Jiving soldiers score web hit with 'Stayin' Alive' parody
Members of the Defence Forces in Lebanon feature in the 'Saturday Night Fever' video that was posted on 'YouTube'
Wednesday January 09 2008
A platoon of disco-dancing Irish soldiers has become unlikely internet stars after their version of the Bee Gees' 'Stayin' Alive' won them a legion of fans.
The Defence Force has been inundated with phonecalls and emails from civilians supporting the so-called "2 Platoon" who posted their antics on the popular 'YouTube' website a fortnight ago.
Yet despite the humorous nature of the video, army chiefs are not laughing and have launched an official investigation into the matter.
The four-minute video opens with three bare-chested soldiers in camouflage gear leaping out from the back of a United Nations (UN) armoured personnel carrier and adopting a series of campy Charlie's Angels-like combat poses before jiving around with the Steyr AUG assault rifles in time to the disco anthem.
They are joined by about a dozen other soldiers who pop out of a series of portaloos, high-five each other and proceed to strut down a dirt road while lip-syncing the music to the hit song from 'Saturday Night Fever', which starred John Travolta.
The video ends in a parody of the famous shower scene from the Alfred Hitchcock classic 'Psycho', with the three original soldiers in separate showers, naked from the waist up and wearing dark sunglasses as they shampoo their hair.
The video is believed to have been filmed "on location" in Camp Ida in southeast Lebanon where a contingent of Irish soldiers were recently stationed as a UN peacekeeping force.
While it is not against military law for soldiers to post videos of themselves, uploading unauthorised videos is against military protocol and is considered unbecoming of their position, said an army spokesman.
WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch? v=ypUpxNT-MpQ
- Allison Bray
