MuchMusic.com | Blog

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

In 1987, a dorky Brit by the name of Rick Astley became a sex symbol and music sensation when he released the undeniably catchy “Never Gonna Give You Up”. He found himself rich, Grammmy nominated and famous before he was even 25 but by the early 90s, poor Ricky was pushed aside for Vanilla Ice, New Kids on the Block and Nirvana. He was never to be heard from again.

Until 2007, when Rickrolling was invented. If you don’t know what Rickrolling is, you probably don’t use the internet and thus, wouldn’t be reading this post anyway, but just in case, here’s an example:

Me: Hey, buddy, check out this amazing video of a cow giving birth to a pony!
You: *Click on the link*
Me: Ha, ha. You’ve been rickrolled! Sucker.

I guess the playground equivalent would be like, when people point at your shirt and go, ‘what’s that?’ and you look down and they boink you on the nose. There’s no real punch line, but there’s a grain of amusement, and sometimes a grain is all you need to make your day brighter.

Anyway, it wasn’t long before the Rickroll became an internet phenomenon, and the real beauty is that you can never learn from your mistakes. If someone sends you a link to something ~*amazing*~, you’re going to click on it, no matter how many times ~*amazing links*~ have led to “Never Gonna Give You Up”. And hey, it’s catchy. It’s not like you’re being forced to listen to “Blue” by Eiffel 65, which I won’t even link to cause it’s so bad.

The funny thing is that I’ve never been Rickrolled, except for on April Fool’s Day when every website thought it would be hilarious to Rickroll every link (Youtube did it best). Have you been Rickrolled? Somebody must have, for it to become a sensation. Please speak up so I may start a tally.

Anyway, Rickrolling simulateously jumped the shark and became even more awesome when Rick Astley performed a live Rickroll at the Macy’s Parade yesterday:

Some people are crying “overkill!”, but I think it’s pretty funny, and cool of Rick Astley to embrace what was essentially a joke on his behalf. But like Mark Wahlberg’s SNL skit (which he first disapproved of and later embraced with his own SNL appearance), Rick Astley knows that it was the Rickroll that singlehandedly revived his otherwise extinct career (not that he’ll become a record-selling success again, but you know… it made him sort of famous again). So here’s to Rick Astley: we totally believed you when you said that you were never gonna give us up.

Posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 2:01 pm by Wendy and is filed under Celebrities & Pop Culture.

Related Articles:

• Lauren Conrad Gets Owned
• Holiday Wrapup 08: Top Viral Videos
• Oasis Does Techno?
• Best Mario Paint Compositions
• Airbrushed Britney = Natalie Portman?