Tuesday, May 20, 2008

That Ghastly Astley

Rickrolling: best internet running gag ever? Looks like even Time magazine has finally caught on:

"You're innocently surfing the Web. Clicking on stuff. Sports scores, news stories. You know, normal things. Then it starts. A fusillade of electronic drums. A doinky synthesizer beat. A dude with a pompadour and a lot of sincerity. He's dancing--badly. He is 1980s pop star Rick Astley, and you have been RICKROLLED.

Rickrolling is an increasingly common online practical joke. The object is to trick people into clicking on a benign-looking link that takes them to the video for Astley's hit "Never Gonna Give You Up." By now millions of people have inadvertently watched the video, which came out in 1987, a more innocent time when people actually listened to generic soft-core pop on purpose--the song went to No. 1.

Astley, who is currently on a 1980s revival tour with Bananarama and Cutting Crew, is reportedly bemused by the whole phenomenon, which continues to escalate. In April pranksters hijacked an online poll held by the Mets, resulting in the song being played at a Major League Baseball game, thereby effectively rickrolling thousands of unsuspecting fans and players. If Moises Alou isn't safe, who is?"

4 comments:

Herr Zrbo said...

That's funny that you wrote about this LE, I've thought about mentioning rickrolling before on this blog but I didn't think you would know what the hell I was talking about. I didn't realize it had caught on quite as much as it has, to the point that Time is covering it.

BTW, have you seen the Ghostbusters 3 trailer? Bill Murray actually looks funny, and you know I don't usually like him.

yoggoth said...

You don't like Bill Murray? Have you no soul?

yoggoth said...

Oh, and LE knows about rickrolling because I told him.

Little Earl said...

"We're no strangers to luuuuuv,
You know the rules, and SO do I (do I do I)..."