Rick Astley: King of April Fool’s Day
April 1st, 2008 | 4:00 pm est |
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Kids may be too transfixed by Super Smash Bros. Brawl to bother going outside to ding dong ditch a neighbor, and caller ID easily thwarts the idea of ordering 15 pizzas to a stranger’s house, but despite an abundance of laziness and an inherent lack of anonymity in the cyberage, there’s still a good ongoing gag. The “pull my finger” of 2008 is rickrolling. If you’re not familiar — and you’re fortuitous enough to have never been rickroll’d in the past year — essentially, it involves tricking someone to watch the music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” by claiming that it’s something enticing. (Rocketboom gives the history of rickrolls here.) On this day of false hopes, you need to watch your back more than ever. Next time your pal sends you a link to an interview with Corey Worthington and his famous glasses or concert footage of Amy Winehouse singing jibberish on crazy sauce, you should be prepared for a surprise from a ginger-headed goon doing a terribly stiff dance.




