The Social

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York got "Rickrolled" on Thursday.

If you weren't watching the parade live or on TV, you probably saw the mass influx of Twitter messages: '80s pop singer Rick Astley, whose cheesy song "Never Gonna Give You Up" became the center of a corny Internet meme called "Rickrolling,", gave a surprise performance. "Rickrolling" originally started as tricking someone into clicking on a link to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video by claiming it was something else, like a highly anticipated movie trailer.

From what about a zillion Twitterers said, Astley emerged from a parade float sponsored by cable channel Cartoon Network, and started singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" live. The singer was recently honored at the MTV Europe Awards, but contrary to rumors, he did not perform.

Qik user Steve Garfield streamed the whole thing. Click here for a video (embedded above).

Singer Jonathan Coulton reacts to the 'live Rickroll' at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

(Credit: Twitter)

Pop singer Rick Astley had a huge hit with "Never Gonna Give You Up" 20 years ago. Now he's had a second wave of fame--and according to a fan site, it will culminate in a performance at MTV Europe's "EMA" ceremony, which takes place on November 6.

The campy, hip-wiggling video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" enjoyed newfound popularity when it became the center of the "Rickrolling" phenomenon--the sharing of a link that purported to be something else but was actually a link to the Astley video as hosted on YouTube. The craze was declared "totally over" after a surfeit of Rickrolls on April Fool's Day, but it kept going strong--one of the most high-profile gags involving the song was when pranksters flooded an online poll for the New York Mets' eighth-inning sing-along with "Never Gonna Give You Up."

The EMA awards, which are the equivalent of the U.S.'s MTV Video Music Awards, feature a "Best Act Ever" award, chosen by popular vote rather than judges, and it's been well-known for a while that Astley is the front-runner. Rumor has it, per an Astley fan site set up specifically for the "Best Act Ever" campaign, that not only will the British singer accept his award at the EMA event, he'll perform as well.

Astley's official Web site confirmed several weeks ago that he had been invited to appear at the ceremony (but not necessarily perform), and that the singer would give it "serious consideration." If the more recent rumors are any indicator, that "serious consideration" has amounted to a "yes."

A correction was made at 1:47 p.m. PT on Thursday. Astley's official Web site says he was invited to appear at the ceremony, but does not mention actually performing.

Rick Astley and Mr. Met: A match made in heaven?

(Credit: Sarah Harbin/CNET Networks)

The title of this post was inspired by Deadspin commenter BlastItBiggs.

After April Fool's Day, it got horribly gauche to practice the art of "Rickrolling"--tricking people into watching the video for Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," or surprising someone by playing the corny pop song. The goofy Internet fad was so utterly overblown on 4/1/08 that the Web seemed to collectively agree that nobody should ever subject anybody to it again.

The New York Mets, however might have to deal with it for a little while longer.

Innocently enough, the baseball team decided to hold an online contest to determine the tune for its traditional eighth-inning sing-along. Despite the fact that the "Stephen Colbert Bridge" debacle should've taught the world a lesson about the perils of online polls, the contest included a write-in option. Prank-friendly geek hubs Digg and Fark linked to the poll, and sure enough, "Never Gonna Give You Up" came out on top.

MetsBlog.com reported that the song played at 4:03 p.m. EDT during the Mets' season opener against the Philadelphia Phillies, who ended up beating the Mets 5-2.

But this might be the only Mets game to get Rickrolled. Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin reported that when the Digging and Farking masses flooded the contest with votes for "Never Gonna Give You Up," the powers-that-be at Shea Stadium decided to issue a mulligan, sort of.

"Rather than commit to that as the new eighth-inning tune since it probably doesn't reflect the fan base's wishes, the Mets will play the top six selections once apiece during the first six games of their home stand," a New York Daily News article linked on Deadspin read. "The one that draws the largest crowd response will stick." Hey, Rick's still got a chance.

And considering the Mets haven't won a World Series since Rick Astley was popular the first time around, "Never Gonna Give You Up" might be a good choice regardless.

CNET News.com's Tom Krazit contributed to this report by noticing the Rickroll mention as he obsessively hit "reload" on MetsBlog.com all afternoon hoping to learn that his beloved Kings of Queens had actually won a game. Sorry, dude.

This post was updated at 9:19 AM PT on Thursday to reflect the correction issued by the New York Times.

Wow, we all fell for this one.

An NBC affiliate in Spokane, Wash., reported Tuesday that one of the Web's most popular viral videos of late was a fabrication, in a prank that fooled the national news media and plenty of YouTube loyalists.

