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Rickroll is an Internet meme involving Rick Astley's music video for his song Never Gonna Give You Up.
Origin
It took its name from an anonymous message board meme known as "duckrolling", a prank in which someone would post a blind link to a post, allegedly relevant to the discussion, that upon viewing would prove to be a non sequitur - specifically, an image of a duck on wheels. Similarly, in a rickroll a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes the user to the Rick Astley video. By May 2007 the practice had become widespread, and it eventually began to receive some coverage in the mainstream media.
Other instances
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. 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". 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".
According to The New York Times, four women's basketball games at Eastern Washington University 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.
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.
The term is also being used for other forms of misdirection, with such variants to other videos such as Chocolate Rain having different names, such as "Rainroll".
See also
References
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"Rick Rolled Google Trends".
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - 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) - ^ 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) - ^ 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) - 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) - 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) - 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) - "EWU student pranks the New York Times". KHQ.com. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
- 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) - Rick Rolled to child porn = you're a pedophile, says FBI