Rickrolling[a] is anInternet meme andprank involving the unexpected appearance of the 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up", performed by English singerRick Astley, or itsmusic video. The meme is a type ofbait and switch, usually using a disguisedhyperlink that leads to the music video instead of what was expected. The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics in unexpected contexts or singing it during public events. After the origin of the meme in 2007 and the height of its popularity in 2008, rickrolling has become a very long-lived meme. Astley has seen his performance career revitalised by the meme's popularity.
The meme grew out of a similar bait-and-switch trick called "duckrolling" that was popular on the4chan website in 2006. Rickrolling originated on 15 May 2007, when 4chan user Shawn Cotter uploaded the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video toYouTube and linked to it in place of the trailer for the video gameGrand Theft Auto IV. It quickly became popular and spread to other Internet sites later that year.
The meme gained mainstream attention in 2008 through several events, beginning with a campaign by the hacker groupAnonymous to protest theChurch of Scientology through rickrolling. Awareness of rickrolling increased after two events in April 2008: YouTube used the meme for itsApril Fools' Day event, and users of several websites voted for "Never Gonna Give You Up" in a poll for theNew York Mets' rally song. The meme inspired videos remixing "Never Gonna Give You Up", including "BarackRoll", which combined the song with footage ofBarack Obama. Astley was initially hesitant about using the meme to further his career; he declined to appear at the2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, in which an online vote had named him "Best Act Ever". He accepted the publicity by rickrolling the 2008Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade—seen by millions of television viewers—with a surprise performance of the song on theFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends's float.
Use of rickrolling peaked in 2008, but it remained popular. Later perpetrators of the prank included United States RepresentativeNancy Pelosi in 2009, members of theOregon Legislative Assembly in 2010, and theTwitter account of theWhite House in 2011. Anonymous again used rickrolling as a tactic against theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria in 2015. The rock bandFoo Fighters featured surprise appearances by Astley to rickroll audiences in 2017, having previously used the meme to protest theWestboro Baptist Church. The prank was also conducted by sports stadiums, including that of theSan Diego Padres in 2019. Rickrolling resurged in popularity during theCOVID-19 pandemic. By 2021, the official YouTube video of "Never Gonna Give You Up"—one of several uploads used for rickrolling—had been viewed over one billion times.
The song faded from popularity, being a common song on the radio for only about a year.[18] It also received disapproval—with the television networkVH1 listing it as one of the "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs"—and its 1980s style fell out of fashion.[2] The song's reputation was influenced by its 1980s-style composition, its unpolished music video, and a perceived incongruity between Astley's youthful appearance and his low-pitched vocals.[2][19] "Never Gonna Give You Up" was Astley's most successful song; it was one of two, alongside "Together Forever", to reach number one on theBillboard chart.[20] Astley initially retired in 1994, at the age of 27,[2][3] as he wanted more time with his family.[10] He returned to touring in 2004[21] to mild success.[22]
Internet memes originated in the 1990s, when they mostly involved humorous images. Video-based memes, such asviral videos, became popular in the 2000s as technology improved.[23] Many memes originated on theimageboard website4chan, which was also the origin of the hacker groupAnonymous.[13][16] On several websites, beginning in the late 1990s, users frequently postedbait-and-switch links thattrolled readers by redirecting them to unexpected targets. These links often led toshock sites, which contained disturbing or graphic imagery.[24] Trolling and bait-and-switch humour were popular on 4chan.[2][24] Internet scholar Lee Knuttila wrote that bait-and-switch humour was a simple, fundamental element of the subculture of 4chan.[24] According toKnow Your Meme editor-in-chief Don Caldwell, rickrolling was the first bait-and-switch meme to gain mainstream popularity.[19]
Pre-dating the first rickroll, in August 2005, the sitcomIt's Always Sunny In Philadelphia featured "Never Gonna Give You Up". In the episode, "Charlie Has Cancer", the characterDennis sings along to the song in his car.[25] Another precursor of rickrolling occurred in 2006, when rural Michigan resident Erik Helwig called in to a local radio sports talk show and, instead of conversing with the DJs, played "Never Gonna Give You Up". Caldwell said there was no confirmation of whether it had inspired the 4chan use of the song, and Helwig said he did not claim to be the "founder" of the meme.[2] YouTuber Harrison Renshaw listed both Helwig andIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as contributors to the popularity of the rickroll.[19]
Origin
The "duckroll" image was used inbait-and-switch pranks among 4chan users in 2006, making it the predecessor to rickrolling.
