Isn’t Life Strange?

The Times Online has an article on a strange Internet phenomenon called Rickrolling.  I had never heard of it, although lately I have become aware of an increased interest in Rick Astley’s video for his hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up". 

IT began with a duck. A while ago contributors to an anarchic internet message board called 4chan started fooling others by luring them to click on interesting-sounding links. The clickers thought they were going to get the latest video game news or pictures of hot babes or celebrity gossip; what they actually got was a picture of a duck on wheels. They had been “duck-rolled”.

The picture is of a fine-looking duck and sometimes it comes with soundtracks of pop songs, including Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees. But somehow the wheely-duck failed to gain mass lift-off.

Then an idle inspired prankster changed tack and replaced the duck with a video of Astley singing his 1987 classic. The image of the baby-faced crooner, with his black rollneck sweater and Tintin hair, dancing as if his bladder was fit to burst, fitted the absurdism perfectly. Rickrolling was born.

So hey… Let’s be careful about clicking on any strange links out there in cyberspace.  You never know who may trick you into watching one of those old Adam Ant videos. 

You can read the article at the Times Online.  Wikipedia also has an entry on Rickrolling here. 

Here’s a related video that I find amusing…