Rick Astley, as you probably know, had a hit song in 1987 called “Never Gonna Give You Up.” This song, which was quite popular in its day, gained new life sometime around 2007 thanks you YouTube, 4chan, and a classic bait-and-switch prank.

The trick was pretty simple. Shorten a link to the Astley video to where it was unrecognizable, and pass it off as a link to whatever relevant topic is being discussed. For instance, one could post on Facebook “Check out this awesome salsa recipe http://tinyurl.com/28rdnbz.” And there you go. You’ve just Rickrolled your friends. Rickrolling became huge on the internet and eventually spread into mainstream pop culture. Last year, the White House even Rickrolled their Twitter followers. As of right now, the video sits at over 46 million views on YouTube.

Both YouTube’s Facebook and Google+ accounts have gotten in on the fun, Rickrolling an untold amount of people today.

YouTubeToday’s birthday shout-out goes to a pop star whose most famous song blew up in 1987 and then again two decades later with plenty of help from you. Wait for it … http://goo.gl/82N3j 47 minutes ago · 2,673 likes · 642 comments

Here’s the famous video for your viewing pleasure. And yes, I do mean pleasure because as one YouTuber put it, “after being rickrolled countless times. This song has sort of grown on me.”

I suggest that we all Rickroll our friends today. Just for old time’s sake. It might be an overused, nearly dead meme but damnit, who didn’t love this one? Good job, internets.

Financial discussion isn’t always the most riveting of subjects, everybody knows that. Twitter user @wiggsd decided to use the #WHChat hashtag to tweet his frustration with the lack of entertainment coming from the correspondence briefing.

Here’s what he wrote –

In response to that, The White House decided to give him something a little more lively. They tweeted the following, and yes, the link leads directly to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

User gaboer117 on YouTube writes on the comments for the Rickroll video -

“Thumbs up if the White house brought you here.” That comment has already received 130 likes.

These are tough, tense times. It’s nice to break it up with a little bit of humor. Apparently, someone in the White House is no stranger to that fact.

[Hat tip to TNW]

Sabia, as pointed out by Boing Boing, covers the unforgettable tune by Rick Astley, a song that was made even more famous by becoming an unforgettable meme. That’s right, you just got Rickrolled by a Google Doodle. Concerning the RickRolled phenomenon, KnowYourMeme.com has an extensive background:

The bait-and-switch phenomenon had its beginning on imageboard site 4chan as a spin-off of an earlier practical joke known as duckrolling, in which an external link with a sensational title (i.e., a specific picture or news item) would be redirected to an edited image of a duck with wooden wheels.

According to 4chan founder m00t, the “Rickroll” phenomenon began on /v/ (videogame board) circa May 2007[2], when someone posted a link to Rick Astley’s music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released videogame Grand Theft Auto IV. Due to the the trailer’s high demand at that time, GTA fans on /v/ fell victim to the bait-and-switch prank and the joke became quite popular on 4chan. This account has been further corroborated by Wikipedia as well as Google Insights, which shows that search interest in “rickrolling” apparently began in April / May 2007.

So yeah, you can blame 4chan, but if you do, do it quietly, lest you become a victim of an Anonymous-style DDoS attack.

Here are a few other creative uses of the Les Paul Google Doodle, including “Stairway to Heaven” for all you Zeppelin fans out there.

The Star Spangled Banner:

Sad Song:

The Godfather Theme:

Imagine:

The current most popular article concerns the archiving of famous Internet memes. The idea behind memes are really pretty simple. Think of viral marketing — that is, word of mouth passing word on from person to person — but instead of a product, the idea being forwarded is a humorous image, video, or other digital medium that becomes apart of our day-to-day usage. While the Smithsonian’s post was nowhere near as thorough as Know Your Meme’s database, it did do a good job of capturing some of the Internet’s more famous humor-related trends.

Presented in an 11-image slideshow, the Smithsonian’s article contains all the memes you know and love, like Keyboard Cat, Rick Astley and Chuck Norris, to name a few. I will say, however, the appearance of the dancing baby was a little odd. I, for one, still blame Ally McBeal for that dark period of Internet humor, because, let’s face it, the dancing baby is far more frightening than it is humorous.

Other inclusions for the Smithsonian’s meme celebration include:

Jumping the Shark

Fail images

Flash mobs

LOLCats

Chuck Norris

Three-wolf T-shirt

“Boom Goes the Dynamite” (which, thankfully, was short-lived)

Keyboard Cat

And, of course, getting Rick-rolled.

In fact, over at Know Your Meme, there’s a little celebration going on for Rick Astley and the impact his song had on the culture of the Internet. Here’s an explanation of how the phenomenon started:

Rickrolling is a bait-and-switch practice that involves providing a web link supposedly relevant to the topic at hand, but actually re-directs the viewer to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit single “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The URL is often masked or obfuscated as a randomly-generated shortlink to conceal its true source from the experienced users. Whenever someone clicks the link and unintentionally summons Rick Astley’s song, he or she is said to have been rickrolled.

As for the Smithsonian’s article, their examples are only the tip of the iceberg in relation to Internet memes. Simply put, there are almost too many to keep track of. From the current (over?)use of the troll face — the apparent current champion of Internet memes — to the “heel it down the drain” story that shows up every so often in Fark threads, it’s as if each “corner” of the Internet has preferred memes they adhere to.

In fact, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to equate trending Twitter hashtags with Internet memes. Granted, these trends don’t anywhere near the shelf life an actual Internet meme does, but while they are popular, the Twitterverse certainly uses them like memes.

So, which one of your favorites did the Smithsonian’s article miss? Not enough “Afro Ninja?” Needs more dramatic chipmunk? No love for the hamster dance? Let us know what you think in the comments.

The New York Mets wisely built an out into their online poll for fans to pick an 8th inning song. Cubs fans had Harry Caray leading the chorus of ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’ for years, while the Orioles’ choice of ‘Thank God I’m A Country Boy’ is a lot more fun than you might imagine.

For the Mets, the poll’s suggested choices also included a write-in option. That was far too tempting for the legions of giggling pranksters at Fark, where someone suggested the poll needed a dose of Rickroll.

If you’ve ever clicked a link touted as one thing, only to have it pop up a video of Astley’s 80′s era hit song, you’ve been Rickrolled. It’s an Internet thing.

However, Omar Minaya didn’t work hard at bringing Johan Santana to Flushing just to have his star lefty, or the rest of the team, suffer through a Rickrolling at every home game. The New York Daily News said there will be a runoff of all the songs during the first six games of a homestand.

Whichever of the selections receives the largest crowd response will be the 8th inning sing-along song. “Mets officials suggested the initial results didn’t necessarily force the runoff, saying the rules stipulated Internet voters would “help decide” the outcome,” the report said.

After last September’s epic collapse where the Mets dropped out of the playoff race, upper management ought to hope the fans never want to give them up. If the fans pick Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’ as the song, I may have to switch to rooting for the Yankees.