"Yatta!"（やった "Hooray"） is a 2001

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

song by the fictional Japanese boy band . The song title, '' yatta'', is the

past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some ha ...

of the Japanese verb ''yaru'' ("to do"), an exclamation meaning "It's done!", "I did it!", "Ready!" or "All right!" The song and video have been used as a web culture in-joke on many different websites. The song uses a

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

based on

Pachelbel's Canon Pachelbel's Canon (also known as the Canon in D, P 37) is an accompanied canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue, known as ''Canon and ...

History

The song was first performed as a sketch on the Japanese sketch comedy show , known as '' Silly Go Lucky'' in the United States, where Happa-tai is portrayed by some of Japan's most well-known comedians. The song was written by

Hideki Fujisawa (born October 12, 1963) is a Japanese musician, better known by the stage name . Dance☆Man calls himself an alien from "Mirror Ball Planet". He is always seen wearing a huge afro wig and sideburns, matched with sunglasses. He is very secretive ...

, otherwise known as Dance Man (dansu man;ダンス☆マン), who has also written songs for

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles ...

and the animated TV series '' Sgt. Frog''. On April 4, 2001, "Yatta!" was released under the

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affi ...

label in Japan. It surprisingly hit No. 6 in the charts and went triple-platinum in Japan within a number of weeks. While the song was intended to be humorous, some viewers outside Japan assumed it to be earnest, perhaps due to the obvious work that went into the special effects in the video. The incomprehensibility of such an elaborate video enhanced its popularity among Western audiences who could not understand the Japanese lyrics. The actors who performed as Happa-tai were brought to perform "Yatta!" in the US on '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. Host

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...

compared himself to

Ed Sullivan Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television personality, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the ''New York Daily News'' and the Chicago Tribune New Yor ...

introducing the Beatles in their first American performance.

Music video

The video features the band's members singing and dancing exuberantly, most characteristically by flexing their biceps and hopping from one foot to the other, while wearing only underwear with a large green

fig leaf The expression "fig leaf" is widely used figuratively to convey the covering up of an act or an object that is embarrassing or distasteful with something of innocuous appearance, a metaphorical reference to the Biblical Book of Genesis in which ...

on the front, as well as white sneakers when outdoors. Their synchronized dancing and personalized poses for the camera parody the boy band craze of the early 2000s, while the sketch satirizes many of the stereotypes of Japanese pop culture, mainly

dorama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thr ...

s, sports TV shows and the

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adul ...

aesthetic. This includes a group shot on a street filled with floating sakura blossoms, with the band's members posing energetically towards the camera, and a brief romantic interlude during the song's

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

, where a member receives a smile from a woman passing by in the street and stares at her longingly before being comforted by his partners.

Members of Green Leaves

Kiyotaka Nanbara (born 13 February 1965, in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese television host and comedian. He is known as the boke of the manzai duo Utchan Nanchan with Teruyoshi Uchimura. Career In 1985, while attending the Yokohama Broadcasting ...

(leader) *

Jun Nagura is a Japanese comedian, actor and businessman who is the leader of the comedy trio Neptune and in charge of ''tsukkomi''. He is nicknamed and . Nagura is represented with Watanabe Entertainment. His wife is Marina Watanabe. Nagura is left-hande ...

Taizo Harada is a Japanese comedian and actor who performs '' boke'' in the comedy trio Neptune. He is nicknamed . Harada is represented with Watanabe Entertainment. He is a father with two children. Harada has an older sister and a younger brother, in whic ...

Ken Horiuchi is a Japanese comedian who performs '' boke'' in the comedy trio Neptune. He is nicknamed . He also creates stories for the trio. Horiuchi's persona on stage and TV is known to be immature, childish and hyper-active. His comedic style is unique ...

* Noboru Ouchi * Jun Oki (replaced by Ryuhei Ueshima during the band's reunion on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'')

References

External links

"Yatta!"
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{Authority control 2001 singles Internet memes J-pop songs Japanese popular culture Disco songs 2001 songs Pony Canyon singles