Why Is "Rick-Rolling" Even a Thing?

Cheezburger

Did you know that Rick Astley himself has been successfully rick-rolled at least once? See all our content on FAIL Blog: http://www.failblog.org Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FailBlog

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00:00Did you suddenly get Rickrolled this week? When you click on a link that you think is going to take you to some web page,

00:05only to be redirected to Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up music video, that's a Rickroll.

00:09If you fell for this bait and switch prank, you're not alone.

00:12More than 7.3 million people saw one person's tweet claiming that the original video had been taken down,

00:17only to click it and get Rickrolled because, surprise, it's still up.

00:21This soulful, upbeat 1987 Rick Astley tune has been the internet's favorite meme song since 2007.

00:27That year, a highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 4 video game sneak preview was posted on the Rockstar Games website.

00:34But the site crashed, so people started posting alternative links to the preview.

00:38One 4chan user, Sean Cotter, posted a link redirecting to the Never Gonna Give You Up music video instead.

00:43Rickrolling suddenly became the height of comedy for internet users.

00:46And that same year, the song was used in an unrelated It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode,

00:51which the cast members claim helped boost the song's popularity even more.

00:55By 2008, more than 18 million people had been Rickrolled.

00:58And that April Fool's Day, YouTube directed every video on their homepage to the Never Gonna Give You Up music video,

01:04winning them a Guinness World Record for the largest Rickroll ever.

01:07In 2011, the Obama White House Rickrolled an ex-user who said they weren't being entertaining enough.

01:12The joke kept going.

01:14In 2015, the Apple Watch support page spelled out,

01:17Never Gonna Give You Up.

01:18And in 2021, the song officially passed a billion views on YouTube.

01:22Why does Rickrolling have such a long-lasting appeal?

01:25Some people think it's a mix of Astley's surprisingly deep voice,

01:28young appearance, memeable lyrics, and quirky dance moves

01:31that make it such an appealing and wholesome prank.

01:33But the most important reason is actually

01:36Never gonna give you up

01:38Never gonna let you down

01:40Never gonna run around and desert you

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