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[[Hugh Atkin]] created a popular [[YouTube]] parody video of the Rickrolling meme involving US Presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]], entitled "Barack Roll", that has been watched over 3.3 million times since October 9th, 2008.<ref>YouTube (2008). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4 Barack Roll]. Retrieved August 15, 2008.</ref> A follow-up video shows John McCain being "Barack Rolled" at the Republican National Convention; though it never happened–the "Barack Roll" image was displayed on the giant [[Chroma key|blue screen]] that was behind John McCain during his speech, and the video was pieced together from footage of the event.<ref>Gawker (2008). [http://gawker.com/5046412/barack-roll-becomes-mccains-worst-nightmare]</ref>. In the popular [[Defence of the Ancients]] scenario for ''[[Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos]]'', one of the versions received the command "-rickroll" which will produce either "(player name) is never gonna give you up" or "(player name) is never gonna let you down". |
[[Hugh Atkin]] created a popular [[YouTube]] parody video of the Rickrolling meme involving US Presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]], entitled "Barack Roll", that has been watched over 3.3 million times since October 9th, 2008.<ref>YouTube (2008). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4 Barack Roll]. Retrieved August 15, 2008.</ref> A follow-up video shows John McCain being "Barack Rolled" at the Republican National Convention; though it never happened–the "Barack Roll" image was displayed on the giant [[Chroma key|blue screen]] that was behind John McCain during his speech, and the video was pieced together from footage of the event.<ref>Gawker (2008). [http://gawker.com/5046412/barack-roll-becomes-mccains-worst-nightmare]</ref>. In the popular [[Defence of the Ancients]] scenario for ''[[Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos]]'', one of the versions received the command "-rickroll" which will produce either "(player name) is never gonna give you up" or "(player name) is never gonna let you down". |
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Rick Astley has been nominated for Best Act Ever at the [[MTV Europe Music Awards]] after the online nomination form was flooded with votes. <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7646807.stm BBC News October 2, 2008]. Retrieved October 2, 2008.</ref> The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as well as efforts to |
Rick Astley has been nominated for Best Act Ever at the [[MTV Europe Music Awards]] after the online nomination form was flooded with votes. <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7646807.stm BBC News October 2, 2008]. Retrieved October 2, 2008.</ref> The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as well as efforts to encourage MTV to personally invite Astley to the awards ceremony.<ref>[http://www.bestactever.com/2008/10/10/wtf-mtv/ Bestactever.com October 10, 2008]. Retrieved October 12, 2008.</ref> On October 10, Astley's website confirmed that an invitation to the awards had been received. <ref>[http://www.rickastley.co.uk/news/news.html Rickastley.com October 10, 2008]. Retrieved October 12, 2008.</ref> |
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==Rick Astley's reaction== |
==Rick Astley's reaction== |
Revision as of 11:15, 22 October 2008
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f7/RickRoll.png/200px-RickRoll.png)
Rickrolling is an Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". The meme is a 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). When a person clicks on the link given and is led to the web page he/she is said to have been "Rickrolled". By extension, it can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive.[1]
Most believe the practice began as a variant of an earlier prank originating from the imageboard 4chan called duckrolling,[2] in which a link to somewhere (such as a specific picture or news item) would instead lead to a thread or site containing an edited picture of a duck with wheels. The user at that point, is said to have been "Duckrolled". The first instance of Rickroll 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 2008,[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]
Examples
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.[8][9] On February 10, 2008 protests in New York City, Washington, D.C., London, St. Louis, 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]
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][11] It even showed a fan with a "Scientology Kills" 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 interruption never took place, but was rather 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][11][12][13][14][15]
New York Mets
On April 4, 2008 many web communities, starting with Fark.com,[16] 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.[17] 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.[18]
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."[19]
The eventual winner was "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees.
April Fools' Day, 2008
On April Fools Day 2008 and the following weeks, numerous seemingly uncoordinated instances of Rickrolling appeared on the internet, and news media. All of 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.[20]
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.[21]
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).[22] Other social bookmarking sites such as Digg[23] and Reddit[24] subsequently joined in linking the video.
The online Web store ThinkGeek 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.[25]
Radio and television
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 of the music video was played, and he declared the audience to have been Rickrolled.[26]
Some radio stations, including Washington, DC's WIHT,[citation needed] Atlanta's WWWQ, Detroit's WXYT[disambiguation needed], and Cincinnati's WKFS[27] got in on the Rickroll phenomenon by inserting the song or clips on radio stations that ordinarily would not have played 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.[28]
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.[29]
In a segue during the July 12-13, 2008 episode of Rage on the nationally broadcast ABC1 channel, guest programmers Pennywise, after playing numerous punk music videos, solemly introduced their next selected music video as being another classic and highly influential song for them, then sat calmly waiting for Astley's song to roll and every Rage viewer across Australia to realise they had been Rickrolled.[30]
On the July 14, 2008 episode of The Daily Show, John Oliver Rickrolled Jon Stewart (through a pop-up window claiming to disclose Iran's nuclear plan) and proceeded to say, "You just got Rickrolled, Jon... all your coworkers will think you're a big, gay Rick Astley fan."[31]
xkcd
The webcomic xkcd has featured at least four 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]In Comic #485 a data is shown as a pixel in Rick Astley's shoulder.[36]
Dan Kaminsky
In April 2008, security expert Dan Kaminsky who recently discovered DNS cache poisoning[37] demonstrated a serious security vulnerability by setting up Rick Rolls on Facebook and PayPal.[38]
Michelle Obama
On June 7, 2008, a number of political blogs, including Wonkette,[39] Andrew Sullivan,[40] and Balloon Juice,[41] posted an article claiming to show Michelle Obama going on a rant full of racist references to 'Whitey', but the video was actually a Rickroll.
