It started as a school project at Garden Spot High School but after going viral it's been declared "the single worst video on the entire Internet" by one snarky critic.

"Spartan High School Style," created before Thanksgiving by a student for a class assignment at the high school right, has been seen by almost 632,000 YouTube viewers since being posted about two weeks ago.

The 4-minute, 18-second video mixes school pride (the school mascot is the Spartan) with a parody of the hit song "Gangnam Style," by South Korean rapper Psy (that video went insanely viral, with 826 million YouTube viewers).

In the video, Garden Spot students are joined by a number of teachers, coaches, a cafeteria worker and even Principal Matthew Sanger, all doing their versions of "Gangnam Style," which has been described as a galloping- style horse dance.

The lyrics of the song were replaced by inspirational words about school spirit, doing your best and living by the Spartan moral code.

"We thought she did a great job with it," says Sanger, who would not release the name of the girl who made it because of her age.

"It ties into our Spartan language about doing what's right, doing your best and doing for others. It's a parody in a positive way."

Eli Cox, the dean of students, admits he had no idea what "Gangnam Style" dancing was when he was asked to participate.

"I'm doing my MC Hammer imitation, or some variation of that," he says with a laugh.

Clearly, the parody was not meant to be taken too seriously. Nobody was auditioning for the next Psy video.

But it was all too much for the snark patrol, those caustic critics who scan the Internet and offer up nasty comments.

Someone who goes by the name OgFinish commented on Reddit Video, "I've done it, I've found the single worst video on the entire Internet."

That led to the video going viral and close to 2,500 comments (and counting) on the Reddit site.

Many of the comments were nasty and over the top and most can't be repeated in a family newspaper.

"Worst 4 min and 18 sec of my life that I will never get back," was one of the nicer comments.

Someone wrote a long discussion about intellectual Susan Sontag and her description of what camp is. Another compared it to Hitler at Munich.

And of course, jokey comments had to be made about some of the town names in Lancaster County. We'll let you figure that bit of wit out yourself.

Other sites, including Gawker, MSN and Mashable and the British tabloid, The Sun picked up the video, ensuring that even more folks would check it out.

At least some comments on those sites were kinder.

On Gawker, someone notes, "It's not any worse than the other hundred million terrible parody videos that have been made in the history of the Internet."

On Mashable, someone asks, "Or is it the best video ever on the Internet?"

"It's amazing the turn it's taken," Cox says. "I'm not really concerned with what other people think who sit around making fun of people putting themselves out there."

"It's about school-wide unity," Sanger says. "We decided to embrace it and see the good in it. We're letting it roll and we'll see where it goes."

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jholahan@lnpnews.com