rickroll
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹɪkɹəʊl/
ipa: /ˈɹɪkˌɹoʊl/
Forms: form: rickrolls
form: Rickroll
Etymology: The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: You have to check out this link. Not a rickroll.
text: Now, I know that the the^([sic]) problem with what I'm saying is that it sounds like a recipe for being really boring and humdrum. Links, links, links. I'm not really; the rickroll has a value, to spike peoples' inflated expectations, or remind them—wittily—of their weaknesses: […]
ref: 2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2022:
text: Chances are that at some point in 2008, you or someone you know experienced a "Rick Roll"—a bait-and-switch prank that dupes you into watching the video for Rick Astley's 1980s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up." […] But perhaps the ultimate Rick Roll occurred on April Fool's Day in 2008, when YouTube rigged up every feature video on the home page to play Astley's infamous clip.
ref: 2009, Greg Jarboe, “Month 3: Create Viral Video Content”, in YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day, Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 161:
text: I find some Rickrolls really funny. Have you seen the one with President Barack Obama? Someone has cut up his speeches and put them together so that he sings "Never Gonna Give You Up." It's totally amazing. I find it bonkers, by the way!
ref: 2009 April 30, Rick Astley, “moot [i.e., Christopher Poole]”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2022:
text: Now 4chan is the largest active forum in the United States. […] It's the originator of countless memes, including Lolcats and my personal favourite, Rickrolls.
ref: 2013, Austen Kay, “Teenage Kicks”, in Simon Pont, editor, Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, London; Philadelphia, Pa.: Kogan Page, →ISBN, page 74:
text: CNN anchor Jake Tapper called Donald Trump's decision to trot out an array of military medal winners before addressing his long-held questions about President Barack Obama's birth a "political Rick-roll." […] "While these American heroes are, you know, people that we should all show reverence and respect, they are much greater men than Rick Astley, it’s hard to imagine this as anything other than a political Rick-roll," Tapper said.
ref: 2016 September 16, Louis Nelson, “Jake Tapper Calls Trump Event a ‘Political Rick-roll’”, in Politico, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2022:
text: In the Internet world and in multiplayer videogames in particular, to play a hoax on someone is also called trolling. […] One well-known tactic is the ‘rick roll’ meme, wherein someone is led to believe that a certain action, for example, clicking a particular hyperlink, will be relevant to his aims but instead the victim is unintentionally directed to a music video for the 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.
ref: 2017, Anton Nijholt, “Mischief Humor in Smart and Playable Cities”, in Anton Nijholt, editor, Playable Cities: The City as a Digital Playground (Gaming Media and Social Effects), Singapore: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, part III (Design for Playful Public Spaces), page 242:
text: An image of [Nelson] Mandela, the bitcoin logo, Rickrolls, emails from [Satoshi] Nakamoto, and even Valentine's Day messages have all been found on the blockchain[…].
ref: 2018 October, Sean Au, Thomas Power, “A Bit of Coin Theory”, in Tokenomics: The Crypto Shift of Blockchains, ICOs, and Tokens (Expert Insight), Birmingham, West Midlands: Packt Publishing, →ISBN, page 47:
text: This seems much more likely to be the work of a talented but inexperienced individual. […] The rick-roll in the code seems juvenile and unprofessional.
ref: 2020, William O’Sullivan, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Nhien-An Le-Khac, “Defending IoT [Internet of Things] Devices from Malware”, in Nhien-An Le-Khac, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, editors, Cyber and Digital Forensic Investigation: A Law Enforcement Practitioner’s Perspective (Studies in Big Data; 74), Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 10:
glosses: An act of or attempt at rickrolling.