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citation needed on the greatest hits album; the reference doesn't actually mention one at all
ref
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The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank originating from the [[imageboard]] [[4chan]] called ''duckrolling'',<ref name="hoaxonwheels">{{cite web |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352010,00.html |title=The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream |accessdate=2008-04-22 |format= |work= }}</ref> in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a [[photo manipulation#Photoshopping|photoshopped]] picture of a duck with wheels. The first instance occurred on the site's [[video game]] board, where a link to the Rick Astley video was claimed to be a mirror of the first trailer for ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' (which was unavailable due to heavy traffic). <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352010,00.html</ref> The joke was confined to 4chan for a very brief period.
The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank originating from the [[imageboard]] [[4chan]] called ''duckrolling'',<ref name="hoaxonwheels">{{cite web |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352010,00.html |title=The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream |accessdate=2008-04-22 |format= |work= }}</ref> in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a [[photo manipulation#Photoshopping|photoshopped]] picture of a duck with wheels. The first instance occurred on the site's [[video game]] board, where a link to the Rick Astley video was claimed to be a mirror of the first trailer for ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' (which was unavailable due to heavy traffic). <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352010,00.html</ref> The joke was confined to 4chan for a very brief period.


By May 2007,<ref name="Date">{{cite web |url=http://www.google.com/trends?q=rick+astley%2C+rickroll%2C+rick+roll%2C+never+gonna+give+you+up&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0|title=Rick Roll related Google Trends|publisher=[[Google]]|work=[[Google Trends]]|accessdate=2008-04-03|language=English}}</ref> the practice had spread beyond 4chan and become an Internet phenomenon, eventually amassing some coverage in the mainstream media.<ref name="You've been tRicked">{{cite news | last =Williams | first =Andy | title =You've been tRicked | work =Wigan Today | publisher =Johnston Press Digital Publishing | date =2007-06-16 | url =http://www.wigantoday.net/the-goss/You39ve-been-tRicked.2959023.jp | accessdate = 2008-04-01 }}</ref><ref name="takingtherick" /><ref name="nussenbaum" /> An April 2008 poll by [[SurveyUSA]] estimated that at least 18 million American adults have been rickrolled.<ref name="SurveyUSA">{{cite news | work=SurveyUSA | date=2008-04-09 | title=You Wouldn’t Get This From Any Other Pollster | url=http://www.surveyusa.com/index.php/2008/04/09/you-wouldnt-get-this-from-any-other-pollster/ | accessdate = 2008-04-10 }}</ref> Partly fueled by the Rickroll phenomenon, Astley's former record company [[RCA Records]] is now planning to release a Greatest Hits album.{{Fact}}<ref name="latimes">{{cite web|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/03/rick-astley-kin.html|title=Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming|work=Web Scout|publisher=[[Los Angeles Times]]|last = Sarno | first = David| date = 2008-03-25}}</ref>
By May 2007,<ref name="Date">{{cite web |url=http://www.google.com/trends?q=rick+astley%2C+rickroll%2C+rick+roll%2C+never+gonna+give+you+up&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0|title=Rick Roll related Google Trends|publisher=[[Google]]|work=[[Google Trends]]|accessdate=2008-04-03|language=English}}</ref> the practice had spread beyond 4chan and become an Internet phenomenon, eventually amassing some coverage in the mainstream media.<ref name="You've been tRicked">{{cite news | last =Williams | first =Andy | title =You've been tRicked | work =Wigan Today | publisher =Johnston Press Digital Publishing | date =2007-06-16 | url =http://www.wigantoday.net/the-goss/You39ve-been-tRicked.2959023.jp | accessdate = 2008-04-01 }}</ref><ref name="takingtherick" /><ref name="nussenbaum" /> An April 2008 poll by [[SurveyUSA]] estimated that at least 18 million American adults have been rickrolled.<ref name="SurveyUSA">{{cite news | work=SurveyUSA | date=2008-04-09 | title=You Wouldn’t Get This From Any Other Pollster | url=http://www.surveyusa.com/index.php/2008/04/09/you-wouldnt-get-this-from-any-other-pollster/ | accessdate = 2008-04-10 }}</ref> Partly fueled by the Rickroll phenomenon, Astley's former record company [[RCA Records]] is now planning to release a Greatest Hits album.<ref name="latimes">{{cite web|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/03/rick-astley-kin.html|title=Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming|work=Web Scout|publisher=[[Los Angeles Times]]|last = Sarno | first = David| date = 2008-03-25}}</ref>


== Examples ==
== Examples ==
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*[http://rickrolldb.com/ Rickroll Database]
*[http://rickrolldb.com/ Rickroll Database]
*[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/03/rick-astley-kin.html Official comment of Rick on the Rickroll]
*[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/03/rick-astley-kin.html Official comment of Rick on the Rickroll]
*[http://bringvictory.com Rickroll Example]


{{Rick Astley}}
{{Rick Astley}}

Revision as of 01:50, 1 June 2008

Screenshot of a Rick Roll video window on YouTube.

