< width="196" height="172" align="left" src=" thrilla. " alt="" />Thanks to the power of the web, some 1,500 inmates from the CPDRC (Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center) are enjoying unprecedented Internet fame—all because they wanted to be like Mike.
Dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the convicts shake, shimmy and swivel in unison to the beat as they re-do the same moves which made Jacko famous. And they’re not half-bad, as six million views and 900 pages of comments will attest. Viral ads wish they could do half as well.
Byron Garcia, the CPDRC security consultant who uploaded the video some months back, originally wanted to improve the prisoners’ then-poorly attended exercise sessions. Upon seeing the endless waves of orange moving as one, the inspiration of adding a musical component struck. With the help of a choreographer, it took the inmates two weeks to practice individual sections of the song and to rehearse the complete version. And the rest, as they say, is Internet history.
Fame didn’t catch on overnight, though. An earlier video of the prisoners performing the “algorithm march” attracted less than a thousand views in the eight months it was online.
How things have changed since then. A quick YouTube search will reveal quite the repertoire, including a Hagibis-Village People mash-up, the Muskolados’ “Jumbo Hotdog”, a Sister Act-inspired interpretation of “I will follow you” and Queen’s immortal “Radio Gaga.”
The ultimate remix version shouldn’t be far behind.