The use of the song for rickrolling originated on 4chan.[2] It was based on an earlier meme on the website known as "duckrolling", which originated in 2006. That year, the site's moderator,Christopher "moot" Poole, implemented aword filter replacing the wordegg withduck as a gag. On one thread, whereeggroll had becomeduckroll, an anonymous user posted anedited image of a duck with wheels, calling it a "duckroll".[2][26][b] According to video game historian Kate Willært, this image had been created in April 2005 byGaming-Age Forums user Christian "ferricide" Nutt, inspired by a fellow user of the forums known as Duckroll.[27] It caught on across 4chan, becoming the target of ahyperlink with an otherwise interesting title, with a user clicking through having been stated to be "duckrolled".[2][26]
In March 2007, the first trailer for the highly anticipatedGrand Theft Auto IV was released onto theRockstar Games website. Viewership was so high that it crashed Rockstar's site. Several users helped to post mirrors of the video on different sites, but one user on 4chan linked to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" video onYouTube claiming to be the trailer, tricking numerous readers.[26] Under the username cotter548, he uploaded the video, titled "Rickroll'D", on 15 May.[10][24][28] The uploader was nineteen-year-old Shawn Cotter, aUnited States Air Force airman in South Korea;[14][10] he publicly revealed his identity in an "ask me anything" post onReddit in 2011,[10] describing himself as "the one who inadvertently became the biggest troll on the internet".[29] In a 2022 interview withVice Media, he said the reason of using "Never Gonna Give You Up" was because he found an online list about songs that were popular in 1987, the year of his birth; he found the video funny and wanted it to be a meme.[14] Cotter is generally considered the originator of the rickroll.[29]
The practice of rickrolling became popular within a few days[10] and replaced duckrolling with links pointing to Astley's video.[26] The term began showing up in Google search data the same month.[4] Rickrolling became popular on YouTube, with videos featuring peoplelip-syncing to the song or rickrolling public events,[5] as well asmashup videos.[15] Many videos used the phrase, "You've been RickRolled."[5] Participants in the meme were too young to remember the original song.[15] The trend contributed to sales of "Never Gonna Give You Up"—beginning in late December 2007, it received over 1,000 downloads per week, reaching a peak of 2,500 in the week of 9 March 2008.[5] The song was also included in the seriesFamily Guy in 2007.[9]
Astley first became aware of rickrolling when he fell for the prank through a series of emails a US-based friend sent him during the early days of the phenomenon. Astley was on vacation and was confused until he called the friend, who explained the meme.[6][14][30]
Growth in 2008
Rickroll against Scientology and early mainstream coverage
The first rickroll to gain mainstream attention, in February 2008,[2][16] targeted theChurch of Scientology, which had been aggressively trying to remove videos critical of the church. The group Anonymous, as part of theirProject Chanology to challenge these actions, protested at the Church's various headquarters by chanting the song and playing it onboomboxes.[16] Several YouTube videos documented these events, including one in which the rickroller falsely described Astley as "some dead guy".[15] Members of Anonymous also created a website thatmimicked the URL of a Scientologist website denouncing Anonymous, instead playing a rickroll.[16]
In March 2008, two employees of the athletics department ofEastern Washington University, Pawl Fisher and Davin Perry, rickrolled a number of games bythe collegiate basketball team.[2] These performances had Perry dressing up as Astley from the video and lip-syncing to the music as a prank before the start of the game.[18] Fisher filmed and edited these into a YouTube video that made it appear as a single rickroll interrupting a game. After the video received millions of views, it was covered by local television stationKHQ as well asThe New York Times. Fisher prankedNew York Times reporter Evelyn Nussenbaum by claiming the video was a single, unedited rickroll; the newspaper published a retraction after KHQ reported that this was false.[2][31]
Popular blogs such asGizmodo,Slashdot, andBoing Boing introduced the meme to larger audiences.[8]: 123 Various Youtube uploads of the music video collectively reached 25 million views by April 2008,[26] one of which, linked from the webpage yougotrickrolled.com, had 7 million views.[18] Internet users also created lists of rickroll URLs,browser plugins that claimed to block rickrolls but actually caused them, and aWikipedia article about the phenomenon.[16] As potential victims of rickrolling began to suspect links, pranksters began to hide rickrolls within more complex videos, such as edited versions of scenes from popular media.[8]: 122, 126, 135–137 The bandRadiohead posted a rickroll claiming to be a download of their new album,In Rainbows, in March 2008.[32]
