Status Confirmed Type:, Year Origin Tags,,,,,,,,, Additional References About Rickrolling is a that involves posting a hyperlink that is supposedly relevant to the topic at hand in an online discussion, but re-directs the viewer to the music video of 'Never Gonna Give You Up,' a 1987 dance pop single by English singer-songwriter Rick Astley. Since May 2007, numerous versions of the music video on have garnered hundreds of millions, largely driven by the widespread practice of 'rickrolling' and subsequent resurgence in popularity of the song over the following decade. Origin Rick Astley's dance pop single 'Never Gonna Give You Up' was originally released as part of his 1987 solo debut album Whenever You Need Somebody. Upon its initial release, the single became a number one hit on several international charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. YouTuber claims to have prank called a Michigan radio station after a sports game and played 'Never Gonna Give You Up' over the phone on August 31st, 2006. The story was explained in a YouTube video titled 'I Did the First Rickroll (w/ Proof) uploaded on August 7th, 2015 (shown below).

Usage on 4chan The bait-and-switch phenomenon had its beginning on the imageboard community as a spin-off of an earlier practical joke known as, in which an external link with a sensational title (i.e., a specific picture or news item) would be redirected to an edited image of a duck with wooden wheels. According to 4chan founder, the 'rickroll' phenomenon began on (video games) circa May 2007, when someone posted a link to Rick Astley's music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released video game. Due to the high buildup of anticipation for the game at that time, many GTA fans on the /v/ board fell victim to the bait-and-switch prank and the joke became quite popular on 4chan. The timeline the account has been further corroborated by and Trends, which shows that search interest in 'rickrolling' began to rise between April and May 2007. Kontroljnaya rabota kvadratnie uravneniya teorema vieta e. Spread On May 15th, 2007, one of the earliest known instances of the music video was uploaded under the title 'Rickroll'D' by YouTuber Cotter548. Many people have expressed the opinion that the most attention-getting aspect of the video is Rick Astley's unexpectedly deep voice in contrast to his youthful looks. According to VH1's PopUp Video, record executives who heard his recordings didn't believe it was his voice either at first.

In February 2008, during the ' protests against the Church of, 'Never Gonna Give You Up' was played from boomboxes, performed, and shouted. The UK daily The Guardian called it “a live rick-rolling of the Church of Scientology' (shown below, left). On April 1st, 2008, every featured video on YouTube's front page redirected to the Rickroll music video (shown below, right). In April 2008, the New York Mets posted an online poll to select the song for the 8th inning sing-along. On April 4th, 2008, users bombarded the poll with upvotes for 'Never Gonna Give You Up.' On April 7th, the Mets announced that the song had won with over five million votes. Rather than using the song for the 8th inning, it was apparently used during the home opener, much to the displeasure of Mets fans (shown below, left).