Hillarious Fire Department Spoof

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This was funny

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In relation to that video: From Firehouse.com

Alabama Firefighters' Spoof Catches Heat

PATRICIA C. McCARTER

The Huntsville Times (Alamaba)

Old videos 'done in fun' resurface on YouTube, but some not amused

Fire department officials are investigating video spoofs made by Huntsville firefighters more than three years ago to raise money for charity.

Two videos - which parody the songs "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "The Fireman" - got posted on YouTube.com, and a local blogger who saw the videos wrote complaints on the al.com Huntsville forum that the firefighters who made them misused government property because they filmed it at a fire station and were wearing their uniforms.

The blogger also said the spoofs showed "a total lack of respect for their chief."

The videos were sold on DVD to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Capt. Dan McNeal, who was the lead singer in the videos, said he's baffled at how the two videos got on YouTube, and he's even more perplexed why anyone would be bothered by them.

Acting Fire Chief Mike Sublett said he's asked YouTube.com administrators to remove the video, but he doesn't know if they will. The chief said an internal investigation to determine if the firefighters did anything wrong should be concluded in a week or so.

"Someone has blown this thing out of proportion," said McNeal, who co-wrote the parodies. "Every bit of it was done in fun.

"We shot it in the fire station, but every one of us was off duty, and we had the approval of the man who was our chief then, James Barkley. He's dead now, so you can't ask him, but I assure you he had no problem with what we did."

In the spoof of "Man of Constant Sorrow," McNeal sings about the woes of firefighters whose work wardrobe is being scrutinized by administrators, as in the city no longer paying for coveralls and a training director making the men wear collared shirts instead of T-shirts during training exercises.

The firefighters union didn't charge a specific price for the DVDs but did ask for donations that were passed on to MDA. McNeal said the fundraiser might have netted $100.

McNeal - also the choir director at Oak Park Baptist Church - hadn't thought much about the spoof in a while, but then someone told him the videos were posted on YouTube, a Web site where millions of original videos are shared. Viewers can post comments about what they see.

The captain said an assistant chief told him to get the videos off the site because the men use a Huntsville fire engine as a backdrop. But since McNeal didn't put it there - "I have no idea who did" - there's nothing he can do.

Although McNeal said he thinks it's "cool" that the videos have gotten more than 8,300 hits, he hopes that he and the other firefighters involved in making them don't get in trouble. Last week Capt. Marc Thrailkill, president of Huntsville Firefighters Local 1833, was given a six-shift pay suspension for writing an article in a union newsletter last fall critical of outgoing Fire Chief Dusty Underwood.

"We're concerned about Marc having his First Amendment rights denied to him, and now I'm a little bit concerned what that could mean for us and this video," McNeal said. "I don't want to say or do anything to get myself in trouble. But all of the administration who saw the videos thought they were funny."

Underwood, who conceded that he had clashes with the union, resigned last month, and McNeal said he and some of the other firefighters have talked about selecting a song to spoof about yet another fire chief quitting.

"I guess we'll hold off on that for a little bit."