Astley first publicly spoke about rickrolling in a March 2008 interview withThe Los Angeles Times, titled "Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley", in which he said:[15]
I think it's just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it. But that is what's brilliant about the Internet.[2][33] ... If this had happened around some kind of rock song, with a lyric that really meant something—aBruce Springsteen [song], "God Bless America", or an anti-something kind of song, I could kind of understand that. But for something as—and I don't mean to belittle it, because I still think it's a great pop song—but it's a pop song, do you know what I mean? It doesn't have any kind of weight behind it, as such. But maybe that's the irony of it.[2][34]
— Rick Astley,The Los Angeles Times, "Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley"
Astley also said in the interview that he was not troubled by the phenomenon, stating that he found it "bizarre"[26] and "weird", since he had not performed much lately, but he found the interest funny.[35][15] The following month, a spokesperson for Astley's record label released a comment which showed that Astley's interest in the phenomenon had faded, stating, "I'm sorry, but he's done talking about Rickrolling".[26][36] Despite this, the meme revived his career, and he continued to be asked about it years later.[2] Astley overcame his initial annoyance about rickrolling after speaking with his daughter, who thought it was cool[20][37] and told Astley that the joke was not about him.[7][19]
April 2008 peak
In a 2008April Fools' joke, YouTube made all links to videos on the site's home page end up on the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video.[17][38][39] The coordinators of the prank had contacted Astley's record label,Sony BMG,[c] which had made its music available on the website two years earlier; according to label executive Sam Gomez, Astley had liked the idea.[2] YouTube was one of several websites to independently pull such a prank,[26] along withSports Illustrated andLiveJournal. On that day, the YouTube video received 6.6 million views and 43,000 comments, while the song became the 77th most popular listing onAmazon Music.[5] April Fools' Day strongly contributed to the meme's popularity.[17]
The following week,[26] theNew York Mets baseball team asked fans on the Internet what song they should use for theirseventh-inning rally song for the upcoming season. "Never Gonna Give You Up" received five million write-in votes, driven by websites like YouTube and news aggregatorsFark andDigg.[26][34][17][41]: 250 The team considered the online vote hijacked[41]: 250 and replaced it with an audience vote of the six most-voted songs during the first game of the season;[34] the audience booed in response to "Never Gonna Give You Up".[26][41]: 250
Rickrolling gained further mainstream awareness after the Mets event, with aSurveyUSA poll the same month estimating that at least 18 million US adults had been rickrolled, based on a sample of 959.[42][2]Google Trends showed that the highest volume of searches about rickrolling occurred that month.[2][4] By this time, "Never Gonna Give You Up" became one of the biggest viral videos[17] or memes,[34] with many online creators attempting to outdo other rickrolls.[41]: 250 As the meme received mainstream media coverage, some people within the online subculture considered it to be the end of rickrolling; for example, moot was quoted byFOX News as saying that he was "very surprised" at the prank's use by mainstream websites and that he expected the meme to fade soon.[43]: 94
Videos adapting the rickroll meme were popular during the2008 United States presidential election.[45]: 89 An August 2008 YouTube video byHugh Atkin, titled "BarackRoll", was a mashup consisting of footage ofBarack Obama dancing onThe Ellen DeGeneres Show, paired with words spoken by Obama spliced to match the lyrics of "Never Gonna Give You Up".[46]: 168 The video was acknowledged byThe Ellen DeGeneres Show and by Astley,[2] who called it his favourite use of the meme.[21] Atkin also made a sequel titled, "John McCain Gets BarackRoll'd",[2] using footage of a speech byJohn McCain, with "BarackRoll" edited onto a screen behind him while he stays silent. According to media scholar Carol Vernallis, the two "BarackRoll" videos reflect the popular conceptions of the two candidates: Obama is portrayed as a skilled singer who will "never give up", and a parallel is drawn between him and Astley as both appealed to both Black and White people, while McCain appears dull in contrast.[45]: 90 "BarackRoll" followed a format of "Never Gonna Give You Up" mashup videos that used the word "roll" in the title to transparently indicate the connection to rickrolling.[8]: 138 A similar video spliced clips from the seriesMad Men to match the song.[9]
