayaka Sasaki and Kanako Momota standing to the left (from the camera’s perspective) and Shiori Tamai and Reni Takagi to the right. The music opens with the sounds of a funk-inspired base guitar, which then fades away so that we can hear the five vocalists serenade us with lyrics of “Tomato, tomato, petite tomato,” and “Potato, potato.” This is accompanied by labelled on-screen arrows, none of which actually point to the vegetables in question.

▼ This seems like a good time to point out that the song’s composition, arrangement, and lyrics were all handled by Pikotaro, who, while being a comedian/musician, is not a comedian/musician/horticulturist.

But just when it seems like “Vegetable” is going to be content to take things slow and easy, the singers crank the weirdness up at the 45-second mark as everyone but Tamai turns their backsides to the camera so that she can walk down the line giving them each a slap on the butt as they all chant “Pumpkin!” Pikotaro even gets a double-handed special, but we’re sure it’s strictly for professional showmanship, since he’s already married to a beautiful woman.

▼ Pumpkin? More like rumpkin.

After a musical review of tomatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins, the group mixes things up by throwing in “parsley.” Some may say that parsley doesn’t really count as a vegetable, but the Piko/Momo team makes a convincing argument by dropping their voices and octave or two and doing their intimidating parsley dance.

And just when you’re thinking that the song is going to go for nothing but laughs all the way through, at 1:33 in the video Pikotaro launches into an auto-tuned-style series of soulful cries of “Vegetable-o-o-o-o-o” that sounds just like the sort of thing you’d hear at a club that charges nine bucks for a bottle of domestic beer.

As the song comes to a close, Momota excitedly yells “Pineapple!” before Pikotaro corrects her, telling her that this song is supposed to be about vegetables. Sasaki then asks about peaches (the “momo” in “Momoiro” being the Japanese word for “peach”), and the video ends with about 15 seconds of solid gibberish, which is really the only fitting conclusion imaginable.

Source: Comic Natalie via Otakomu
Images: YouTube/公式ピコ太郎歌唱ビデオチャンネル -PIKOTARO OFFICIAL CHANNEL-

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s had a grudge against parsley ever since he had to de-stem a bowl’s worth of it to help make tabouli as a kid.