Some California lifeguards have been fired for their video spoofing the "Gangnam Style" music video.
They worked for the city of El Monte.
More than a dozen employees were fired for a participating in a Youtube video. Pool manager Gabriel Gonzalez was also fired even though he did not appear in the video.
In August, Michael Roa, a college student who worked at the pool, edited and posted the group's video, "Lifeguard Style," a spinoff of "Gangnam Style".
Psy's "Gangnam Style" is a Youtube video with more than 167 million hits.
Support for the lifeguards has come from all over the world.
On a Facebook page, hundreds of comments wishing them luck have poured in from as far away as Great Britain and Belgium.
The pop star, who just signed a record deal, has even come to the lifeguard's defense.
"Unfortunately, I'm a rookie here. When I become a big star here, I really want to help them out because that's not fair. I don't think so," Psy said on MTV. "What did they do? They weren't wrong? I think it was off duty — that's what I heard. They can be more flexible to each other."
Earlier this month, supervisors in the Parks and Recreation Division called in the lifeguards asking them to review pages from a staff manual about violations of city property before firing them.
Since then, more than 14,000 fans signed up to support the college-age performers via their Facebook page, "Bring back the 14 El Monte lifeguards."
"We were trying out some dance moves," Roa
told the L.A. Times "We didn't think we did anything offensive."
The L.A. Times reached out to Mayor Andre Quintero, who admitted that it was "a very good parody," but still wasn't considering giving them their jobs back.
"If these employees wanted to produce a video for their own enjoyment and memories, they could have asked for permission and shared the video with their family and friends," he said. "Using a medium that is less public."
