Digging in the Cache is a series where we go back in time to look at fun tidbits of Internet and computer history. What could be more fun than luring your friends to go to a website that’s completely different than what they expect to find? With the rise of URL shorteners which can easily hide the address of the linked page, sending people to a site that they don’t expect is fairly easy. In 2007-2008, it was a fad to trick people into visiting a page with a music video of Rick Astley singing his 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The person who was tricked into viewing the video was “rickrolled“. Since the video of Astley was safe for work, it was more appropriate than many Internet pranks to spread throughout the workplace.
Here’s an example:
There’s this awesome new video that shows you how to make $10k in just 30 days with Twitter: http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
When you click the link, you’re taken to Rick Astley’s music video for Never Gonna Give You Up:
People even got more tricksy in their efforts to rickroll friends by embedding the video into other websites (instead of YouTube). Being rickrolled extended outside of the Internet to impersonators lip-syncing at basketball games, and even an appearance by Rick Astley in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. My favorite prank was when all the featured videos on YouTube on April 1, 2008 linked to the rickroll video.
So, were you ever rickrolled?
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
