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What's "Rick Rolling" and Why Should You Care?

by Terrence O'Brien on March 24, 2008 at 04:15 PM


Every so often an Internet inside joke makes a leap from the back channels of YouTube to mainstream popular culture. One that seems to be heading for bigger and better things is the trend of Rick Rolling. Rick Rolling is a take on an old Internet joke called Duck Rolling, where a web site would offer a link to celebrity photos or gaming news, but following the link only led to an odd picture of a duck on wheels.

In Rick Rolling, the image of the duck is replaced with a YouTube clip of the 20 year-old music video for 'Never Gonna Give You Up' from late 80's blue-eyed-soul two-hit-wonder Rick Astley.

Between our culture's rampant 80's fetishism and a newfound appreciation for all thing geeky and web oriented, Rick Rolling has made the jump from an inside joke for web site administrators to live versions that get splayed all over YouTube. Protesters outside of a Scientology building in London broke out into the song. A women's basketball game at Eastern Washington University was interrupted when 'Never Gonna Give You Up' was blasted over the PA and a man in an Astley-like trench coat danced around the gymnasium lip syncing.

It's probably only a matter of time before Trey Parker and Matt Stone base an episode of 'South Park' on it.

From The New York Times

Related links:

Tags: duck rolling, DuckRolling, humor, never gonna give you up, NeverGonnaGiveYouUp, rick astley, rick rolling, RickAstley, RickRolling, youtube

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