At the2008 MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2008, Astley was nominated for "Best Act Ever" at theMTV Europe Music Awards after the online nomination form was flooded with votes.[47] Despite not being on the original shortlist of nominees, Astley was named the Best Act Ever with one hundred million votes—more than all other votes combined—effectively rickrolling the awards.[48][2] On 10 October, Astley's website confirmed that an invitation to the awards had been received. On 6 November 2008, just hours before the ceremony were due to air, it was reported that MTV Europe did not want to give Astley the award at the ceremony, wanting instead to present it at a later date. Many fans who voted for Astley felt the awards ceremony failed to acknowledge him as a legitimate artist.[49] Astley chose not to attend the ceremony,[50] instead making a statement saying, "This is the first time I have been nominated for the EMAs and I would like to thank everyone who voted for me".[48][2] Astley stated in an interview that he felt the award was "daft", but noted that "MTV were thoroughly rickrolled".[49]
By November 2008, the "Never Gonna Give You Up" video on YouTube had more than 20 million views,[50] but Astley initially appeared indifferent to the newfound fame[2] and was wary of trying to promote himself using the popularity of the meme. However, he agreed to make an appearance at the 2008Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade becauseCartoon Network offered him a considerable payment for his performance and because his friends in America urged him to accept.[3] Astley made a surprise appearance on afloat of the Cartoon Newtork showFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends. After the puppets singing on the float were cut off by arecord scratch,[29] Astley joined to lip-sync the song to the crowd and millions of television viewers,[50] with a puppet saying, "I love rickrolling!"[51]: 89 According to design scholar Ursula Murray Husted, viewers unfamiliar with rickrolling would have considered it an ordinary parade appearance before the term "rickroll" was mentioned.[8]: 172 That performance was the largest rickroll to date.[50] It went viral on social media within minutes.[50]The Daily Telegraph wrote that this appearance was "the pinnacle of Rickrolling" and "may have been the most widely-seen Rickroll ever".[50][2]
The Macy's parade made rickrolling more of a mainstream phenomenon and led many 4chan users to lose interest in it, feeling the joke had been exhausted.[8]: 10, 123 It led to a wave of rickrolls outside of the Internet, including on radio and television.[8]: 177–178 Two weeks after the parade,[51]: 89 a user of the message boardI Love Music, Grady Gillian, rickrolled other users with a file that appeared to be a leak of the upcomingAnimal Collective albumMerriweather Post Pavilion until played;[52] viewers responded with both praise and harassment.[51]: 89–90 When theUnited States Congress launched its YouTube account in January 2009, it posted a video of cats in the office of RepresentativeNancy Pelosi, which turned into a rickroll.[53] The video was intended to promote the channel[54] and was part of Pelosi's targeting of Internet users.[55][56] Also in 2009, students at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a rickroll by painting sheet music on a university building.[6]
Enduring popularity
Post-peak usage
Rickrolling continued to be popular after its peak in 2008,[2] lasting much longer than other memes.[2][57]: 75–76 In 2009, Astley wrote about 4chan founder moot forTime magazine's annualTime 100 issue, thanking him for the rickrolling phenomenon.[58][59] Moot also acknowledged rickrolling in a 2010TED Talk, saying it had revived interest in Astley.[24] Although "Never Gonna Give You Up" had received hundreds of millions of views on YouTube as a result of the meme, one of the song's composers,Pete Waterman, said in April 2009 that he had received only £11 (equivalent to £16 in 2023).[60][40] According toThe Register, as of 2010[update], Astley had directly received only US$12 ($17 in 2024) inperformance royalties from YouTube; Astley did not compose the song and received only a performer's share of the sound recording copyright.[61]