The video, called "College Basketball Game Gets Rick Roll'd," purports to show a timeout in a women's basketball game between Eastern Washington University and Montana State University interrupted by a performance of the '80s pop hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The 1987 tune has become the subject of an online phenomenon called "rickrolling," in which a Web user is tricked into clicking on the link to the song's music video. Real-life rickrolling--randomly playing the song as a means of surprise or disruption--has turned into a popular offshoot among pranksters.

The basketball game video is hilarious. But it's not real.

The New York Times ran a story about the video earlier this week, and creator Pawl Fisher seemed to indicate to Times reporter Evelyn Nussenbaum that the video was authentic. But he backpedaled after the NBC affiliate KHQ-TV contacted a number of people affiliated with the university who seemed to indicate that no such prank had gone on, and it seems like his claims of authenticity to the Times were really just another layer of pranking.

Here's what appears to have happened: A guy dressed up as Rick Astley, identified by the Times as Davin Perry, really did run around the EWU basketball arena, lip-syncing to the song. But the bizarre interlude did not actually disrupt a timeout in a game, according to EWU representatives quoted in the KHQ-TV story. Video of people dancing to the music, as well as game footage, came from several other EWU games. Learning the truth was, to say the least, an epic disappointment.

The Times issued a correction to its story on Thursday: "The stunt, which involves a person lip-synching the 1980s hit song 'Never Gonna Give You Up' while dressed as the British singer Rick Astley, was performed before the start of four separate basketball games, and the pranksters distilled the performances into a YouTube video," the explanation read. "The March 8 game, between Eastern Washington and Montana State, was not interrupted by a performance."

On the bright side, the media attention was likely what triggered Astley, now 42, to break the silence about his revived popularity and give the Los Angeles Times an interview.

Surprisingly, the video's popularity was not accompanied by the usual level of scrutiny and skepticism that many "too good to be true" YouTube clips are subject to. Perhaps it's a sign of how online video is no longer an unfamiliar new medium that inherently draws suspicion.

Or maybe it was just a giant Rickroll.

On Friday morning, YouTube announced the second annual iteration of its YouTube Video Awards. What? Awards?

The video-sharing service, owned by Google since 2006, awarded accolades in categories like "Adorable," "Creative," and "Comedy" to original videos hosted on its site that were uploaded in 2007, as voted on by users. The prizes, per YouTube, are "bragging rights, a trophy, and a special invitation to an event later this year."

Okay, so the videos are kind of amusing. The "Adorable" category winner is a video of a baby who falls over every time he laughs (wonder what'll happen when his friends find out about that in 10 years), the "Creative" winner is that "Human Tetris" thing you've seen a million times, and the "Music" winner is none other than that "Chocolate Rain" video that everyone was watching last year.

But the culture of YouTube doesn't really lend itself that well to awards. YouTube, for better or worse, is a cultural hub rather than strictly a creative outpost; there's plenty of cool, original content there, and it's no surprise that Google would want to highlight the good stuff rather than the goofy prank videos and pirated content that propelled it to the upper echelon of the Web.

Content on YouTube, however, doesn't necessarily become popular because it's high-quality or original--just look at the Rickroll phenomenon, an '80s music video that has been seen millions of times because people get a kick out of tricking their friends into watching it. Or the current hot clip, a British public service announcement with a hilarious twist.

Or, for that matter, this week's number-one YouTube video: Barack Obama's most recent speech.

Two decades ago this week--on March 12, 1988--the corny pop song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

What does this have to do with the Internet? Oh, just about everything.

For those of you who actually have lives and don't pay attention to the latest iteration of goofy Internet phenomena (think "all your base are belong to us," "the Internet is a series of tubes," or lolcats), Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" is the Web equivalent of the old, "Is your refrigerator running?" prank call.

The gag known as "Rickrolling" consists of sending someone a link that purports to be something good, only to have it direct that person to the cheesy video for the '80s pop song.

If it sounds pointless and stupid, that's because it is. The practice is believed to have started in the 4chan (warning: content may not be safe for work) online forums, the same den of virtual infamy that allegedly brought forth lolcats as well as a good portion of the anti-Scientology hacker activity that went on earlier this year.

On Wednesday, avid members of the Digg community celebrated the song's 20th anniversary of hitting the top spot on Billboard with an extensive comment thread of the song's cringeworthy lyrics.

But there are far simpler ways to celebrate. Just go ahead and trick someone into watching that video. Everyone's pumped about the presence of the Speed Racer and Incredible Hulk trailers on the Web--use that to your advantage!