Thai Navy ‘Gangnam Style’ video goes viral
Although practically everyone on the planet has heard of ‘Gangnam Style‘ by Korean singer PSY, few had much interest in the Thai navy or could probably ever pick out a Thai navy uniform if asked.
That, of course, changed last week when the Thai navy’s video parody of ‘Gangnam Style’ hit YouTube. Within days it had gone viral, with more than 501,000 views on one channel alone, and with stories about the video in hundreds of international newspapers.
According to a navy Lieutenant Commander, the Thai Third Naval Area Command are the sailors dancing in the Gangnam video, including a couple of ‘higher ups’ too.
Lieutenant Commander Patiroop Khemtis told Thai news organizations it took around three days to film and edit the video, and then somebody uploaded it to YouTube after the sailors had watched it at a private party for retired navy personnel on the base, which is what it had originally been made for.
Of course, there were some stuffy higher ranked Thai navy officers who hated that Thai sailors were dancing on YouTube and just didn’t get the “fun” of the Gangnam style parody, or understand the fact that it didn’t damage the Thai navy’s image but actually ‘enhanced’ it.
Commander Surasak Rounroengrom for one didn’t like that the sailors were doing “fancy steps in uniform”. Yep, there’s always one that is a bit of a boring stick in the mud that never wants to have fun, and the Thai navy now officially has Surasak.
Meanwhile, I love the video. It’s fun, the guys look like they are having a great time, and it shows the Thai navy does not always take themselves too seriously. Plus, they didn’t bring any ‘sexy ladies’ into the video, so they did keep it all in good taste.
What’s hilarious to me about the video too, which I also think is incredibly cute, is some of the older guys are actually much better at dancing and have cooler moves than some of the younger ones, some of whom look a bit unsure about what the heck is going on.