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Psy’s ‘Gentleman’ aims to be a viral ‘Gangnam Style’ follow-up

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Korean pop star Psy, he of “Gangnam Style” virility, has released a follow-up music video for his latest single “Gentleman.”

But as his satirical ways go, the latest parody has Psy being anything but a gentleman. Instead, he’s quite mischievous as he prevents a foil from going to the bathroom, rips off girls’ bikini tops and kicks a soccer ball away from kids, strategically placing himself as the boorish butt of all jokes throughout. His pranks have also been criticized for being sexist, since most of his targets in the video are women.

There are several cameos from Korean celebs, much in the same vein as “Gangnam Style,” and there’s a very promotional-looking appearance for the addictive mobile game Candy Crush Saga.

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GRAPHIC: Viral YouTube videos of 2012

The 35-year-old South Korean star, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, admitted that it was hard to live up to people’s expectations after the runaway success of “Gangnam Style,” which was a parody of the ways of excess in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam neighborhood. The crazy pop music video surprised the world by becoming the most viewed YouTube video of all time in just six months.

“It was hard not to feel pressured,” said Psy about his new song. “But it was the best song I could make.”

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“I am proud and thankful that the whole nation is giving attention to my new song,” he added. “So I don’t even care if it fails.”

There’s also another “arrogant” dance that goes along with it, though it isn’t quite as catchy as his previous horseback-riding dance performed by more than one copycat on YouTube. Instead, this one includes resting your chin on your hand and swaying your hips back and forth.

The song, primarily in Korean with a few lines in English, dropped at midnight Thursday and Psy performed the song live at a solo concert Saturday night, the same day the video was posted on YouTube.

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“51million views in 40hours!! My God~!!!” Psy tweeted early on Monday.

The new video garnered 50 million page views in its first day, smashing the previous record of 8 million held by Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” according to Forbes. It should be noted that Psy’s manager Scooter Braun is also manager to the Biebs, who happened to achieve his global pop stardom on YouTube too.

“Gentleman” had more than 70.6 million views as of Monday evening. Is it likely that the video will achieve the same widespread success as its predecessor? We’ll have to wait and see.

Over the weekend, he also got props from rapper T-Pain.

“And once again. Why can’t we just have fun with music anymore like this man. @psy_oppa does it again,” the “Buy You a Drank” rapper wrote.

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