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Memenatomy 101: The RickRoll
Posted by Jenn Lowther
For the first installment of Memenatomy 101, I’ll cover the RickRoll.
So we are all on the same page, let me give you a quick definition of RickRoll: A RickRoll is when you post a misleading link with the pretext that you are sending the person to a site that promises to be exciting and/or interesting, but instead you send them to Rick Astley’s music video “Never Going to Give You Up”.
Evolution 
The RickRoll originated as the duckroll on 4chan. The premise was the same as the RickRoll, except instead of being sent to the music video, you were directed to an animated gif of a toy duck rolling across the computer screen.
The site responsible for the first RickRoll has been claimed by many sites and forums and the first instance of the RickRoll may be lost to us forever…unfortunatly the lyrics to ‘Never Going to Give You Up’ will forever be etched into my head (damn, I’m humming it as I type).
**Update: It appears that you can no longer embed the RickRoll’d video from youtube so you’ll have to visit youtube to watch it, I’ll do the next best thing though and embed BarakRoll’d
Variations
As with any good meme, this one too is evolving infront of our eyes. Below are links to some of my favorite rickroll variations:
- TayRoll
- MuppetRoll
- MarioRoll
- BarakRoll (this one is by far my favorite variation)
The latest development in the RickRoll meme, has been to bring the RickRoll into real life. The creative ways to do this are endless, but my favorites are the prank dialer, when RocketBoom RickRolled Next New Networks founder Tim Shey at the office with a singing telegram, and when a University basketball game got RickRolled by a guy dressed up as Rick Astley.
Now go pick a victim and get your RickRoll on!