Antispore
A recent example of a high profile web Rickroll can be seen at Antispore.com, a site posing as the blog of a Christian mother and housewife decrying the evolution-based agenda of Will Wright's video game Spore. In the September 11, 2008 post the author begins to quote the lyrics to Never Gonna Give You Up, as well as referring to Poe's Law, indicating people shouldn't always believe what they read on the internet. [42][43]
Other
A Rickroll flash mob took place on April 11, 2008 in London's Liverpool Street train station with an estimated 300-400 people in attendance.[44][45] When the flash mob finished the countdown, they started to sing from beginning to the end. 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.[46] Cycle rickshaw owner Brock Frazier "Rickrolled by Rickshaw" during the August 23, 2008 Tour de Fat bicycle parade in Boise, Idaho.[47]
During a game against the University of Toledo, the Michigan Marching Band started to play "Paralyzer" by Finger 11, but instead ended up playing part of Never Gonna Give You Up[48]
Hugh Atkin created a popular YouTube parody video of the Rickrolling meme involving US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, entitled "Barack Roll", that has been watched over 3.3 million times since October 9th, 2008.[49] A follow-up video shows John McCain being "Barack Rolled" at the Republican National Convention; though it never happened–the "Barack Roll" image was displayed on the giant blue screen that was behind John McCain during his speech, and the video was pieced together from footage of the event.[50]. In the popular Defence of the Ancients scenario for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, one of the versions received the command "-rickroll" which will produce either "(player name) is never gonna give you up" or "(player name) is never gonna let you down".
Rick Astley has been nominated for Best Act Ever at the MTV Europe Music Awards after the online nomination form was flooded with votes. [51] The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as well as efforts to encourage MTV to personally invite Astley to the awards ceremony.[52] On October 10, Astley's website confirmed that an invitation to the awards had been received. [53]
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, stating that he finds it "bizarre and funny" and that his only concern is that his "daughter doesn't get embarrassed about it."[54] A spokesperson for Astley's record label released a comment which showed that Astley's interest with the phenomenon had faded, as they stated "I'm sorry, but he's done talking about Rickrolling."[55]
See also
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- ^ FOXNews.com - The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream - Science News Science & Technology | Technology News
- ^ "Rick Roll related Google Trends". Google Trends. Google. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
- ^ Williams, Andy (2007-06-16). "You've been tRicked". Wigan Today. Johnston Press Digital Publishing. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "You Wouldn't Get This From Any Other Pollster". SurveyUSA. 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
- ^ Saunders, Terri (2008-02-11). "A real song and dance at church: Entertaining protest fails to amuse Ottawa Scientologists". Ottawa Sun. Sun Media.
- ^ Kendrick, Mike (2008-03-13). "Cultura Obscura: Rickrolling". The Gateway. University of Alberta. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
- ^ Rose, Adam (2008-03-19). "College Basketball Game Rick Roll'd". LAist. Gothamist LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ a b Staff (2008-03-27). "EWU student pranks the New York Times". KHQ Right Now. WorldNow and KHQ. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "New York Times owns up to EWU student prank". KHQ Right Now. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "New York Times Gets Rick Roll'd". G4TV. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "College Basketball Game Gets Rick Roll'd". PAWL TV. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "New York Times Gets Pwnd by Fake 'Rickroll' Video". Wired. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ Cerrone, Matthew (2008-04-04). "Note: Mets about to be Rickrolled". Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ Cerrone, Matthew (2008-04-07). "News: Rick Astely Wins, For One Day". Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ Rubin, Adam (2008-04-08). "Runoff to determine Mets' new 8th inning song". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (2008-03-31). "YouTube RickRolls Users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ Feldblum, Eli (2008-04-01). "Risk Astley and More April Fools Day Goodness". Search Engine Watch. Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "Hilarious Muppets Blooper reel". Fark. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
- ^ Lost Muppets Bloopers - Digg
- ^ Were you a Muppets fan? - Reddit
- ^ "Think Geek Betamax to HD-DVD Converter". Think Geek. 2008-04-06. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
- ^ Last Call with Carson Daly. NBC. 2007-06-21.
