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The man has spoken. PSY, the rapper behind the song and music video sensation "Gangnam Style," made a plea that the lifeguards who made the spoof video, "Lifeguard Style," get their jobs back.
"If you may know me or not… I'm begging you to not fire [them] please because they were just enjoy[ing] their souls with some other cultures," PSY (Park Jae Sung) said on MTV, directed at the elected officials of El Monte, Calif.
"What did they do? They weren't wrong. They were off duty. They can be more flexible. I hate it," he continued.
Earlier this month, 14 lifeguards at a city pool in El Monte lost their jobs after posting on YouTube their video spoofing PSY's dance moves. In the parody, the 20-something lifeguards can be seen dancing in synchronization, doing lots of hip thrusts (including underwater) and rubbing sunscreen on each other.
Thirteen of the fourteen lifeguards are college students who were using their income to pay for tuition and books, and all of them say they are concerned that this could hurt their reputation for future careers.
Since the firings, the group has made a big splash in the media and on the web, with almost 13,000 Facebook likes, almost 11,000 signatures on their petition to get their jobs back. Their video, "Lifeguard Style" has over a million YouTube views.
And now, they have the backing of the star who started it all. But will it make a difference?
Since the future remains unclear, the group has asked for the public's help. They are encouraging their supporters to sign their petition and to come with them to the El Monte City Council meeting on Sept. 18 to ask for their jobs back.
A few commenters on the "Bring back the 14 El Monte Lifeguards" Facebook page said that they had emailed City Council complaining that the terminations were excessive. One commenter even suggesting starting a petition to get PSY to come to the meeting.
Dance party in City Hall? Stay tuned.
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