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rick astley

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Rick Astley Making Bank Off YouTube Prank Rick Astley's greatest hits collection is back in print thanks to the Rickroll phenomenon. When YouTube used the video for their April Fool's Day prank, they linked to an mp3 version of the album on Amazon. And Pepsi bought an ad on the Amazon page for the album. Winners: BMG, Astley, YouTube, Pepsi. Losers: You.

16 comments

webtards

The Inventors Of The Rickroll Respond To The Joke's Popularization

Today all the "featured video" links on YouTube's front page actually link to this video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," and thus the Internet's weakest prank (OMG I sent you a blank music video instead of what you wanted) dies its thousandth death. I checked 4chan, birthplace of the Rickroll, to see how they were handling the popular acceptance of their joke. More »

8:12 PM on Tue Apr 1 2008
By Nick Douglas
3,060 views, 37 comments

corrections

Who Rickrolls the Rickrollers?

The New York Times recently investigated the internet phenomenon known as Rickrolling—the fun-for-all-ages game of tricking people into clicking on a link that takes them to a Youtube clip of unlikely pop star Rick Astley singing his greatest hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up"—but they didn't do a very thorough job, considering that they were unable to track down Mr. Astley himself for comment (the LA Times found Rick and ran a lengthy, entertaining interview). They were also duped by a hoax clip of a "prankster" interrupting a college basketball game dressed as Astley and lip-synching the song. That performance, it turns out, happened before four different games, none of them the one the Times identified, and was not a halftime prank. And so, today, the Grey Lady runs a Rickrolling correction: More »

10:29 AM on Thu Mar 27 2008
By Pareene
1,952 views, 42 comments

Latest by janesays: Obviously no one at the New York Times has a sense of humor. If they did, then the link to article would have taken them to ">this.: more »

webtards

Rick Astley Most Likeable Singer With Most Annoying Song

Singer Rick Astley finally commented on the stupidest prank on the Internet, Rickrolling. In an L.A. Times interview he says the song is lightweight, the trend is cute, and he's old and uncool. The man is determined to avoid any backlash whatsoever, as if he might be blamed for a million instances of minor annoyance. He even looks pretty cute lately. Rick Astley, pretty cool guy or just making up for an undeserved career?

1:06 AM on Wed Mar 26 2008
By Nick Douglas
2,494 views, 24 comments

ftl

Behind Every Internet Meme Is A Better One You Never Saw


As I've mentioned, LOLcats is just a cuter version of Caturday, an old forum tradition of posting cat pictures with captions in broken English on Saturdays. Caturday itself is just a more formal version of the image macros that have floated around ever since the Internet found pictures. Every popular Internet meme is in fact a lamer version of a more obscure one, including Lazy Sunday, the Rickroll, Badger Badger Badger, Hot or Not, Ask a Ninja, and Chuck Norris Facts. I've traced them back to their edgier ancestors. More »

6:10 PM on Sat Jan 19 2008
By Nick Douglas
12,101 views, 60 comments

Latest by DorothyMantooth: @yourfriendandneighbor: And the Lonely Island guys actually wrote it with Parnell, so it's not so much derivative as... um, the same? more »