A music video parody created by four longtime North Vancouver residents appears to have struck a chord on YouTube, garnering tens of thousands of hits in a matter of days.

North Vancouver Boyz, a take off of pop star Katy Perry's California Gurls, has been viewed close to 82,000 times since it was posted last month, a large number for something locally focused.

The four-minute clip, set to the tune of Perry's hit single, reworks the lyrics and visuals to poke fun at the beer-swilling exploits of some of the community's youth.

The video follows the adventures of a group of young men as they tour the North Shore in a pick-up truck and extol the virtues of jean shorts, inexpensive beer, and a general failure to take responsibility.

"I know a place where the Colts are really cheaper," sings one character in a flannel shirt and torn jeans at the opening.

"Cold, wet and grey, you only get two months of summer," sings another happily as he rides in the box of a truck.

The parody was directed by David Wiggins, 22, a Windsor secondary graduate who now attends SFU. Seycove secondary graduates Mike Russell, Dylan Kinney and Miles Galvin, aged 20 to 21, helped write, perform and produce it.

The friends shot the clip over about a week, edited it over three or four days and posted it to YouTube Aug. 5. They have been taken aback by the reaction.

"When I was editing it I was like: 'This could be pretty popular,' but I was thinking like 8,000 views," said Wiggins. "Now it's at the point where Mike and Dylen, the two guys in the video, we go out places and they get recognized everywhere."

Patrons of the Roxy nightclub downtown came up to them last weekend to ask them about it, and on a recent trip to the movies at the Park and Tilford shopping centre, strangers came up to shake their hands.

"We were at the SeaBus, and a group of kids started pointing and yelling," said Wiggins. "Thirty kids sang the song at us. It's weird. It's like a little micro-Beatlemania or something."

Wiggins was also surprised by the breadth of the audience who appear to have responded to the project; statistics from the YouTube site point to a relatively broad age range.

"Our top two demographic are teenagers and 40-year-olds," he said. "I guess people who grew up in the Cove and North Van, it's kind of the same, and they relate to it. My dad relates to it; he thinks it's hilarious."

The clip has also gained fans beyond the North Shore. People from other communities have contacted the makers to laugh at the fact they saw the lifestyle being targeted in their own home towns.

"It's kind of the guys who are going to be living with their parents into their mid-20s, and they're kind of living the easy life and hanging out," said Wiggins. "It's probably more of a British Columbia sort of thing, but North Van, it was the right number of syllables."

Aside from a few small projects and a course in high school, Wiggins has very limited experience in filmmaking.

"I just kind of figured it out on my MacBook," he ssaid.

Following the projects success, however, Wiggins plans to get further into it. The friends have another parody in the works -- which they're keeping under wraps for the time being -- with which they hope will help build a following. After that, they plan to branch out into more diverse projects.

To view the clip, visit the Hoodwinked Films channel on YouTube or search the term "North Vancouver Boyz" on Google.

A warning to readers: The clip features some limited profanity and what may or may not be imitation vomit. It should not be viewed by the easily offended.