Aircraft carrier style: social media steals China’s thunder on Liaoning

China expected buzz when it launched an aircraft from its new carrier, the Liaoning. It didn't expect, however, to also launch an entirely new internet fad.

When newscasts of a J-15 jet landing and launching on the Liaoning hit airwaves, a curious thing happened.

Instead of marveling at the technology involved, China appears to have latched onto the two deckhands seen in videos.

The yellow-jacketed duo are giving a pilot hand signals, crouching low and extending their right arms in a "shooting" motion.

China Daily reports the Chinese people are performing a gushing tribute by taking photos of themselves in the pose and posting them online.

"Although the gesture has often been seen in movies, I couldn't restrain my excitement the first time I saw it used to instruct a fighter jet to land and take off from China's first aircraft carrier," journalist Han Lu told China Daily.

Now, for some odd reason, netizens have attached PSY's "Gangnam Style" music to those images and created "carrier style." The mash-up video is doing well on China's version of YouTube, called YouKu.

The video has 57.8 million views. Or is that 578,000? We're relying on Google's translation, here, so it's very difficult to tell.

Either way, the South China Morning Post called it a "light-hearted snub" of a very serious naval accomplishment.

So is it reverence or rejection? With the internet, who can tell? Read below for the evidence.