After the cultural saturation of rickrolling, it continued to be recognised positively.[8]: 178–179 University of Oregon-baseda cappella group On The Rocks posted a video of themselves singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" on theNew York City Subway in March 2010; the video went viral and brought fame to the group.[2] The same month, members of theOregon state legislature, spearheaded byJefferson Smith ofthe legislature's lower house, slipped snippets of the song's lyrics into speeches they gave on the floor of the legislature in 2011.[2] Smith stitched together a video compilation of these snippets into the full song, posted on April Fools' Day.[4][64][65] On 27 July 2011, the Twitter account of theWhite House, during a chat session run by stafferBrian Deese, posted a rickroll link in response to a user who had criticised the tone of the session's posts.[2][9] The White House's rickroll contributed to the popularity of the meme.[66]: 122
In 2015, members of Anonymous began rickrolling theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria by hacking into websites used to promote the group[67]: 290 and spamming related hashtags.[68]: 197 Reporter James Geddes wrote, "Until now, Rickrolling has generally been used as a harmless internet prank, but now it's being used in a war that has much bigger stakes," while Corey Charlton wrote that the prank was "giving ISIS a taste of its own medicine", as the group used social media tactics to unexpectedly spread its propaganda.[67]: 290
Rickrolls continued to occur years after the meme's popularity had declined.Apple rickrolled consumers in 2015 by showing them the song's lyrics when they viewed theApple Watch help page.[2] At the2016 Republican National Convention,Melania Trump, campaigning for her husbandDonald Trump, said, "He will never, ever give up and ... never, ever let you down,"[69]: 143 which many viewers considered a rickroll.[11] Speaking withThe New Yorker, Astley said he found it plausible that the rickroll was intentional.[6] Australia'sABC News later called this "the biggest political rickroll".[4]
The rock bandFoo Fighters first performed a rickroll[30] at an August 2015 concert inKansas City, Missouri, using a truck to counterprotest a demonstration by the homophobic groupWestboro Baptist Church.[9][70][66]: 122 This mirrored the tactic used by Anonymous against Scientology.[4] The Foo Fighters brought Astley on stage to rickroll the audience of a 2017 concert at theSummer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, mashing up "Never Gonna Give You Up" with "Smells Like Teen Spirit".[29] As Astley recounted in his memoir, this performance had been unplanned as Astley, also performing at the festival, had been watching the Foo Fighters from backstage before being invited to join them.[30] The Foo Fighters brought Astley for another rickroll in a concert in London the same year.[2]
In April 2018, the creators of the television dramaWestworld, participating in a Reddit discussion, released a video that purported to be a spoiler guide for the entire second season in advance, but instead featured lead actressEvan Rachel Wood singing "Never Gonna Give You Up".[71] While responses from Reddit users were mostly positive,[72] the websitePolygon wrote, "Westworld has finally killed the Rickroll".[2][36] In thepost-credits scene ofWalt Disney Animation Studios' 2018 sequel filmRalph Breaks the Internet, a fake sneak peek ofFrozen II suddenly switches to Ralph singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" and replicating Astley's dance from the original music video.[73]
Rickrolling saw a significant resurgence online in the 2020s, during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[19] Replying to aReddit post by Astley in June 2020, a user, u/theMalleableDuck, claimed to have met Astley backstage when they were 12 years old, but instead posted a link to the song. Astley replied with a clapping emoji, implying that he had been tricked into clicking the link.[77][78] The thread became the most upvoted post of 2020 on Reddit.[78] In July 2021, the YouTube video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached1 billion views, becoming the fourth 1980s song to do so;[29][21] this had included 2.3 million views on the preceding April Fools' Day.[29][33][12] Astley responded in a Twitter video, "That is mind-blowing. The world is a wonderful and beautiful place, and I am very lucky."[20] He also celebrated the event by selling signed copies of the song on vinyl, which quickly sold out.[12]
