Shambollocks! » rickrolling http://www.shambollocks.com The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handle Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:38:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Word Of The Day: Rickrolling http://www.shambollocks.com/2008/12/01/word-of-the-day-rickrolling/ http://www.shambollocks.com/2008/12/01/word-of-the-day-rickrolling/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:26:00 +0000 Can Do Kid http://www.shambollocks.com/?p=190



From Wikipedia:


Rickrolling is an Internet meme typically involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up“. The meme is a bait and switch: a person provides a Web link that he or she claims is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video. The URL can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that the user cannot determine the true source of the link without clicking. When a person clicks on the link and is led to the web page, he or she is said to have been “Rickrolled” (also spelled Rickroll’d). By extension, it can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive.
The age of irony now reigns supreme over the internet. At first, this is a genuine funny prank. But then it gets co-opted into something much worse- an appreciation for an awful song which forgets why it was even started. By the time it hits network TV, it becomes such a Russian doll of a joke that you get exhausted trying to figure out why you’re supposed to laugh.

As a cultural commentator, I’m left feeling cheated. What is important? That Rick Astley is alive and well? That a nagging buzzterm can infiltrate the mainstream to erupt on the float for a children’s show on a traditional holiday platform?

I guess I just can’t believe that the folks from the Today show are more on the pulse of the moment than I am. If this is hip, though, I’m ready for Florida.

Again, harrumph.

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