Rickrolling started to appear in more mainstream sources during 2008, with a SurveyUSA April 2008 poll estimating that at least 18 million US adults had been rickrolled. Growth in 2008 An Astley impersonator during one of March 2008 rickrolls at collegiate basketball games Īlso in 2007, the episode 'The Gang Dances Their Asses Off' of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia also included the song, with the creators of the show unaware of the song's rising comedic popularity, leading them ― in a 2021 podcast ― to incorrectly claim they had invented the trend although the song's use in the episode of such a popular show could be argued helped contribute to the rise of rickrolling.

While this occurred before 4chan's use of the song, Know Your Meme editor-in-chief Don Caldwell said there was no direct confirmation of whether it had inspired the 4chan use of the video. Simultaneous referencesĪ precursor of 'rickrolling' occurred in 2006, when rural Michigan resident Erik Helwig called in to a local radio sports-talk show and, instead of conversing with the DJs, played 'Never Gonna Give You Up', leaving the DJs speechless. The bait-and-switch to 'Never Gonna Give You Up' greatly expanded on 4chan on April Fools' Day in 2007, and led to the trick expanding to other sites like Fark and Digg later that year, quickly adding the name 'rickrolling' based on the prior 'duck rolling'. This practice quickly replaced duck rolling for other alluring links, all generally pointing to Astley's video, and thus creating the practice of 'rickrolling'. He said the reason of using 'Never Gonna Give You Up' was because he found a list about songs that were popular at the time you were born using the Internet, and this song is on the top of 1987, which was his year of birth. In 2022, Shawn Cotter was interviewed by Vice Media. Several users helped to post mirrors of the video on different sites, but one user on 4chan, Shawn Cotter, had linked to the 'Never Gonna Give You Up' video claiming to be the trailer, tricking numerous readers into the bait-and-switch. Viewership was so high that it crashed Rockstar's site. In March 2007, the first trailer for the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV was released onto the Rockstar Games website. The image caught on across 4chan, becoming the target of a hyperlink with an otherwise interesting title, with a user clicking through having been stated to be 'duck rolled'. On one thread, where 'eggroll' had become 'duckroll', an anonymous user posted an edited image of a duck with wheels, calling it a 'duckroll'. Sometime in 2006, the site moderator, Christopher 'm00t' Poole, implemented a word filter replacing the word 'egg' with 'duck' as a gag. The use of the song for rickrolling dates to 2006, originating from the 4chan imageboard in an early meme known as 'duck rolling'. The accompanying music video, Astley's first, features him performing the song while dancing. The song, his solo debut single, was a number-one hit on several international charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, and the UK Singles Chart. 'Never Gonna Give You Up' appeared on Astley's 1987 debut album Whenever You Need Somebody. Since then, Astley has seen his performance career revitalized by the meme's popularity. Īstley, who had only returned to performing after a 10-year hiatus, was initially hesitant about using his newfound popularity from the meme to further his career but accepted the fame by Rickrolling the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with a surprise performance of the song. The meme gained mainstream attention in 2008 through several publicized events, particularly when YouTube used it on its 2008 April Fools' Day event. The video bait-and-switch trick grew popular on 4chan by 2007 during April Fools' Day and spread to other Internet sites later that year. The meme grew out of a similar bait-and-switch trick called 'duck rolling' that was popular on the 4chan website in 2006.

Astley himself has also been Rickrolled on several occasions. The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics, or singing it, in unexpected contexts. When victims click on a seemingly unrelated link, the site with the music video loads instead of what was expected, and they have been ' Rickrolled'. The meme is a type of bait and switch, usually using a disguised hyperlink that leads to the music video. The aforementioned video has over 1.4 billion views on YouTube. Rickrolling or a Rickroll is an Internet meme involving the unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 song ' Never Gonna Give You Up', performed by English singer Rick Astley. Problems playing this file? See media help.

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