In 2008, after initially seeming that he wasn’t all that bothered by it, he would eventually say he was done discussing rick-rolling.įlash forward ten years to 2018 and a very happy Rick Astley is sitting on the famous couch with Graham Norton and his guests, including Emma Stone. Instead of the expected fame, Astley was famous again for the same song, where he really wasn’t the subject, performing as a bit of an inside joke while winning awards which were nothing to do with his talent. It’s like one of those stories where Rick made a deal with the devil for fame one more time, only for the devil to pull a bait and switch of their own. This is where I start to get some Black Mirror vibes off the whole tale of the rick-roll. In 2008, the people of the internet used the power of the crowd to get Astley nominated for “Best Act Ever”, even though he wasn’t originally nominated. Thanks to the internet, Astley was catapulted back onto the scene and was suddenly performing more than ever. He’s quoted as saying his main concern was hoping “daughter doesn’t get embarrassed about it”. Initially, while slightly perplexed by the trend, the artist wasn’t all that bothered by it. This is perhaps the only slightly sad part of the rick-roll story. I don’t really think any of us want it to either. It’s just one of those odd internet things that don’t seem to ever want to go away. And people are still coming up with new ways to prank people. What’s perhaps most impressive about the once humble rick-roll is that it’s still funny. On April Fools Day 2008, Google’s jokers flipped the links in YouTube’s featured feed with all clicks ending up with, you guessed it, Rick Astley. People developed clever ways of hiding YouTube links to the song behind images or by using URL-shorteners, meaning 2008 was the year of being rick-rolled. Whatever the source of origin for rick-rolling, the bait-and-switch approach trolling spread like wildfire. This would have left the song fresh in the memories of would-be trolls. It’s almost certain that one of the internet’s favourite shows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, featured the tune in the 2005 episode “Charlie Has Cancer”. The problem with this theory is that the song never featured in that game, although a host of classics did. Some erroneously attribute the song’s appearance in Grant Theft Auto: Vice City as being the reason. There was some mild speculation about why the internet decided this was the time for Rick Astley’s hit to see the light of day again. This started in early 2000 because 4chan owners had implemented a rule on the site that switched “egg” to “duck”, confusing users typing in “egg roll”. In fact, the rick-roll replaced a similar move called the “duck-roll”. What the trolls had done, however, was swapped out any hope of a GTA IV trailer with a link to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. When someone would post a “links to the unreleased GTA IV trailer”, it was guaranteed to get attention and clicks. The online world was eagerly waiting and fingers were able to click faster than minds could process. Users of 4chan, an anonymous and somewhat adult website, began the rick-roll before Rockstar Games released trailers for Grand Theft Auto IV. It was a true hit, but the song’s legacy wouldn’t truly be written until 2007 when it became one of the original modern memes. Astley reached number one in the American, UK and South African charts. This song wasn’t a damp squib by any definition either. The true origin of rick-rolling has to be July 1987, when Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was released. Grand Theft Auto IV: Origin Of Rick-rolling Considering YouTube only counts a view after 30 seconds, this would suggest billions more have hit back almost immediately on the video in a rick-roll-rage. The popularity of this switch up is clear when you look at the view count of Astley’s video coming up on one billion views.
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