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The Japan Times has released the list of [Japan’s top buzzword
candidates](http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/11/17/national/japans-top-
buzzword-candidates-for-2016-range-from-pikotaro-to-the-trump-phenomenon/) in
2016.

Among the candidates was phrase 「びっくりぽん」(I'm surprised). Now I am familiar
with びっくりする, but I can't make sense of the ぽん part. I could blame it on Kyary
Pamyu Pamyu and her ponponpon song (which I also can't make sense of at this
point), but I'm just baffled. Where did ぽん come from, what does it mean, and
how can I make it work for me?
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question
onomatopoeia
Buzzwords 2016: びっくりぽん
It means nothing more than 「びっくりした」 or just 「びっくり」.

「びっくりぽん」 is a phrase used often by the main character あさ for あさが来た, an NHK
morning drama. This program has been in existence for decades now and it is
extremely influential in the Japanese show biz. The main character is always a
girl/woman and the actress who is selected to play it often becomes successful
later on.

Anyone who is studying Japanese would know how much we love using
onomatopoeias. In this case, a fairly random 「ポン」 is just attached to the
existing phrase 「びっくり」. To me, 「びっくりぽん」 sounds quite lively, light-hearted,
full of pep, etc. It sounds very catchy indeed.

I have expalined this at least twice before without much success, but the word
「びっくり」 itself is highly onomatopoeic to begin with. You will keep encountering
"four-letter words" in the form of 「 **〇っ〇〇** 」 (second letter is the small
っ). Most of these words are adverbs and many are onomatopoeic as well. So,
「びっくりぽん」, to me, is double-onomatopoeic and that means it could be expected to
become popular in this nation of 130-million onomatopoeia lovers. It's like a
double cheeseburger for Americans!

In the following video, none other than actress 波瑠{はる} herself (yes, she has a
short name), who played あさ talks about the phrase in question in a talk show.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1_3c2L7tg>

Around 0:15, catch her say 「どこから来{き}たんでしょうね？」("I wonder where it (the phrase)
comes from.") If 波瑠 doesn't know, there is no way you or I could know.
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answer
`ぽん` is just a [verbal
tic](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VerbalTic) (warning, TVTropes
link), it does not have any semantic meaning of its own. I don't know if it
ever happens in real life, but in anime and manga the characters using weird
sentence ending are very common, the most famous example probably being
Naruto's `だってばよ！` ("believe it!" in English version).
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answer