In a 2021 episode of the sitcomTed Lasso, "No Weddings and a Funeral", the character Rebecca prepares to give a eulogy but instead leads the attendees in singing "Never Gonna Give You Up", rickrolling them.[79] ActivistGreta Thunberg performed a rickroll during an October 2021 climate-action speech at theClimate Live concert in Stockholm in which she said, "We're no strangers to love", before being joined by another activist and singing the song and dancing to it; Astley tweeted that the video was "fantastic".[80][81] Astley recreated the original video clip in a 2022 advertisement for theCalifornia State Automobile Association. Advertisements for the agency included QR codes to this clip to rickroll the viewers.[82]
In February 2025, in response to demands from the American public for the release offiles related to the investigation ofJeffrey Epstein, the Twitter account of Republicans on theHouse Judiciary Committee posted "#BREAKING: EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED" with a rickroll link. This post received a negative response from users, many of whom considered it inappropriate to joke about the subject,[83] including Republican politicianAnna Paulina Luna and right-wing activistLaura Loomer.[53][84] The post was then deleted.[53][84]
Mechanism
Forms of humour
A dog is shown the YouTube video of "Never Gonna Give You Up", demonstrating the mechanism of a rickroll
Rickrolling is abait-and-switch joke in which the viewer clicks a link, expecting it to be something interesting—often involving sex, video games, or cats[8]: 141 —but is instead brought to the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" or its video.[2][57]: 59 [66]: 122 This creates a humorousnon-sequitur.[13] In its original form, rickrolling simply involves the unaltered music video.[67]: 290 While the music video is constant, the fake target of the link varies, thus making it anInternet meme.[85]: 79 Like many memes, rickrolling ismultimodal as it incorporates multiple elements—hypertext and a music video.[57]: 59 According to an analysis by informaticists Alexander O. Smith, Jasmina Tacheva, and Jeff Hemsley, images associated with the meme show little variation as the intention is to be recognised an obvious rickroll.[86]: 801
Unlike forms of humour used in most memes, rickrolling is aprank as it creates a situation that has a victim without serious harm. However, according to cultural scholars Joanna Nowotny and Julian Reidy, a rickroll is unlike a typical prank orhoax as it is not directed toward a specific victim, while also being less physical than most pranks and less serious than most hoaxes. Nowotny and Reid further state that an online prank like rickrolling may occur spontaneously, as a physical prank cannot, and the nature of online spaces allows victims to respond, a typical feature of hoaxes but not pranks.[85]: 80–82
Rickrolling, like theTrollface, is a meme primarily used fortrolling; in contrast with other forms of trolling, it is fun rather than offensive.[87]: 2315, 2321 According to information scholars Madelyn Sanfilippo, Pnina Fichman, and Shannon Yang, forms of trolling such as rickrolling can create humour out of a reference recognised within a group, distinguishing it from non-trolling humour.[88]: 24 According to design scholar Ursula Murray Husted, members of the ingroup who recognise the meme respond positively to it and introduce it to newcomers who fall for the prank.[8]: 166–167, 180–181
As a meme that has had multiple waves of popularity for over a decade, rickrolling has evolved into various forms of humour that incorporate the same song.[57]: 75–76 The term has been extended to the act of playing the song to interrupt a public event—as was the case with the Scientology rickrolling[18]—which gives the meme a spatial component.[89]: 8 Other videos inspired by rickrolling include mashups,cover versions, andremixes of "Never Gonna Give You Up".[8]: 141 Rickrolling also entails a phrase-based meme with the use of the song's lyrics in creative contexts,[57]: 87 such as in a conversation.[87]: 2316
Hyperlinking
Several YouTube uploads of "Never Gonna Give You Up" are used for rickrolling.[90] The official Rick Astley channel uploaded another version on 24 October 2009,[91] itsURL ending with the identifier "dQw4w9WgXcQ".[92]: 369 Computer scientists Benoit Baudry and Martin Monperrus called this "the canonical rickroll URL", being the first result for the YouTube search stringrick astley never gonna give you up.[90]: 190 The earliest version of the video on YouTube was uploaded to YouTube by Cotter when the meme began.[10] The website briefly removed this several times, including in February 2010 (which YouTube said was from the video being mistakenly reported),[40][44] May 2012 (caused by anantivirus software),[24] and July 2014 (which the company did not explain);[28] in each case, it was restored within hours, but its removal received widespread online attention.[24] By 2014, the original, unofficial upload had 70 million views, while the official upload had 84 million.[24]
Rickrolls may use aQR code that sends viewers to "Never Gonna Give You Up".
