// April 2nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // the cool, weird, and funny
With the rick-roll sweeping the interwobbles, inciting shenanigans and leaving lulz in its wake, I thought I’d school you on its interesting origin!
The rick-roll, like a good 80% of all other hilarious memes on the internet, cometh from teh 4chan.
If you don’t know what 4chan is, you’re lucky. It is the asshole of the internet. Seriously, don’t google it. Don’t… I mean it. Okay, if you MUST, read this [NSFW]:.
Anyway, 4chan is an image board where immature boys, racists, the occasional camwhore, and pervs all go to anonymously discuss all sorts of terrible things. If you’ve ever seen The Aristocrats or know what The Aristocrats is, its pretty much that in web form.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that many unsavory characters roam this website, many memes originate from this pit of despair. The ORLY owl, for example (ORLY came from somethingaweful forums, but not the owl) and all the great 300 macros [NSFW] like “I FORGET WHERE WE ARE DINING TONIGHT” came from 4chan, to name two mild examples.
Now, the Rick-roll is actually the successor to a much less funny trap called the Duckroll, in which a link that seems to point to a post earlier in a thread instead takes you to a video of a duck on wheels (duck + roll = duckroll) with a trippy song. Cute, I know, but not that funny really.
Anon (you do know “Anon” aka “Anonymous” comes from 4chan, don’t you? Yes THAT Anon) took this idea and ran with it, creating something far more infectious by using the amazing 80’s gem “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. Much funnier than a duck on wheels. This became the Rick-roll, and now you know where the “roll” comes from! Now you may go off and rick-roll your friends, smug in the fact that you know the origins of the Rick-roll.
