Maybe the point is getting it stuck in your head? Or maybe it's one of those things where the point is that it's "unexpected". Except then... y'know. Having it become a cultural phenomenon makes you scratch your head and go "Uhm."
Either way, Youtube is linking all their featured videos to Never Gonna Give You Up, and GameFAQs has replaced their poll with the lyrics to it, so I figure... eh. It's the thing to do this year.
And at least this way, everyone knows it's a joke, can nod agreeably and say "That was a joke." and move on with no malicious feelings or lingering doubts.
It's an example of Ambush Humor, kinda like Goatse except it doesn't make you want to was out your eyes with knives.
Basically, the way rickrolling normally works is that Youtube doesn't have anything in the URLs it generates to indicate what the link is. That means that if you link to it from somewhere that does automatic hyperlinking but doesn't allow users to use HTML, you can claim the video to be whatever you want and noone will know if you're being honest until they click. So someone decided it'd be funny to start using Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" (Chosen probably at random for the most part) when linking on imageboards like 4Chan. So you'll get posts that say things like "The Best Part of Last Night's episode of Heroes!" or "Did you Guys see the new Batman:The Dark Knight trailer?" or "Holy Shit! Pr0n on YouTube! Look quick before they take it down!" and instead of putting whatever they claim is behind the link, they put Rick Astley.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 08:32 am (UTC)Maybe the point is getting it stuck in your head? Or maybe it's one of those things where the point is that it's "unexpected". Except then... y'know. Having it become a cultural phenomenon makes you scratch your head and go "Uhm."
Either way, Youtube is linking all their featured videos to Never Gonna Give You Up, and GameFAQs has replaced their poll with the lyrics to it, so I figure... eh. It's the thing to do this year.
And at least this way, everyone knows it's a joke, can nod agreeably and say "That was a joke." and move on with no malicious feelings or lingering doubts.
Your Intarwebs History Lesson for Today.
Date: 2008-04-01 11:25 am (UTC)Basically, the way rickrolling normally works is that Youtube doesn't have anything in the URLs it generates to indicate what the link is. That means that if you link to it from somewhere that does automatic hyperlinking but doesn't allow users to use HTML, you can claim the video to be whatever you want and noone will know if you're being honest until they click. So someone decided it'd be funny to start using Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" (Chosen probably at random for the most part) when linking on imageboards like 4Chan. So you'll get posts that say things like "The Best Part of Last Night's episode of Heroes!" or "Did you Guys see the new Batman:The Dark Knight trailer?" or "Holy Shit! Pr0n on YouTube! Look quick before they take it down!" and instead of putting whatever they claim is behind the link, they put Rick Astley.
I say, that was actually amusing.
Date: 2008-04-01 09:56 am (UTC)Well played, Squirrel.
Well played.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 11:28 am (UTC)Also, I'm selling these fine leather jackets..