- ^ "Rick Roll'd". Kiss 107. Retrieved 2008-04-17.
- ^ Silicon Valley's 'Top-Less Rules for Meetings : NPR
- ^ 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) - ^ http://www.abc.net.au/rage/archive/s2301036.htm%7C"introduce internet memes to the broadcast airwaves."
- ^ John Oliver rickrolls Jon Stewart on 07/14/2008 episode.
- ^ Munroe, Randall. "Trolling (#87)". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- ^ Munroe, Randall (2008-02-27). "Keeping Time". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- ^ Munroe, Randall (2008-02-27). "Keeping Time blag post". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
- ^ Munroe, Randall. "The Ring". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- ^ Munroe, Randall. "Depth". xkcd. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
- ^ http://securosis.com/2008/07/08/dan-kaminsky-discovers-fundamental-issue-in-dns-massive-multivendor-patch-released/
- ^ Ryan Singel (2008-04-19). "ISPs' Error Page Ads Let Hackers Hijack Entire Web, Researcher Discloses". Wired. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
- ^ Layne, Ken (2008-05-08). "Michelle Obama Shock Tape: 'God Damn You American Whitey'". Wonkette. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
- ^ Sullivan, Andrew (2008-05-08). "The Whitey Tape". Andrew Sullivan. The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
- ^ Cole, John (2008-05-08). "The Whitey Tape". Balloon Juice. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
- ^ "Understand my beliefs please". Retrieved 2008-09-11.
- ^ "AntiSpore Answerable To A Higher Power - Rick Astley". Retrieved 2008-09-11.
- ^ "Astley fans' rush hour 'flashmob'". BBC News. 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ Sanchez, Julian (2008-04-14). "The Dance, Dance Revolution will be televised after all". Ars Technica. Ars Technica, LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ http://media.www.crcconnection.com/media/storage/paper572/news/2008/04/17/Features/Clickworthy.Web.Sites-3329609.shtml
- ^ YouTube (2008). Tour de Fat (Boise, Idaho) August 23, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2008.
- ^ YouTube (2008). Michigan Marching Band - "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
- ^ YouTube (2008). Barack Roll. Retrieved August 15, 2008.
- ^ Gawker (2008). [1]
- ^ BBC News October 2, 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
- ^ Bestactever.com October 10, 2008. Retrieved October 12, 2008.
- ^ Rickastley.com October 10, 2008. Retrieved October 12, 2008.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". Fox News. FOX News Network, LLC. 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
Further reading
- Hasty, Katie (2008-04-05). "'80s singer Rick Astley latest Web phenomenon". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
- Horowitz, Etan (2008-03-28). "Friday Picks: Wired on the gadget blog wars, Rick Astley on the 'Rickroll," church sign about Google". OrlandoSentinel.com. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Savage, Marg (2008-04-01). "Rickrolling and the league of web fame". BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- Ingram, Matthew (2008-03-31). "Rick Astley, born again via YouTube". The Globe and Mail. CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Johnson, Steve (2008-04-01). "On the first day of April: Another Google prank and Rick, rolling along". Hypertext - The wide world of the web. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Leahy, Brian (2008-03-28). "New York Times Gets Rick Roll'd". The Feed: The Only News You Need To Know. G4 TV. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- McCarthy, Caroline (2008-03-26). "'Rickrolled basketball game' video is '80s pop fiction". CNET News. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Newborn, Andrew (2008-04-01). "Dumb Internet memes are teh suck". The Gateway. University of Alberta. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Oliver, Chantelle (2008-03-31). "The Academic Rickroll". Walrus Magazine. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Pegoraro, Rob (2008-04-01). "April Foolin'". Faster Forward. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Reynolds, Simon (2008-03-28). "Astley calls 'Rickrolling' craze 'brilliant'". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Savage, Mark (2008-04-01). "Rickrolling and the league of web fame: An estimated 13 million internet users have been tricked into watching the video for Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up in the last couple of weeks". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Sleiman, Jad (2008-04-01). "Prank gives song new life". Diamondback Online. University of Maryland. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Staff. "Astley prank storms web: A new internet craze known as 'rickrolling' has thrust Newton-le-Willows' 1980s pop star Rick Astley back into the spotlight". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Staff (2008-03-28). "Rick Astley 'Rick Roll' video prank becomes web phenomenon". MSN Money UK. MSN. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Sternberg, Andy (2008-03-25). "Rick Astley Calls Rickroll 'Hilarious,' 'Bizarre'; Plans Arena Tour, But Can He Still Dance?". LAist. Gothamist LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Van Buskirk, Eliot (2008-03-26). "Rick Astley Addresses the Rickroll Phenomenon". Wired News. CondéNet, Inc. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- Wells, Steven (2008-04-09). "Opening Riff". Philadelphia Weekly. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
- Tossell, Ivor (2008-04-17). "They're never gonna give you up, Rick". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". Fox News. 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
External links
- YTRickRollsYou, channel of a 2008 April Fools' Day prank by YouTube
- Rickroll Database