Riverside

Teens in ‘Damn, Daniel' Viral Video Explain Their Meteoric Rise to Internet Fame on ‘Ellen'

The "Damn, Daniel" kids are back at it again, this time taking those now-famous white Vans from their viral video to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

In an interview set to air Wednesday, Daniel, 14, and Josh, 15, explained how the idea to take Snapchat videos of Daniel's sneakers came "out of nowhere" and turned the Riverside, California, teens into Internet celebrities.

"The first time he came up to me I was like, 'What's this guy doing?' I didn't expect him walking up to me. But after that we had some Snapchats back from people saying they actually liked it - 'Yo, this is funny, keep it going,'" Daniel said. "We started taking them on the daily basis, every sixth period, on the pool deck."

In the video collage Josh posted to Twitter on Feb. 15, he says "Damn, Daniel" every time the two meet on the Riverside Poly High campus, as if Josh is marveling over his schoolmate's fashionable footwear.

"Damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the white Vans!" Josh gushes.

The video has been liked and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, and some opportunists are even hoping to profit from it. A search for "Damn Daniel" on eBay Wednesday morning turned up more than 1,200 listings of mostly white Vans sneakers. One pair reportedly garnered a bid of $300,000.

"That's a little expensive, right? They're not mine, they're not even slip-ons, actually. They have the laces on them," Daniel told DeGeneres. "I feel bad for whoever bid or bought those."

Ellen gives Josh a surfboard emblazoned with the catch phrase that made the boys famous and gifts Daniel a lifetime supply of Vans.

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