Many cases of rickrolling have occurred on forums and on social media platforms such as Twitter andVine.[66]: 126 Another common way to rickroll is to use aQR code, as this hides the target until it is scanned. According to a study by Ada Lerner et al, users of theScan app scanned codes leading to the "dQw4w9WgXcQ" URL over 1,600 times between May 2013 and March 2014.[92] Authors of academic literature also include rickrolls, such as by placing them in footnotes.[93]: 1382 Baudry and Monperrus documented such cases by searchingGoogle Scholar for "dQw4w9WgXcQ" in 2022, finding 23 instances in which an author appeared to include the URL with the intent to rickroll.[90]: 189–195
Analysis and impact
Writing forMEL magazine, Brian VanHooker attributed the use of the song to its "randomness" and its status as a hit from the 1980s.[2] Writing forThe New Yorker, Michael Schulman said these factors and the catchiness of the song contribute to the meme's "Dadaist humor".[6] Rickrolling is less negative than other pranks;[19] unlike other media used in bait-and-switch humour, the song is inoffensive, allowing it to be used by many types of people in many situations as a friendly prank.[24][8]: 182–183 Tumblr user deluxetrashqueen wrote, "Honestly, Rick Rolling is the best practical joke ever. Like, there's nothing offensive or mean spirited about it. It's just like 'Oops you thought there would be something else here but it's "Never Gonna Give You Up".' which isn't even a bad song."[85]: 80 According to communication scholarsRyan M. Milner and Whitney Phillips, rickrolling is a form ofInternet folklore based on a copyrighted work; as such, participants are an example of "poachers", as defined byMichel de Certeau, whose cultures rely on the property of others.[24]
According to Milner, rickrolling is a meme that appeals to those within Internet culture but also uses elements that resonate with the general public, comparing it toDoge, a meme incorporating a picture of a dog.[57]: 83 Writing forMashable, Chloe Bryan called rickrolling "universal" as it can easily be adapted to different contexts.[11] According to sociolinguist Danielle H. Heinrichs, some rickrolls blend humour with another genre, which she compares to the folkloric motif of the multifacetedtrickster.[93]: 1382 Communication scholar Eric Harvey interprets rickrolling as making fun of the act of clicking a link forinstant gratification.[51]: 89 Cultural scholar Tracey Potts wrote, "it is easy to see pop culture as one giant rickroll, a cultural bait-and-switch where, regardless of what we select or click on, we end up back with more of the same".[69]: 143
The meme had a positive impact on Astley's career,[21] introducing a new group of fans to his music.[59] He said it caused him to like "Never Gonna Give You Up" after "15 years of not singing it"[22] and played a role in the reestablishment of his music career—which included the 2016 album50, his first in over a decade, which reached number one on theUK Album Chart.[30] In a 2016 interview withRolling Stone, Astley said of the meme, "It's done me a lot of good, probably. The thing is it's not personal to me, even though I know it is me and it's my name in the title of Rickrolling. It's that video that I'm in, it's that song that's mine, but it could have been anybody."[4][29][94] Quoted in theAssociated Press in 2022, he said, "The video and the song have drifted off into the ether and become something else, and I'm ever so grateful for it."[21][7] After performing atGlastonbury Festival 2023, Astley said this would not have been possible "without my old songs and without the Rickrolling thing with its own little universe".[22]The Observer writer Barbara Ellen stated the same year that the meme gave Astley an image of being cool, unlike most late-career musicians.[21]
Blogger David Griner ofAdfreak.com said in 2008 that rickrolling was the "perfect example of a viral video because the definition of one is something that gets out and is uncontrollable".[17]Mashable's Bryan wrote in 2017 that, although the rickroll is no longer popular, this works in favour of the prank as victims do not expect it.[11] Caldwell ofKnow Your Meme said in 2020, "It seems like the volume of memes these days means that none of them have any longevity, but for Rickrolling, it's such an old meme that it's like an 'old-school' Internet reference. It's nostalgic."[2] Cotter expressed this sentiment in the description of his YouTube upload: "as long as trolls are still trolling, the Rick will never stop rolling".[4][24]
Sandstorm (instrumental), an instrumental piece by Finnish DJDarude that has become the subject of a similar Internet meme.
