Rickrolling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to:
navigation,
search
YouTube video of "Never Gonna Give You Up", the song played when viewers are Rickrolled.
Rickrolling is an [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme"]Internet meme[/ame]
[1][2] typically involving the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video"]music video[/ame] for the 1987 [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Astley"]Rick Astley[/ame] song "[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Gonna_Give_You_Up"]Never Gonna Give You Up[/ame]". The [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme"]meme[/ame] is a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_switch"]bait and switch[/ame]: a person provides a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_link"]web link[/ame] that 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 destination of the link without clicking. When a person clicks on the link and is led to the web page, he or she is said to have been
"Rickrolled". The song may have been favored for this use by those regarding it as the "worst"
[3] popular song of all time. Rickrolling has extended beyond Web links to playing the video or song disruptively in other situations, including public places;
[2] this culminated when Astley and the song made a surprise appearance in the 2008
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,
[1] a televised event with tens of millions of viewers.