My fiance got me this as a gift a while back, and I just kinda sat there, starting at it in wordless disbelief. She thought it was fucking hilarious.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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From then on, whenever someone links the video to anyone, he will rickroll in his grave
His tombstone had better have a QR code on it.
If it's not engraved, I promise you that someone's going to glue a laminated version to it.
They'll have to protect it from vandalism with protective glass or something, and someone will rick-roll the world with the news headline for it.
i will laminate it to the glass!
or just packing tape it that's good enough!
This suggests that one day, Rick Astley would give us up. I've been personally reassured that he would never do that.
!rickrolltactics@lemmy.world will be having a field day, when that happens.
Oh! So there is a comminity for this!
One important tip from that community to be more successful:
Do not use the "original" link, but link a YouTube short. Why?
- It's not the known link ("XcQ")
- Shorts do autoplay
- Shorts are ad free
- Shorts are optimized for mobile and usually start playing quickly
Where as the original link will probably just dump you to 1-3 pre roll ads and the rickroll is only seeing the title and closing the tab/app...
EDIT: The animation is hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux0YNqhaw0I
(Link in the open to foster trust lol)
God damn it
Everyone who got Rick rolled will click on it. The view number will double from 1.5 billion currently to +3 billion views and YouTube will crash. All will celebrate the annual rick roll day henceforth, causing Never gonna give you up to become the most played song of all time ever with hundreds of billions of views in the year 2100. Trust me, never gonna lie.
His headstone better have the YouTube link carved in the stone
"Rick Ashley: He never let us down. We never deserted him. dQw4w9WgXcQ"
"XcQ, link stays blue" better be on there somewhere
I click the link to listen to the song intentionally. It's a great song!
It is a great song. I think that is one reason it works so well for the meme.
Great song
Very distinctive and ear catching drums to start the song
The first time you see the video, you're probably surprised that he's a smallish white guy
His dancing in the video is... extremely white?
I think if it was actually a bad song, it would never have caught on as a meme, and that the people who hate the song are either overexposed to it or their opinion of the song is heavily influenced by how it's been presented to them. You know, like how if you tell a child that some bit of food is gross, then they often won't like it when they taste it.
Very good analysis, because I always wonder "Why THIS song?"
Like, is there an alternate universe where it's like "OMG the thing you've been waiting for! (link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914
...okay maybe the lead up takes a lot longer. Never Gonna Give You Up hits you immediately with those drums and a dance that can easily be repurposed as a taunt. Lol
I dont know if that a rick roll or just a random music video, but at this point I'm to afraid to click it.
Hey you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, amigo!
But don't worry it's...
A-Ha! Take On Me . Another shining example of a basically perfect and immortal pop song. :p
I mean, it's probably just up to whoever first started doing it. They chose that song, so it's that song. Other songs may have also worked.
But there is one thing that I think gave Rick Astley an advantage over specific other groups like A-ha. And that's his name. If you look up the history of Rickrolling on Wikipedia, it says it replaced a meme called "duckrolling", which was used the same way as Rickrolling, but it was just a picture of a duck with wheels. So the advantage is that "Rick" is his name and it's an easy drop-in replacement for the word "duck".
There's other artists who have names that would work. Who knows? In another universe, they might have "Beckrolling" or something.
Edit: I was just reading farther into the Wikipedia article, and the guy who made the first Rickroll said he chose it because it came out in his birth year of 1987.
I absolutely will click that headline. Either it's a sad day and a hero has left us, or I get to watch one of my favorite videos again!
I think it's wild (and honestly I love it) that Rick Astley went from being this massive pop star to entirely forgotten to punchline and now he's kind of a beloved guy. What a rollercoaster of a fucking life.
But I click on rickrolls on purpose. Then I dance around the house for 3:35. Damn that's a good pop song.
I know! It's the very best kind of prank... it's a gift. :D
XcQ link stays blue
i just look for the w4w.
I hope they play it on tv.
If Rick Astley dies on an April 1st Noone will believe it.
There aren't many realistic scenarios where this could be true, so I'm going to have to spray you in the face with a water mister for being bad because you should feel bad for posting a completely untrue lie.