Want Some Rick Rolls?

Imagine yourself surfing the Internet. You're just sitting there in front of the monitor looking at your favorite sites when you see an interesting link that looks innocent and seems to lead to a legit site. You click it, and...what the heck? You were actually lead to aYouTube video of an 80's music video of Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up. You, my friend, have just been rickrolled.

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down...

What is rickrolling, anyway? Well, according to Urban Dictionary, rickrolling is "the act of posting a misleading link with a subject that promises to be exciting or interesting, e.g. "World of Starcraft in-game footage!" or "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in development!" but actually turns out to be the video for Rick Astley's debut single, "Never Gonna Give You Up".


Rickrolling began in May 2007, when a 4chan user posted a link to Rick Astley's video disguised as a link to a trailer of Grand Theft Auto 4. It evolved from duckrolling, showing a picture of a duck on wheels instead of the desired page. It got so widespread that the video itself in YouTube got over 26 million views, mostly because of rickrolling. Also, it started appearing in the real world, such as in protests, subway stations and even in a baseball game. Heck, even Rick Astley himself performed a real-life rickroll during a 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. (information courtesy of http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/rickrolling/)


So, there you have it. Another example of the many nonsensical things the Internet has to offer. So next time, be careful when clicking links. You might just get rickrolled.