Rickrolling
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.2|alt=Video screenshot with the title "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up". It shows the singer dancing, wearing a trenchcoat over a turtleneck.|A screenshot of the music video to the song on [[YouTube, taken in 2009]]
Article
18 sectionsContents
- History
- Background
- Origin
- Growth in 2008
- Rickroll against Scientology and early mainstream coverage
- April 2008 peak
- Further recognition, "BarackRoll" videos, and Astley parade appearance
- Enduring popularity
- Post-peak usage
- 2020s resurgence
- Mechanism
- Forms of humour
- Hyperlinking
- Analysis and impact
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Video screenshot with the title "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up". It shows the singer dancing, wearing a trenchcoat over a turtleneck.|A screenshot of the music video to the song on [[YouTube, taken in 2009]]
Rickrolling is an Internet meme and prank involving the unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up", performed by the English singer Rick Astley. The meme is a type of bait and switch and commonly uses a disguised hyperlink that leads to the music video instead of what was expected. The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics in unexpected contexts or singing it during public events. After the origin of the meme in 2007 and the height of its popularity in 2008, rickrolling has become a very long-lived meme. Astley has seen his performance career revitalised by the meme's popularity.