Open Thread - 12-20-24 - You've Been Rick Rolled

Rick Roll:

To send someone a link to 80s pop star Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video, making them believe that they're gonna see something completely different. The meme originated in 4chan's /v/ (videogame) board, when the official "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" trailer was coming out on the game's website but couldn't be watched due to heavy traffic. Playing a prank on everyone who was reading, an anonymous 4chaner said that the trailer was on YouTube and posted a link to Astley's song. Since then, the Rick Roll has been made countless times, not only on 4chan but on the whole of the Internet.

Source

Over the years there's been many forms of Rick Rolling on the internet, some fairly innocent like the example above and some downright nasty, which I refuse to entertain. I think the first and only time I was Rick Rolled was by the nasty variant. Believe me, you don't want to know, but some of you may already know, unfortunately. It took one time for me to learn my lesson. After that first disgusting example, I set the links to resolve in my browser's status bar when I mouse hover over the address and I haven't been Rick Rolled since.

Rick Rolling has become somewhat passé in modern terms, unless, of course, you're the US Government. There are a few examples of Governmental Rick Rolling below the fold.

rickroll.jpg

Governmental Rick Rolling

(Don't forget to click the links)

Drones Over New Jersey
jerseydrones.jpg

D.O.G.E.
doge1.jpg

President Donald Trump
Donald_Trump_official_portrait.jpg

Mother Nature Rick Rolling

One more for the nature lovers. Here's a cute and harmless California Ground Squirrel happily eating a nut, which is not uncommon since this ground squirrel is a plant eater. This little bugger's name is Rick, and he's about to roll you.

California Ground Squirrel
groundsquirrel.jpg

Oops, sorry, here's the real link.

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Somebody done rick rolled hoodooed the Hoodoo Man.

Got any examples of a rick roll?
Got any memes you want to drop?
Got any loose threads you want to unravel?
This is the place to do it.

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QMS's picture

Some are just plain dumb.


The Artist Who Trained Rats to Trade in Foreign-Exchange Markets

I do listen to the Rick and Roll show on KZRJ

http://gulchradio.com/playlist-test/

Squirrels gone carnivores. Watched too many Burger King commercials?

Wink

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question everything

@QMS
the rick roll phenomenon over the years has been pretty dumb, but then again, it emanated from 4chan so there's that, although 4chan can be quite malicious as well.

Speaking of malicious, all a rick roll is is an URL redirect, and folks should be very suspicious of any URL they don't recognize. Especially URLs that have been shortened, they can put you in a world of hurt, so please use your browser to mouse hover over any link address before clicking it.

I'll have to check out the Rick and Roll Show.

The carnivorous ground squirrel thing is very curious. Maybe a zombie ground squirrel virus? Hah!

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It feels like I've been Rick Rolled my entire life.

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@Snode
we have been politically rick rolled our whole lives, exactly my point.

And the leader of the incoming administration is a master at it.

The current rick roll is already obvious with the budget voting (CR-Continuing Resolution). There'll be total obstruction in congress so it will be stalemate for four more years, and actually that's probably a good thing.

Same as it ever was.

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QMS's picture

.

when the government shuts down?
Probably not. We will. That's how it works.

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question everything

@QMS
rick rolled, again.

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usefewersyllables's picture

post. I had already decided to fire my neurologist via email- but now, I have to add a link to my message, or maybe have the link be the whole of it...

Bravo!

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4 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

rickroll phenomena, but was never a victim, nor enough of a pop music fan to know who the hell Rick Astley was when I saw rickrolling explained. I had to go find the subject video on you tube just to satisfy my curiosity. I also recall the notorious other one, though I was never caught, and it spawned a whole universe of take-offs involving openly posted manipulation and juxtapositions of innocent everyday objects like cups of coffee bring used as humor elements.

Examples? In reality, this is a variant of one of the oldest cons around, in very common use all over the map throughout our whole lives, they just changed the name. The real "meme" is called "Bait and switch" and is the basis for most marketing and politics.

Memes I'd like to drop involve artwok beyond my currentskill - the Democrat jackass, looking at the viewer, with the face of either a: Joe mcCarthy or b: The Big Brother picture from the book.

Had a talk with the customer service dept of a public-private agency this am and wound up on hold for a bit. Their "you're on hold" music was an orchestral piece with a melody line reminisent of "Send Lawyers Guns and Money", which was pretty hilarious. I think a lot of our agencies should get the rights to the original and use it in that fashion.

That said, now I have to hear the original.

Ahh Yeah, the eternal verities

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

Anything can crossbreed with anything else.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

but the swarm of drones freak-out sounds like a 4Chan thing. Or Amazon just testing out its fleet of new delivery drones. Or USG prepping for the wholesale handover of the USG to Amazon and JPM/Chase before Musk gets it all.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

I don't suppose it bore any resemblance to these (OTOH I think this predated Rick)?:

olympic-3756515721.jpg
goatse_obama-logo-131137906.jpg
ad3-2982945153.jpg

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2 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!