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File:RickRoll.jpg
Screenshot of the Rickroll page with over 9 million views on YouTube.

Rickrolling is an Internet meme involving Rick Astley's music video for his song "Never Gonna Give You Up". In a Rickroll, a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes the user to the Astley video. It can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive.[1]

The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank called duckrolling, in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photoshopped picture of a duck with wheels. By May 2007[2], the practice had become widespread, and it eventually began to receive some coverage in the mainstream media.[3][4][1]

Reported instances

File:Anonymousexposed rickroll.JPG
"Never Gonna Give You Up" has been used as a theme in the protests against Scientology.[4]

Scientology protests

In connection with the online meme, Never Gonna Give You Up was played and performed at some of the Project Chanology February 2008 protests against the Church of Scientology.[5][6] At February 10, 2008 protests in New York City, Washington, D.C., London, Edinburgh and Seattle, protesters played the song through boomboxes and shouted the phrase "Never gonna let you down!", in what The Guardian called "a live rick-rolling of the Church of Scientology".[4] In response to a website created by Scientologists showing an anti-Anonymous video, Project Chanology participants created a website with a similar domain name with a video displaying the music video to "Never Gonna Give You Up".[4]

EWU basketball games

According to the New York Times, four women's basketball games at Eastern Washington University were rickrolled in March 2008.[1][7]

According to The New York Times, four women's basketball games at Eastern Washington University (EWU) were rickrolled during March 2008. Before the start of the games, Never Gonna Give You Up was played while a Rick Astley impersonator danced and lip-synched to the music. A video containing footage of the pre-game rickrollings, misleadingly combined with previously-recorded game footage, was later released on YouTube.[1][8]

On March 27, 2008 The New York Times issued a correction stating that the EWU women's basketball games had not actually been interrupted, and that the newspaper was hoaxed by Pawl Fisher, a student; Davin Perry who shoots game videos for the university; and Dave Cook, the university's sports information director.[1][8][9][10][11][12]

xkcd

The webcomic xkcd has featured at least three references to the practice. In comic 351, "Trolling", two men are seen outside Astley's house, tapping into his cable line to be the first to successfully Rickroll the artist himself.[13] Additionally, on February 27, 2008, in comic 389, "Keeping Time", a musical score is seen at the top of the panel, to evoke music being played in a store. The music, if played, turns out to be the opening bars of "Never Gonna Give You Up".[14][15] Comic 396 references uploading The Ring's fatal videotape to YouTube as an outlandish revenge for being rickrolled.[16]

Family Guy episode

On 20 May 2007, Family Guy aired episode 5ACX13 which featured one of the main characters singing the song.

April Fool's Day, 2008

On April 1, 2008 (April Fools' Day), featured videos on YouTube hyperlinked to the Rickroll. The prank began with international YouTube portals before appearing on the main site.[17] Social blog website LiveJournal announced on the same day that they would be adding a new member to their Advisory Board, linking members to the journal "rickastley", which contains a Rickroll.[18] Also, on the same day, Isohunt had the Rick Astley video instead of their normal front page, as did LyricWiki.org. [source?] The Mahalo Daily video podcast hosted by Veronica Belmont produced a Rickroll purporting to be an interview with Steve Jobs. Media search engine SeeqPod included an MP3 of "Never Gonna Give You Up" as the top hit for all searches. [source?] The GameFAQs's poll of the day featured nonsense answers drawn from the song lyrics.[19]

The website Fark featured a link to a video claiming to be a blooper reel for the Muppets but instead linked to a video of Beaker performing Rick Astley's song. Other social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit subsequently joined in linking the video. [source?]

The online web store Think Geek advertised on their front page a Betamax to HD DVD converter device. In the product page a demonstration video was linked which was, in actuality, a Rickroll. [source?]

Astley's reaction

In a March 2008 interview, Astley said that he found the rickrolling of Scientology to be "hilarious"; he also said that he will not try to capitalize on the rickroll phenomenon with a new recording or remix of his own, but that he'd be happy to have other artists remix it. Overall, Astley is fine with the phenomenon, although he finds it a little "bizarre" and only hopes that his daughter receives no embarrassment over it.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Nussenbaum, Evelyn (March 2008). "The '80s Video That Pops Up, Online and Off". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. {{cite news}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  2. ↑ "Rick Roll related Google Trends". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ↑ Williams, Andy (June 15, 2007). "You've been tRicked". Wigan Today. Johnston Press Digital Publishing. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Michaels, Sean (March 19, 2008). "Taking the Rick: Twenty years after Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley became an internet phenomenon - and an unlikely weapon against Scientology". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2008-03-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ Saunders, Terri (February 11, 2008). "A real song and dance at church: Entertaining protest fails to amuse Ottawa Scientologists". Ottawa Sun. Sun Media. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ↑ Kendrick, Mike (March 13, 2008). "Cultura Obscura: Rickrolling". The Gateway. University of Alberta. Retrieved 2008-03-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ↑ Rose, Adam (March 19, 2008). "College Basketball Game Rick Roll'd". LAist. Gothamist LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Staff (March 27, 2008). "EWU student pranks the New York Times". KHQ Right Now. WorldNow and KHQ. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ↑ "New York Times owns up to EWU student prank". KHQ Right Now. April 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ↑ "New York Times Gets Rick Roll'd". G4TV. April 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ↑ "College Basketball Game Gets Rick Roll'd". PAWL TV. April 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ↑ "New York Times Gets Pwnd by Fake 'Rickroll' Video". Wired. April 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ↑ "Trolling (#87)". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  14. ↑ "Keeping Time". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  15. ↑ "Keeping Time blag post". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  16. ↑ "The Ring". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  17. ↑ Arrington, Michael (March 31, 2008). "YouTube RickRolls Users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ↑ Feldblum, Eli (April 1, 2008). "Risk Astley and More April Fools Day Goodness". Search Engine Watch. Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ↑ "Poll of the Day: April 1, 2008". GameFAQs. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  20. ↑ Sarno, David (March 25, 2008). "Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming". Web Scout. Los Angeles Times. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

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