The picture presented for you is the now legendary Rick Astley. Rick was part of the incredibly awesome music industry of the 1980's. His video for "Never Gonna to Give You Up" has since risen to the level of epic status. This rise can be attributed to the vast numbers of nerds and internetphiles (yes, it's a made up word). You may or may not have heard of the Rick Roll, many of you may have even experienced one firsthand. I subject myself to the Rick Roll several times a week. If you have not, click on this awesome link to see the trailer for Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo.
If you clicked the link like you should have you will have been disappointed. There is no GTA: Tokyo, instead you are linked to the Rick Astley video. You have effectively experienced the feeling of being Rick Roll'd (albeit a poor attempt, I fail).
The truly interesting thing about the Rick Roll is that it has spread wide and far beyond the digital realm of the internet. Entire crowds at a Mets game have been Rick Roll'd as well as bosses at work. The concept that started on a simple internet picture message board, 4chan.org, has spread to encompass the world. On April 1st Youtube played an epic prank on everyone of it's viewers for April Fools Day. For the entire day clicking on any video on the homepage would send you to the Rick Astley video. Youtube itself has played an important role in the rising popularity of the Rick Roll. Without the ability to upload and share video content such things as a Rick Roll would have failed to gain much popularity.
The effects of the Rick Roll can be seen even today in the face of the current presidential election. The current democratic nominee Barack Obama has even received the honor of becoming his own Barack Roll. I failed to embed the Rick Astley video (Something about RickAstley not wanting it embeddable) so instead I will treat you with the Barack Roll video and it's awesomeness. Enjoy.
1 comment:
This is a great free-write. I have experienced the rick roll phenomenon myself numerous times but never really knew the history behind it. It's really crazy that a little joke on a website could explode into something so huge. I have seen rick roll jokes on the show "Family Guy" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". I really like how you rick roll'd the reader during your post. I thought it might be a trap but I had to know if there was a new GTA coming out soon. Then you had one hell of a finale with the highly entertaining barack roll video. That video had so many soundbites! It would have taken forever to make.
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