てってってー てってっててー てってってー てってっててー てってってー てってっててー…
te-te-te-- te-te-tete-- te-te-te-- te-te-tete-- te-te-te-- te-te-tete--…

About

Te-Te-Te- (Japanese: てってってー) is the nickname of the background song "Town" from the Japanese simulation game franchise The Idolmaster. The name is derived from the chorus of the song, which sounds like "Te-Te-Te-" when sung along to or hummed. During the chorus, the text has been frequently used for "bullet curtain" style comment-spamming on Nico Nico Douga, wherein users' comments can be displayed over the video footage.

Origin

Released as an arcade game by Namco in 2005, The Idolmaster^[1] is a successful series of idol training simulation games. Despite being Japan-only, it has spawned numerous sequels and ports to other systems including the Xbox 360, PSP, and Nintendo DS, with many cameos in other Namco Bandai properties such as Ace Combat 6, Taiko no Tatsujin, Beautiful Katamari, and the Tales of series, and has even generated two anime series. In the games, the player takes the role of a producer who must help his/her clients become professional singers in the Japanese music industry. The background theme "Town" appears in all incarnations of the series, and as its namesake suggests, it is played during scenes that take place in the city. The song is commonly credited as being written by Namco composer Go Shiina, but this is unverified.

Spread

Nico Nico Douga

"Te-Te-Te's" simple addictiveness along with with the popularity of The Idolmaster among internet users lends it to being popular remix fodder on Nico Nico Douga. It is frequently used as the background song in videos that have nothing to do with the game. It is currently the theme song for the Weekly Nico Nico Video Ranking.

One characteristic of videos that feature "Te-Te-Te," is "bullet curtain" comment-spamming (danmaku, 弾幕, lit. "bullet curtain"). With Nico Nico Douga's comment system that superimposes text over the video, this means that the video is covered with user comments of "Te-Te-Te" at key moments, usually the chorus. This is because "Te-Te-Te" not only resembles the tune of the song, but also sounds like someone imitating a machine gun firing. "Bullet curtain" comment spamming is called such because the flurry of text looks like a barrage of bullets that cover the screen in bullet-hell" shooting games.

Notable Examples

in 2008, a remix mashup of "Te-Te-Te-" and the 1992 song "Remember the Time," by Michael Jackson was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga. This started a sub-meme of onomatopoetic comments mimicking Michael Jackson's singing in the chorus called, "ｩﾙﾙｧｯﾀｯﾀｯ!!ｩｩﾙﾙｧｧｯﾀｯﾀﾀ!!" (ruruattata! ruruattattata!).

Resources

^[1] Bandai-Namco Games – THE IDOLM@STER

^[2] Nico Nico Pedia, 「てってってー」

^[3] Touhou Project Wiki – Danmaku

^[4] Rakuten – ザ・スーパーポップ宣言