‘Rick Rolling’ popular, easy Internet prank to pull

I am pretty sure that this is a something that pretty much anyone who uses YouTube has been a victim of.  You know … you go on YouTube to look up some kind of “How to” video, or just pretty much anything you are interested in.
There are bound to be many times where you would click that video and see this slicked-back, brown-haired guy dancing in front of a microphone, dancing at the sound of the drum roll. You have been Rick Roll’d. It has become a popular prank over time.
There are many people who use the Internet daily and have no clue of what the prank is. It was said that this prank started growing more and more popular after April Fools’ Day of 2008. The song was pretty popular already, but I believe the Rick Roll phenomenon made it what it is today. You either hate it or you love it.
The basic object of the game is to get someone to view a specific item, then mislead them with a link that will lead them to a link of a music video featuring one of Rick Astley’s first singles, “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The song was written and produced by a trio of producers, Stock Aitken Waterman.
I recently introduced a friend to it and his reaction was “What the heck is this?” If you really have to ask what is going on, then obviously it is your first time ever being Rick Roll’d.
It always amuses me whenever I do get Rick Roll’d, the first thing my mind hints for me to look at is the comment section of the video. Most of the time there will be a lot of people raging about the prank. It is rare to actually see some people giving a little praise to the video. It has gotten to the point where Rick Rolling makes me laugh whether I am on the giving or the receiving end.
I cannot remember what I was looking up on YouTube to get Rick Roll’d, for the first time. I do know that it was on Youtbe though. It took me a minute to catch on to what was going on. I looked at the title to make sure I chose the right video I was trying to look up. It was. However, I had fallen victim to the prank.
I was a bit surprised at this time considering the fact I have never seen anything like it. As time progressed, I started to get Rick Roll’d more and more, to the point to where I have gotten used to the song.
For me, I do not know if it was the drum roll at the beginning that drew me into the song of the visuals within the video itself. The bottom line is, I finally decided to give it a chance. I now enjoy listening to the song without having to be motivated by being Rick Roll’d by some YouTuber.
Even now, Rick Rolling is still sweeping the nation as people have decided to fit the Astley video into just about any kind of video, such as “Barack Obama Gets Rick Roll’d” and even the Bill O’Reilly incident. The videos featuring them are not real, but the fact that the video got to fit in with bits and pieces of speech or a talk show and looks real, is amazing.
There are various kinds of websites you can use to easily disguise URLs. Tinyurl is a common example of how to do this. They do not work all the time, but I think it is still worth a shot if you are looking to attempt to prank someone. However, do not make it obvious. Try to throw the victim off with a title that you know will grab their attention.
If you successfully pull off a Rick Roll, you should expect a few reactions; anger, laughter or shock. There really are not many cases where you will get an in-between expression, because the viewer is either used to it or they are new. If you welcome someone to the world of Rick Rolling, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.