Rickroll

From Encyclopedia Dramatica

(Redirected from Rick Astley)

Rick Astley has been omnomnominated for MTV Europe's BEST ACT EVAR award. You can help by voting for him here amd letting it run! Also see Talk and visit http://www.bestactever.com/ to get involved!

For all mankind

Never gonna give you up.

Never gonna let you down

When you're on CNN, NBC and Carson Daly, you are officially old meme

You got Rickroll'd.

This guy's doing it, why don't you?

To Rickroll someone, is to intentionally misdirect them to a video of "Never Gonna Give You Up" from ~~one~~ two-hit-wonder 80's pop icon Rick Astley. Basically, it's one of the gayest and most insincere songs ever, and we -the insincere gaylords at ED- can tell the difference. So can Rick, because he has recently called the song "naff" (Britfag for 'gay and insincere') in several interviews about the meme.

This concept of the Rickroll originated from the Duckroll troll and has the same intent of pissing off the sucker who falls for it after he or she is pwnt -for the 25th time. Linking to a video of "Never gonna give you up" or some variant thereupon has become the new Goatse, though after the The Power 5 being linked to a mildly popular song from the 80s really isn't that bad. Not to be confused with a Barrel Roll

IMPORTANT: Guides on how to Rickroll almost anyone can be found on the below link. Load the website, click 'Domestic Terrorism' and then 'Rickrolling'
http://www.internetisseriousbusiness.com/

1 Origin
2 MTV Rickrolld
3 Gallery of De/b/ate The Nominees
4 Lolicatgirls.swf
5 Sony/BMG Attempts to stop the Rickroll
6 Youtube's EPIC Rickroll
7 Failure
8 Rickroll: Variations etc.
9 See Also
10 External Links

[edit] Origin

The roll part of the name has been apocryphally said to come from a 4chan favourite, the "Duckroll." This was used the same way as the Rickroll, claiming a link was actually interesting and actually linking to a page with an animated GIF of a toy duck rolling across the screen. "Roll" became a universal suffix for similar fake links like Leekspin, and with the advent of the Rickroll found its greatest success.

Rickrolling began on 4chan's /v/ imageboard on the day of Grand Theft Auto 4's official website premier. However, due to heavy traffic on the website, it was impossible to watch the trailer for quite some time, so Anonymous took it upon himself to link everyone to a supposedly leaked trailer hosted on YouTube:

YouTube Link

Rickrolling has become popular outside of 4chan. Many different website communities have claimed they invented Rickrolling, such as GameFAQs, who claim that the Rickroll started on their Halo3 board. World of Warcraft gamers, (WoWfags), have also laid claim to inventing the Rickroll, and have beaten it to old meme death on their game forums twice as fast as 4chan ever could have done. The Washington hometown forum on AK47.net, filled with a bunch of old guys with guns, is also known for having links off to the Rickroll all over the place.

Some time in the summer of 2008, YouTube decided to disable embedding of all Rick Astley videos because they're jews and attention whores. That and because ~~Rick Astley is probably an asshole who wants total control over his content~~ Scientology bought the rights to the song to stop Anonymous using it at Chanology rAIDS. Howevar, nobody noticed, since everyone on the planet has been Rickroll'd at least once and is sick of the song. If you want to ask Rick "WTF?" you can spam him here.

[edit] MTV Rickrolld

Yarly!

ANONYMOUS EXPOSED!: Rick Astley's mum!

On October 2nd, 2008, it was announced that Rick Astley had been nominated for an MTV Europe Award in the Best Act EVAR category along with the likes of U2 and Brotney Spears. This after a Zerg rush of fan votes propelled him from not even on the radar to off the fucking map. MTV has opened voting here and The Rick Astley Appreciation Society is hard at work lobbying /b/ to vote vote! vote!! VOTE!!!oneoneone. DO IT FAGGOT!. The awards, scheduled for Nov. 6th. Stay tuned here for moar.

When ridiculed by all the butthurt 'music purist' BAWfags (who'd nominated the likes of Bill Kaulitz for BEST EVAR ACT) on MTV Europe's forum, claiming MTV was doing it for the lulz, the show's producer said:

“	Rick's fans have obviously decided that he deserves recognition as a pop icon and no doubt they are determined to make sure he wins on the night.	„
—Richard Godfrey

Rick, when reached for comment, was like LOL WUT?

“	What do you think when you hear "Rick Astley" and "BEST EVAR ACT"?	„
—BBC

“	It seems a bit weird to me. I think it's a wind up.	„
—Rick Astley

Other were similarly baffled.

“	The Internet should be switched off. Now. Permanently.	„
—itexaminer.com

"The straw that finally broke the camel's back was the announcement today that Rick Astley is the front runner in an MTV online poll to vote for the best live musical act of all time.

That deserves repetition: Rick Astley, the best musical act of all time. Not Beethoven, Wagner, the Beatles, Frank Zappa or even the Kitten Mincers, but Rick Astley.

He's not there because fat cats in record companies have bribed people to vote for him; he's not even there because MTV is the spawn of Satan; he's there because you, yes you - the Web users - have voted for him."

Others were moar charitable:

“	Viewers are used to MTV standbys like U2 and Britney, but a chance for Astley to RickRoll the world on live television would be a special treat indeed.	„
—LA Times

"There could be nothing more "lulzy" than a netwide campaign to steal the all-time musical crown for Astley, a guy who unhesitatingly called the song that twice made him famous "naff.""

[edit] Gallery of De/b/ate The Nominees

Has Rickrolling gone too far?

"A bit of a shock really, a bit weird I think, a bit off the scale."

Rick's lyrics take on ~~new~~ meaning.	ebaums chimes in.	"TOKIO HOTEL RULEZ. I WILL NOT LET THIS "RICK" GUY STEAL THEIR AWARD."	OH NOES! It's an MTV conspiracy!
Tokio Hotel fanboi gets Godwin'd.	"It's all just a media scam!"	U2, filthy whores and pretend rock emo faggots.	Millions Of People Everywhere Agrees With Me That Over All Then Should Have Won.
MTV admits defeat, but keeps Astley on the ballot anyway.

[edit] Lolicatgirls.swf

No one is safe from the Rickroll, not even in your schools

Not even the professor is safe

Moar info: lolicatgirls.swf.

lolicatgirls.swf is a meme on 4chan's /f/ that pre-dates rickroll, but is the same concept. It's a loop of some guys dancing in a busy street to rave music, instead of loli catgirls, as the title would suggest.

[edit] Sony/BMG Attempts to stop the Rickroll

On Saturday, March 29 2008, SONY/BMG started sending out copyright notices to all YouTube videos that RickRoll people. Videos with obsecure titles such as Ex Girlfriend Stripping have been flagged by Sony/BMG and YouTube in the hopes to collect data about RickRoll, as well as remove certain videos containing RickRoll's. Source

[edit] Youtube's EPIC Rickroll

Youtube rickrolled its users on April 1st 2008 by pointing all the featured videos here. As such, rolling is now officially old meme. Goodnight Sweet Prince.

[edit] Failure

All the cool kids are wearing it

facepalm

In addition to being old meme, Rick Roll is now officially "cool". If you see any one wearing one of these shirts, please ~~burn them with fire~~ just kill them.