Trololo, another song used as a meme, known as the "Russian Rickroll"
Notes
^Also written asrick-roll orRick Roll, used as a noun or verb[1]: 474, 476
^TheAmerican Dialect Society citesduckroll as the origin of the wordrickroll, but gives a different etymology from the use of the verbroll to mean 'misdirect';[1]: 474
^"Never Gonna Give You Up" had been published byRCA Records, which later merged with Sony.[40]
^Burgess, Jean (2014). "'All Your Chocolate Rain are Belonging to Us?': Viral Video, YouTube and the Dynamics of Participatory Culture". In Papastergiadis, Nikos; Lynn, Victoria (eds.).Art in the Global Present. Vol. 2. UTS ePRESS. pp. 86–96.JSTORj.ctv1w36pfr.9. Retrieved17 November 2025.
^abcdPailler, Fred; Schafer, Valérie (18 December 2023). "Keep Calm and Stay Focused: Historicising and Intertwining Scales and Temporalities of Online Virality". In Armaselu, Florentina; Fickers, Andreas (eds.).Zoomland. Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics.De Gruyter. pp. 119–150.doi:10.1515/9783111317779-006.ISBN978-3-11-131777-9.
^Melissa Locker (18 June 2020)."New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley".Time Magazine.Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved19 June 2020.The trick was so seamlessly perfect that Astley had no choice but to applaud it by posting a clap emoji, and then called out the clever user in his sign off post, saying, "u/theMalleableDuck I salute you!"
^abcNowotny, Joanna; Reidy, Julian (31 December 2022). "3. Humor: Von Pandememes und Wortwitzen, Humortheorien und Subversion" [3. Humor: On Pandemic Memes and Wordplay, Theories of Humour and Subversion].Memes - Formen und Folgen eines Internetphänomens [Memes: The Form and Impact of an Internet Phenomenon] (in German). transcript Verlag. pp. 51–110.doi:10.1515/9783839461242-003.ISBN978-3-8394-6124-2. Retrieved18 November 2025.
^Smith, Alexander O.; Tacheva, Jasmina; Hemsley, Jeff (October 2022). "Visual Semantics of Memes: (Re)Interpreting Memetic Content and Form for Information Studies".Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology.59 (1):800–802.doi:10.1002/pra2.731.ISSN2373-9231.
^abSanfilippo, Madelyn; Yang, Shengnan; Fichman, Pnina (October 2017). "Trolling here, there, and everywhere: Perceptions of trolling behaviors in context".Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.68 (10):2313–2327.doi:10.1002/asi.23902.ISSN2330-1635.
^abLerner, Ada; Saxena, Alisha; Ouimet, Kirk; Turley, Ben; Vance, Anthony; Kohno, Tadayashi; Roesner, Franziska (18 May 2015).Analyzing the Use of Quick Response Codes in the Wild. MobiSys '15: Proceedings of the 13th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services. pp. 359–374.doi:10.1145/2742647.2742650.
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