The Inquisitr » rick astley

Clever students rickroll MIT’s Great Dome

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:25:56 +0000

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been rickrolled at least once.

Most people have seen variations on the prank, some have even seen the original duckroll before rickrolling began. But one of the more ambitious rickrolls of all time has been carried out by some MIT students who are known for their stunning pranks- last year, in honor of lives lost on September 11th, they perched a firetruck atop MIT’s Great Dome.

This year’s prank, the large scale rickroll seen above, was more lighthearted in nature. Under the cover of darkness, anonymous students placed the first seven notes of the notorious 1988 Rick Astley hit on the temporary scaffolding, which resembles blank sheet music.

This isn’t the first larger than life rickroll. Mets fans were partially shocked and partially amused when an online poll voted Never Gonna Give You Up as their theme song, and MTV Europe named Astley “best act ever” after voting there was hijacked by pranksters, too. And hilariously, Astley himself live-rickrolled the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

[Image: The Tech]

It will never stop: Rick Astley vs. Nine Inch Nails

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:04:29 +0000

It just won’t stop.

Rick Astley plus Nirvana wasn’t enough for someone- they’re determined to go through the entire catalogue of our high school angst and Rick Roll all of it.

See what happens when you mix Nirvana with Rick Astley

Duncan Riley — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:00:16 +0000

Have you ever wondered what might happened if you mixed Nirvana with Rick Astley? No, neither have I, but now you can find out!

Rick Astley Not Dead

Duncan Riley — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:42:23 +0000

The current wave of fake celebrity deaths continue, and tonight’s entry comes to us from Rick Astley

According to CNN’s iReport, Astley’s body was found at the Angleterre Hotel in Berlin after an ambulance responded to an emergency call from his hotel room. Astley was found unconscious in his hotel bedroom and was unable to be resuscitated. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Unlike previous fake celebrity deaths, the use of CNN’s iReport gives this a little more legitimacy up front, at least if you don’t know how iReport works. iReport is open to all submissions without pre-publication review: I could submit a story saying Rick Astley is dead at the hands of an advanced civilization of alien music lovers and it would be published until such time CNN pulled it it.

Rick Astley is not dead, Rick Astley has not died, Rick Astley was not attacked by aliens either.

Has the Cartoon Network killed Rickrolling?

Duncan Riley — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:26:19 +0000

The above motivational poster is doing the rounds after the “surprise” appearance of Risk Astley singing the ultimate Rickroll at the Macy’s Thanks Giving Parade yesterday.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Rick Astley Rickroll as follows. It’s a good laugh, but you can sort of understand the sentiments: its no longer an insider joke when the half of America is in on it during the biggest parade of the year.

What do you think: has the Cartoon Network killed Rickrolling?

European MTV Music Awards rickrolled

Steven Hodson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:45:46 +0000

Other than being the cause de celeb of the Rickrolling phenomena does anyone really remember who the hell Rick Astley is? Well apparently about 100 million people do in Europe as they all voted for him as the Best Act Ever at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

The number of votes he got was more than all the votes for U2, Britney Spears and The Beatles combined. All this based on his 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up that became the basis of an internet trend called Rickrolling in which people are tricked into watching his videos. His hit song has now been watched more than 20 million times on YouTube.

As Richard Godfrey; a senior VP at MTV and executive director of the awards said in an interview

“We’ve been well and truly Rickrolled,” Richard Godfrey, a senior vice-president at MTV and executive producer of the awards said. “We wanted to see who our audience would nominate and, given that we’re in Liverpool, we thought it would be someone like the Beatles. But before the nominations were even announced he shot into the lead.”

Rickrolled – the Literal version (via Nothing to do qith Arbroath)

Rick Astley to perform at European Music Awards

Duncan Riley — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:51:49 +0000

Rickroll fans rejoice, because the MAN is back!

According to Bestactever, Rick Astley will be coming out of retirement to perform at the MTV European Music Awards.

And the rumor gets better again: not only will Astley be performing one song, he’s apparently booked for two.

Never going to give you up. Say no more.