You've Been Rickroll'd

If you haven't been Rickroll'd yet, or haven't seen exactly how amazing this phenomenon has gotten, then today is your lucky day. This post is dedicated entirely to the awesomeness of Rick Astley and his now infamous video.




To begin, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you probably rarely use the interwebs. And if you do, you probably never venture outside of the same five or six websites contained within your small sphere of comfort. Get out there and live a little, man!

Luckily for you, Life in the Shadows is one of your few websites, and we're here to make sure you get caught up on all the fun stuff happening in that crazy world wide web. So, where did the Rick Roll start? I'm glad you asked.

A brief history: Rickrolling began way back when young Richard Paul Astley got sick of hearing how great the Beatles were and decided to do something about it. In 1987 he released the single, "Never Gonna Give You Up" and a legend was born. The second British invasion had arrived, but the world had no idea exactly how far this would go. (For a full history of Rick Astley click here )

Meanwhile, back in the future around April 20, 2006 a man named "4Chan" thought he was clever and decided to try something. He invented a duck on wheels and gave that duck a website. Then he got all of his Chinese friends to help him make that duck famous. They did this by tricking people. Unsuspecting web surfers would think they were about to click a link relevant to the topic at hand, but would instead be sent to the duck. Hence, duckrolling was born. (For more on 4Chan and "duckrolling" click here. Also, props to Wikipedia for this information.)



By this time, many had forgotten the awesomeness of Rick Astley, as he had decided to retire after creating a masterpiece that could never be outdone. Not surprisingly, someone came up with the brilliant idea of merging a duckroll with Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Now we have the Rickroll, and your life will never be the same.

The Rickroll has truly become a widespread epidemic. At first it was a fun little prank between a few friends. Then on April Fool's Day of 2008, things started getting a little out of hand. Youtube linked all of their front page featured videos to the Rick Roll. Many other sites also participated in rickrolling their viewers (for a full list of sites who participated in the April 1, 2008 Rick Rolling click here)

Then came this little gem, when it was discovered that there was a long lost blooper reel from the Muppets. This video is simply amazing:



(side note: I love Beeker's moves when he says "...got to make you, understand...")

Now flashback to February 2008. Imagine you want to do a protest against a ridiculous religion. What do you think would be the best way to get your point across during your protest? That's right. A Rick Roll:



Now we're gonna flash back to the future again to March 2008. The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team is in a heated battle against... well, who cares. Suddenly a familiar tune breaks out over the loudspeakers. What's that? Oh yeah, that's right. A Rick Roll:



(DJ steals the show, imo)

In April 2008, the New York Mets had the brilliant idea of letting online voters decide which song should be played during their 8th inning sing-a-long at Shea Stadium. They also let the voters choose their own song. Gee, I wonder what could possibly happen here? Perhaps...maybe...a Rick Roll?



Rickroll Bonus: At Liverpool Street Station in London, hundreds decided to get together and perform what has been aptly dubbed the "Rickmob." Participating in a Rickmob has now joined my list of things to do before I die. Rickmob:



Obviously, Rickrolling is here to stay. If you come up with a good idea for a rickroll, be sure to videotape it and put it up on Youtube. It might make you famous. Also, if you come across any other great Rickrolls, be sure to add them to the comments here so that I can enjoy it as well.

Serious credits below:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickroll
yougotrickrolled.com
YouTube
cnn.com

Rick Roll Chart:

Shadow Puppets and Sand Art...What A Wonderful World

I was reading up on Caleb's Life in Oxford and he mentioned having different soundtracks for different stages of your life (read post here). It's awesome how much music can remind you of a certain time in your life and whatnot. That's not really the point of this post, although if I had the time to do it, I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff to talk about there.

Anyways, it just reminded me of a video I remember seeing with cool shadow puppets. So I thought I'd share. This video is really cool and set to a great song. I mean seriously, is there ever a situation that can't instantly be made awesome by shadow puppets? I think not. Having an arsenal of shadow puppets to whip out during parties, dates, corporate meetings, or when you're home alone and lonely is like having a never-ending flask of Sambuca for those same events. They just make everything better. But, I digress...



So then that video reminded me of another video, which uses an art form that I think is similar to shadow puppets: sand art. Check this video out, set to the same song, but using sand art. FYI, waaay too much emphasis on the guy's nipple, imo.



And then that video reminded me of one of my favorite videos of all time. I've posted on this one before (here), but it fits this post perfectly and it's worth checking out again. If shadow puppets are like a never-ending flask of Sambuca, sand art would be like being able to turn water into wine. This next video proves this.

I suggest you don't watch this video until you have a full ten minutes set aside to enjoy it. Grab yourself a nice hot cup of tea, mug of coffee, flask of Sambuca, or whatever puts you at ease. This was made during the 2003 SICAF (Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival). It's a sand animation of the creation story. Sit back, relax and enjoy it.