"Gangnam Style", a Korean pop song by rapper Psy has become a YouTube sensation garnering 128 million views and has even been offered a contract by Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, and was even a guest at the MTV Video Music Awards this past Thursday.
After being inspired by the video, a group of 14 lifeguards from a city pool in El Monte, Calif. made their own spoof video of the song and uploaded it to YouTube. Spoof videos are nothing new, there have been many funny ones that came out from even the military where soldiers would sing and dance along to popular hits. In this particular "Gangnam Style" video, the young lifeguards can be seen dancing in synchronization, rubbing sunscreen on each other's bodies, gyrating in front of the camera and giggling away.
In the real "Gangnam Style" music video which was released back in July, singer PSY (Park Jae Sung) performs his signature "horse-riding dance." His video is a viral sensation. These lifeguards did their version of the video and included the "horse dance" causing them all to lose their job.
Related: Real Meaning Behind "Gangnam Style" Music Video
Watch the "Lifeguard Style" video below:
The city said in a statement that the group was fired for using city property, including the pool and their uniforms, for private use.But when the young California lifeguards mimicked the video move-by-move, their supervisors "said the entire video was inappropriate and disgusting," Gabriel Gonzalez, a lifeguard supervisor who was terminated, told NBC.
The young lifeguards who are mostly students are furious over their termination as many rely on their money to help them with tuition and school books.
"To be blunt, this was my only job and my only source of income in terms of paying for books and contributing to my schooling. So as of right now I guess I'll be back on the job hunt, and I don't even know if I'm going to get any good recommendations now with this going on," fired lifeguard Michael Roa said.
The group has since started a Facebook page titled, "Bring Back The El Monte Aquatic Center 14," which has 584 likes, and a petition on Change.org to get their jobs back up, which has 465 signatures so far. They plan to bring the matter to the next city council meeting.
