Got Rickrolled: What’s Funny About Rickrolling?
April 2nd, 2008 | Filed under Blogging, Fun.Most sites I visited yesterday were busy Rickrolling their visitors in some form. The first time I got Rickrolled, I could not figure out what was so amusing about clicking a link and redirecting your reader to a music video and shouting out loud - hey! you got rickrolled! Apparently Rick Astley is more famous than I thought…
For newbies (like me) to this new internet hobby - Rickrolling is an Internet meme involving Rick Astley music video for his song “Never Gonna Give You Up“. In a Rickroll, a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes the user to the Astley video. Never Gonna Give You Up is a song originally performed by Rick Astley, released as a single from Astley’s multi-million selling debut album Whenever You Need Somebody.
Though the incidence of Rickrolling is usually limited, April Fools day pranks led to an uncontrollable level of rickrolling in the blogosphere. In fact, YouTube RickRolled its own users on April 1 where all of the featured videos for YouTube UK and YouTube Australia actually linked to the Rick Astley videos!
In fact I got stuck on a never ending Rickroll on John Chows April Fools prank, which was mixed with a jumping window with the video, and any attempt to closure was met with a continuous stream of pop up alerts which would not let you close the window. Eventually CTRL+ALT+DEL was needed to turn off firefox from the Task Manager (Here is the url freeppcsecrets.com - I warned you). The visitors were so annoyed that he had to post a video to get out of the rickroll.
Apparently getting Rickrolled and sending someone Rickrolling is very cool, and everyone ends up chuckling and enjoying the fun (Hey! I rickrolled you, Oh! I got rickrolled). I am somehow still not amused. Have you sent someone Rickrolling? Did you enjoy getting Rickrolled?
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Comments
Karen Swim | 3/04/08 #
ROFL! I thought I was the only one who just “didn’t get it.” I’m not sure why it’s so funny either. Maybe it isn’t funny and people are just pretending to get it because all the cool kids are doing it.
Lori | 3/04/08 #
I was rick rolled yesterday and while it may be annoying, it was all in fun. I think that’s the problem today, people don’t know how to have fun anymore. It was just a joke.
Speedy | 3/04/08 #
Well apparently, Rick Astley isn’t the only former singer celeb being rolled. MC Hammer has now fallen victim to the craze, as people are now getting “HammerRolled”.
A website located at http://HammerRolled.com explains this version of the good ‘ole Rick Roll.
Michael | 3/04/08 #
Rick Rolling was actually a fairly old meme that I had never heard of until about a month or two ago. When I first saw a rick roll I didn’t really get it until I read the info on the right side of the video (on YouTube) and figured it all out.
After learning what the heck a Rick Roll was I found it to be pretty darn funny, and apparently a lot of other people did as well, considering the amount of Rick Rolling that was going on April Fools day.
It’s a shame that it had to end so quickly, Rick Rolling probably could have had another healthy month or two of life but it got played out to quickly, April Fools ruined Rick Rolling.
B Carter | 3/04/08 #
Rickrolling has been going on for years, so I don’t think this year’s April Fools Day pranks are going to end it any time soon.
I ended up getting Rickrolled at JohnCow and thought it was funny until I couldn’t get out of it. It seems he did the same thing that Chow did and made it jump all over the place. The roll was funny, but I think that fact that people couldn’t get out of it really ticked some readers off.
QuickOnlineTips | 3/04/08 #
Though April fools day saw a high dose of Rickrolling, at least everyone got to know about what it was. That’s how a successful internet meme works.
pkchukiss | 3/04/08 #
Controversy gets the site more traffic. John Chow eventually got more RSS feed subscribers than he lost through that prank, so it was a successful prank that got him more visitors. Not too good for the visitors though, especially if you had to figure out how to get out of all those message boxes.
thatnewguy | 23/07/08 #
I just got RickRolled 5 minutes ago. It’s hard to explain, but I actually think it’s funny watching people follow a link they think goes to a place other than a Rick Astley music video!
WhyItsFunny | 28/08/08 #
It’s funny in the same way that you dupe people giving them false information (when it’s harmless). I once told my friend in high school that tomorrow you have to come in in school uniform (private school) but in reality it’s a dress down day. He comes into class in uniform and has the “wtf” expression on his face and it was hilarious. It’s the same with rickrolls. You tell a guy a site or link for an effective weight loss program and it shows the music video instead and you just observe the funny (or imagine the guy’s face) as they go “wtf…?”
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