Team Dummy altered its look from the oversize T-shirts and khakis that are standard issue in gang-dominated parts of Southern California. They began dancing and posted videos on YouTube, and according the mysterious Web laws that can send a laughing baby video global, these unknowns quickly attracted thousands of viewers.
Their online metrics, while respectable, were nothing when compared with those logged by the u.c.L.A. Jerk Kings, whose oddly titled White Boys Jerking has drawn over 2.7 million views, or the Ranger$’ Jerkin in JerkVille, which has more than three million.
As school let out last week, the unlikely superstars from the Ranger$ preened their moves against the stolid backdrop of Hamilton High.
“Let’s go mess with the Pink Dollaz,” said David White, a limber 15-year-old Ranger$ member with a winning smile and his nickname, Spotlight, tattooed across his abdomen.
White was referring to Camera and China Walker, 16-year-old twins from a girl group that first posted YouTube videos of salacious home-recorded jerking songs like Tasty just seven months ago. The Pink Dollaz were being picked up that afternoon from school to join the English rap star M.I.A. at a recording studio.
Batting their false eyelashes, the Walker twins giggled at White’s antics and the way the Ranger$ — Jacorey Williams, Julian Goins, Langson Higgins and Dashawn Blanks — amiably corkscrewed and did clumsy back flips on the grass.
“It is the kids who are really pushing this narrative along,” said Roberts of the L.A. Weekly. Yet as with so much else on the Web, there is some mysterious alchemy involved. Ask the Pink Dollaz, astonished as anyone at their overnight success.
“When this whole jerking thing first started happening and it blew up, we were like, ‘No way! Shut up!’” said Camera Walker.
“To be honest,” her twin sister, China, added, “we really had no idea this was all going to get out.”
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