Rick Rolling

Sometimes I read things that make me feel really out of it. This article by Rene Guzman in the San Antonio Express-News was one of those things, because it describes a prank that apparently is wildly popular on the internet, and yet I'd never heard of it before. It's called Rick Rolling:
Referred to as Rick Rolling or getting Rick Rolled, you click a juicy link -- say, a secret clip of a movie or videogame -- only to end up at YouTube with Rick Astley shimmying to his late '80s hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up."...
"It has been one of the longer Internet phenomena that we've seen," says Michael Parker, media relations manager at eBaum's World, a humor and entertainment site that specializes in viral media. "It's definitely just the nature of pranking someone, and it's easy to do."

The link above really does go to Rene Guzman's article, whereas this link goes to Rick Astley's video.

Pranks

Posted on Wed Sep 12, 2007


Comments

Well, I have never gone to a link that promised one thing & then showed that video. I have MANY times gotten the one with the car that's driving along a deserted roadway...and then the ghost scream thing pops in. But after the first time I got it...I knew what it was every time after.

Um...So Rick is one snazzy dresser. But he looks like he's not older than 12. I must have missed that part of MTV. Being born in 1983 certainly has it's advantages.
Posted by Maegan  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  12:22 PM
I've been around the net since day one and I only saw this within the last year or so. I'd say Rick Rolling has nothing on Goatse.

I wouldn't necessarily believe someone from ebBums World as a source either, they are famous for taking other people's content, putting their logo on it, and posting it without giving proper credit to the author.

Biggest example I can give is how they are constantly posting gag videos from http://www.justforlaughs.ca. These videos are obviously from Justforlaughs, they all have the same kind of music in them and most have the same actors. Surely the Ebaums staff have seen enough of these to recognize them.
Posted by Transfrmr  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  12:39 PM
The story is a hoax. eBaum's World is trying to trick you into thinking that it is an old internet prank when it was really invented less ago.
Posted by PiltdownHacker  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  01:13 PM
I didn't really care about the rickrolling phenomenon, except it did lead me to the proof that Kylie Minogue pitch-shifted sounds exactly like Astley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVDogmtajKI
Posted by Doug Nelson  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  06:38 PM
Yeah, I've been online for a shamefully long period of time, and this is the first I've heard of it.

Goatse and Tubgirl have him beat by a loooong shot.
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  06:48 PM
Yep, never heard of either, but judging from the many comments on the video it's seems to have caught on.

That Kylie/Astley thing was freaky.
Posted by iconocrat  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  07:09 PM
I've heard of rickrolling before. It seems to be popular on 4chan, where it seems most internet memes are born (and subsequently die a week later). Luckily, I frequently listen to bad 1980's music, so I would enjoy being linked to this video.


And by the way, I was listening to 80's music earlier tonight. I listened to this. Before seeing it on Museum of Hoaxes. I really need to get out more.
Posted by Archibold  on  Wed Sep 12, 2007  at  10:15 PM
The Rickroll actually originated on 4chan in the /b/ forum. 4chan is notorious for blaming their pranks on other websites to avoid notice.
Posted by Zoe  on  Thu Sep 13, 2007  at  05:44 AM
They once slowed down a Kylie song on Going Live and got Rick Astley to mime to it - it did sound exactly like him. Poor bloke was ever so embarressed.
Posted by Nona  on  Fri Sep 14, 2007  at  06:45 AM
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