Rickrolling is a prank and Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up" written and produced by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman known as Stock Aitken Waterman. The meme is a classic bait and switch: a person provides a Web link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video. The URL can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that the user cannot determine the true source of the link without clicking (and thus satisfying their curiosity). By extension, it can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive.[1] A person who falls for the prank is said to have been "Rickrolled".

The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank originating from the imageboard 4chan called duckrolling,[2] in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photoshopped picture of a duck with wheels. The first instance occurred on the site's video game board, where a link to the Rick Astley video was claimed to be a mirror of the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV (which was unavailable due to heavy traffic). [3] The joke was confined to 4chan for a very brief period.

By May 2007,[4] the practice had spread beyond 4chan and become an Internet phenomenon, eventually amassing some coverage in the mainstream media.[5][6][1] An April 2008 poll by SurveyUSA estimated that at least 18 million American adults have been rickrolled.[7] Partly fueled by the Rickroll phenomenon, Astley's former record company RCA Records is now planning to release a Greatest Hits album.[8]

Examples

Scientology protests

File:Anonymousexposed rickroll.JPG
"Never Gonna Give You Up" has been used as a theme in the protests against Scientology. [6]

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.[9][10] At February 10, 2008 protests in New York City, Washington, D.C., London, 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".[6] In response to a Web site 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." [6]

Four women's basketball games at Eastern Washington University were rickrolled in March 2008, [1][11] in the first photo, Davin Perry, dressed as the singer Rick Astley, performed before a basketball game. The games were not actually interrupted.

EWU basketball games

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 real game break footage, was later released on YouTube.[1][12] It even showed a fan with a "$cientology Kill$" sign and the EWU mascot, Swoop, holding a "Xenu.net" sign, both references to the aforementioned Anonymous protests.

The New York Times originally reported that a single game had actually been interrupted by the Rickrolling. On March 27, 2008 it issued a correction clarifying the situation, and saying that the original report of game interruption was due to a hoax by Pawl Fisher, a student; Davin Perry, who shoots game videos for the university; and Dave Cook, the university's sports information director.[1][12][13][14][15][16]

New York Mets

On April 4, 2008 many web communities, originating with Fark.com,[17] urged their readers to vote "Never Gonna Give You Up" for the 8th inning sing-along at Shea Stadium for the New York Mets season. The Mets posted a web poll to select a song, and left a blank field for write-ins.

On April 7, 2008 the Mets organization announced "Never Gonna Give You Up" as the winner with more than 5 million votes.[18] The Mets subsequently announced a run off between six songs will be played at Shea Stadium for the next six games starting with "Never Gonna Give You Up" on April 8 2008.[19]

On April 11, 2008, MLB.com reported on the game claiming "Never Gonna Give You Up" was played as a "result of fans rigging the vote in favor of Astley, all part of a universal Internet phenomenon known as Rick Rolling." The song was played during the home opener and greeted with "a shower of boos."[20]

Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins

The Saturday, April 12 Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was Rickrolled when four fans performed a cover of "Never Gonna Give You Up" in a team-sponsored American Idol competition which was shown on the Jumbotron between innings to an estimated 12,000 fans.[citation needed]

Additionally, a radio Rickroll occurred on April 9 2008, when during the post-game radio show of the Pittsburgh Penguins Radio Network, a caller played the sound clip to thousands of listeners across the Pittsburgh area.[21]

April Fools' Day, 2008

On April 1, 2008 (April Fools' Day) and the following weeks, numerous seemingly uncoordinated instances of rickrolling appeared on the internet, and news media. The featured videos on YouTube's front page hyperlinked to the Rickroll. The prank began with international YouTube portals before appearing on the main site.[22]

Social blog Web site 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.[23]

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 (to a video of him originally performing "Feelings" on The Muppet Show).[24] Other social bookmarking sites such as Digg[25] and Reddit[26] subsequently joined in linking the video.

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.[27]

Radio and television

During the season 5 finale episode of Family Guy entitled Meet the Quagmires, which aired on May 20, 2007, a segment aired parodying the dance scene from Back to the Future. Brian first performs Earth Angel, an homage to Marty McFly's character doing the same, and proceeds to rickroll the party-goers (and the audience) after an encore request. The scene even features a phone call to "Rick" from his cousin "Marvin Astley", telling him to listen to the new generic sound Brian was 'creating'.

