The Meaning of PonPon Shit in Cyberpunk

If you’ve already strolled through the neon streets of Cyberpunk 2077, it’s practically impossible not to have been bombarded by a shrill, cute and incredibly sticky song playing on the radios, in ads and in the city’s clubs. The track “Ponpon Shit” is loved by some, hated by others, but what many players don’t know is that it is a true masterpiece of satire and worldbuilding.

Behind the high-pitched voices and the J-pop beat hides a sharp critique of hyper-sexualization and the corporate culture of the dystopian future created by CD Projekt Red.

Us Cracks: The Corporate Idols of Night City

To understand the song, we need to understand who sings it. In the universe of Cyberpunk 2077, “Ponpon Shit” is the biggest hit of the group Us Cracks.

In the Game: Us Cracks are a trio of Japanese idols (composed of Blue Moon, Red Menace and Purple Force) artificially manufactured by Night City entertainment corporations. They represent the pinnacle of consumerism: they are sponsored by megacorporations (such as the Kiroshi Optics) and sell an image that mixes manufactured innocence with aggressive sexual appeal.

In Real Life: The fictional band comes to life through the Namakopuri, a real alternative J-pop duo from Japan. CD Projekt Red made a point of hiring genuine artists from the Japanese underground scene to give the music a bizarre air of authenticity.

The Hidden Meaning of “Ponpon”

The brilliance of “Ponpon Shit” lies in the cognitive dissonance. The song sounds like a cute anime aimed at children, but the lyrics are purely explicit.

The word “Ponpon” has no literal translation; it is used in the song as a “kawaii” (cute) euphemism for the sexual act. When the chorus frantically repeats “Ponpon shit”, it is fusing the sugary language of Japanese idols with Westernized dirty vocabulary (shit), reflecting exactly the cultural melting pot that is the metropolis of Night City.

Furthermore, the word “Ponpon” in the lyrics is used as an onomatopoeia that has been turned into a verb. The phrase “Ponpon sasete ne” uses the Japanese verbal form to ask for permission, literally translating as “Let me ponpon (you)”.

References in the Song’s Lyrics

The song’s lyrics are filled with obscure and subverted cultural references from contemporary Japan:

The Yes/No Pillow

The repetitive line “Yes no yes no 枕 no” (“Makura” means pillow) references the famous “Yes/No Makura” Japanese — a humorous couples’ pillow used to signal whether one of the partners is up for intimacy that night.

There is also a double meaning with the term Makura Eigyou (lit. “pillow business”), an Asian slang equivalent to the “casting couch”, criticizing how the idols themselves in the game (and in real life) are often commodified by executives.

The Corrupted Children’s Song

The passage “Ikenain da, Dame nanda, Sensei ni ponpon da” is a dark distortion of a playground rhyme. Originally, Japanese children sing “That’s wrong, I’m going to tell the teacher!”. In the cyberpunk version, innocence dies: the lyrics change to “That’s wrong, you can’t, I’ll ‘ponpon’ the teacher”.

The Lyrics Are Not 100% in Japanese

If you pay attention to the chorus, there’s an intentional mix of languages, which reflects the chaotic globalization and cultural fusion of Night City.

English is extremely common in Japanese songs, but in the phrase “我愛你 ponpon” (Wo ai ni ponpon) it is, in fact, Mandarin Chinese for “I love you”, and not Japanese.

Pon Pon Shit Song Lyrics

I even thought about providing a translation of the song, but practically all of it has been explained in the article. Here is the original lyrics:

A Masterpiece of Satire

At first glance, “Ponpon Shit” seems just an annoying song placed in the game to simulate the sound pollution of a busy metropolis. However, paying attention to the lyrics and the context, it reveals itself as a perfect reflection of the world of Cyberpunk 2077.

It’s a society where everything has become a product, where cuteness is used to disguise brutal exploitation, and where even intimacy and childhood innocence have been packaged, corrupted and sold with an unforgettable pop beat.