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VIDEO: Swiss soldiers publish antics online

Sophie Inge
Sophie Inge - [email protected]
VIDEO: Swiss soldiers publish antics online
A spokesperson from the Swiss army said that all content was monitored before it was published online. Photo: Justswissmilitarythings/Facebook

By posting to the internet a series of videos and photos showing them engaging in fun and daring activities, Swiss soldiers have proven that working for the military can be more exciting than you might think.

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Sliding down a staircase in a plastic box, performing a ‘Harlem Shake’ with assault rifles and taking a bubble bath in the kitchen (see below) are not activities you would traditionally associate with the military.

But they all feature in clips by made by young recruits for the Swiss army and then circulated on social media.

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Published on two Facebook pages entitled 'Justswissmilitarythings' and 'Dinge, die man im Militär nicht sagt' (Things that you don’t say in the army), as well as on YouTube and Twitter, their footage has garnered thousands of 'likes' and shares.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Facebook pages are not looked upon favourably by the Swiss army, which keeps a close eye on their antics, according to 20 Minutes.

“All publications – that we know of – are checked, above all to ensure that the security rules are not broken, that the army equipment is not damaged or that the people being recorded do not demean themselves,” spokesperson Walter Frik was quoted as saying.

He added that all material must first be authorized by a superior before publication.

“However it’s impossible to completely forbid this kind of thing. It would appear that modern society needs to show itself in all kinds of impossible situations.”

The fact that the videos are apparently regulated may come as a surprise to viewers of the clips, some of which feature recruits dancing around with weapons or drunk.

In one of their more recent video clips published on YouTube (see below), the recruits perform their own version of the ‘Harlem Shake’ in their army uniforms and assault rifles with their trousers down.

In another they perform the Venga Boys' classic 'Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!', also in uniform.   

 
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In this video (below), a soldier jumps squeezes through the hole in a post box while being filmed by a laughing colleague.

 
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And in this clip a line of soldiers falls over like dominoes.

 
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