The first actual television occurrence[citation needed] of Rickroll occurred on June 21, 2007 on the late-night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly. Carson claimed that he was going to show "a video of Paris Hilton and Busta Rhymes making out" that he found on the Internet. Instead, a clip from of the music video was played, and he declared the audience to have been Rickrolled.[28]

Some radio stations, including Washington, DC's WIHT[citation needed] and Cincinnati's WKFS[29] got in on the rickroll phenomenon by inserting the song or clips on radio stations that ordinarily would not play the song. This is not limited to the United States however; the song has been the target of night-time request shows in Edmonton, Alberta on the "Joe" radio station.[citation needed] As a parody of the phenomenon, on April 13 2008, Jon Holmes from BBC 6 music rickrolled the news, by playing the clip instead of the hourly news.[citation needed]

At the end of a brief story on Tasmanian devils on the April 1, 2008 episode of NPR's The Bryant Park Project, the hosts were going to play a clip on what a Tasmanian devil sounds like. Instead, Astley's song played.[30]

During the April 4, 2008 episode of E!'s The Soup, an introduction to a clip from the season finale of LA Ink led instead into a rickroll.[31]

xkcd

Trolling on 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.[32] 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".[33][34] Comic 396 references uploading The Ring's fatal videotape to YouTube as an outlandish revenge for being rickrolled.[35]

Dan Kaminsky

In April of 2008, security expert Dan Kaminsky demonstrated a serious security vulnerability by setting up Rick Rolls on Facebook and PayPal.[36]

Other

A Rickroll flash mob took place on 11 April 2008 in London's Liverpool Street train station with an estimated 300-400 people in attendance.[37][38]

One Web site offers a Rickroll-by-phone service, allowing visitors to enter a phone number to be called and have the song played to the answering party.[39]


Rick 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.[8] However, when a spokesperson for Astley's record label was asked for comment they stated "I'm sorry, but he's done talking about Rickrolling." [40]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Nussenbaum, Evelyn (2008-03-24). "The '80s Video That Pops Up, Online and Off". The New York Times. The New York Times Company.
  2. ^ "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  3. ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352010,00.html
  4. ^ "Rick Roll related Google Trends". Google Trends. Google. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  5. ^ Williams, Andy (2007-06-16). "You've been tRicked". Wigan Today. Johnston Press Digital Publishing. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  6. ^ a b c d Michaels, Sean (2008-03-19). "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.
  7. ^ "You Wouldn't Get This From Any Other Pollster". SurveyUSA. 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  8. ^ a b Sarno, David (2008-03-25). "Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming". Web Scout. Los Angeles Times.
  9. ^ Saunders, Terri (2008-02-11). "A real song and dance at church: Entertaining protest fails to amuse Ottawa Scientologists". Ottawa Sun. Sun Media.
  10. ^ Kendrick, Mike (2008-03-13). "Cultura Obscura: Rickrolling". The Gateway. University of Alberta. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  11. ^ Rose, Adam (2008-03-19). "College Basketball Game Rick Roll'd". LAist. Gothamist LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  12. ^ a b Staff (2008-03-27). "EWU student pranks the New York Times". KHQ Right Now. WorldNow and KHQ. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  13. ^ "New York Times owns up to EWU student prank". KHQ Right Now. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  14. ^ "New York Times Gets Rick Roll'd". G4TV. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  15. ^ "College Basketball Game Gets Rick Roll'd". PAWL TV. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  16. ^ "New York Times Gets Pwnd by Fake 'Rickroll' Video". Wired. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  17. ^ Cerrone, Matthew (2008-04-04). "Note: Mets about to be Rickrolled". Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  18. ^ Cerrone, Matthew (2008-04-07). "News: Rick Astely Wins, For One Day". Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  19. ^ Rubin, Adam (2008-04-08). "Runoff to determine Mets' new 8th inning song". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  20. ^ DiComo, Anthony (2008-04-11). "Controversy surrounds song choice: Initial online voting was rigged by fans to pick Rick Astley tune". MLB.com. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  21. ^ "Penguins Hotline Rick Rolled". Eddie Spaghetti Blog. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  22. ^ Arrington, Michael (2008-03-31). "YouTube RickRolls Users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  23. ^ Feldblum, Eli (2008-04-01). "Risk Astley and More April Fools Day Goodness". Search Engine Watch. Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  24. ^ "Hilarious Muppets Blooper reel". Fark. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  25. ^ Lost Muppets Bloopers - Digg
  26. ^ Were you a Muppets fan? - Reddit
  27. ^ "Think Geek Betamax to HD-DVD Converter". Think Geek. 2008-04-06. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  28. ^ Last Call with Carson Daly. NBC. 2007-06-21.
  29. ^ "Rick Roll'd". Kiss 107. Retrieved 2008-04-17.
  30. ^ [1]
  31. ^ Joel McHale (Host) (2008-04-04). "The Soup". E! Entertainment Television. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ Munroe, Randall. "Trolling (#87)". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  33. ^ Munroe, Randall (2008-02-27). "Keeping Time". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  34. ^ Munroe, Randall (2008-02-27). "Keeping Time blag post". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  35. ^ Munroe, Randall. "The Ring". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  36. ^ Ryan Singel (2008-04-19). "ISPs' Error Page Ads Let Hackers Hijack Entire Web, Researcher Discloses". Wired. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
  37. ^ "Astley fans' rush hour 'flashmob'". BBC News. 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  38. ^ Sanchez, Julian (2008-04-14). "The Dance, Dance Revolution will be televised after all". Ars Technica. Ars Technica, LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  39. ^ "Clickworthy Web sites". The Connection. Cosumnes River College. 2008-04-17. Retrieved 2008-04-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". Fox News. FOX News Network, LLC. 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2008-05-01.

Further reading

External links

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