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[Music]
so in the video today we're answering a
viewer question because Carrie Jie asks
us is it true that Rick Astley only made
like $10 from Rick rolling to begin with
for anyone who somehow managed to avoid
the more than a decade old phenomenon of
Rick rolling in a nutshell this involves
tricking someone into clicking on a link
that takes them to the video for the
relentlessly upbeat and infinitely
cheesy 1980s anthem usually they do this
by suggesting it's a link to something
particularly click worthy so how did
this curious meme get its start for that
it's necessary to start with the much
lesser known predecessor of duck rolling
dr. Alan got its start indirectly thanks
to the founder of the occasionally
infamous internet message board fortune
his name is Christopher Paul and he's
better known online by the moniker of
newt not long before Rick rollin became
the Internet's go-to prank and move
decided to make it so that any time a
user wrote the word egg on the site it
would water correct to duck the prank
was a big hit with 4chan users who were
particularly amused that the word egg
roll would automatically be stylized as
dark roll whenever it was typed as the
joke evolved sometime late in 2006 one
anonymous user photoshop's and links to
an image of a duck with wheels a literal
interpretation of the word duck roll it
seemed became a common prank on the
sites to trick fellow users into
clicking links that led to the image of
the duck resulting in the coining of the
term dark rolls to describe the act of
being duped in this way this all brings
us to wreak rolling sometime in May of
2007 an unknown user on Fortune's video
game board posted a link purported to be
for the trailer for the game Grand Theft
Auto 4 but in reality it took people to
a free booted upload of the music video
for never gonna give you up Google
caches as well as a bit of trolling
through the wayback machine reveals that
this video along with being the first
known video created to expressly
rickroll internet denizens is one of the
earliest known examples of that music
video being uploaded to YouTube it's
also worthy of note that the uploading
of this video predates and authorized
upload by about some two years in any
event when linking a sleaze hit song
became the new in vogue prank the term
Rick rollin borrowing from Ashley's
first name and the aforementioned duck
rolling meme was coined to describe as'
arguably the apex of the Rick rollin
phenomenon
on April the 1st of 2008 when YouTube
automatically redirected every person
who clicked on a video on the site's
main page to the music video for the
song which we guess is a lot better than
directing them to an alternate version
of this joke going around the internet
at the time involving a couple of ladies
and a couple of cups as to Astley he
first learned about rickrolling via
Friends of his rickrolling him not
understanding why his friends were
emailing him links purported to be other
things that taking him to his hit songs
music video he would later reveal in an
interview that his teenage daughter let
him in on the prank that was sweeping
the Internet this brings us all to what
the notoriously reclusive Ashley thinks
of his most popular song being put it
bluntly the punchline to a bad joke
after all this once again thrust him
into the spotlight he so rapidly
Exeter's in his late 20s when he got
sick of the life of a pop star and
decided it rather devote himself to
other things most notably raising his
new daughter Emily rather than being
absent for stretches of her life when he
was on the road to begin with athlete
states that he thinks the whole thing is
rather amusing and to quote the man
himself I don't see it as negative if
someone had messed around with this and
cut it all up and made me look stupid I
mean I look pretty stupid anyway in that
video if it was nasty then I'd probably
be a bit pissed off but it's not it's
like we're choosing that video because
it's a full-on eighties cheesy video
there's no getting away from it now and
I've got to own it because if I don't
it's like being petty he goes on I
suppose at first I was a little
embarrassed by it
I always liken it to when people look
through their photo albums or home
videos from 20 years ago and think gosh
did I really wear that the difference is
thankfully on the one hands and perhaps
a bit scarily on the other minor out
there for the public to see whenever
they want I find some Rick rolls really
funny have you seen the one with
President Barack Obama someone has cut
up his speeches and put them together so
that he sings never gonna give you up
it's totally amazing
I find it bonkers by the way this all
brings us to why Rick Astley never
really capitalized on Rick rolling
directly as many former stars would have
done while he had a variety of reasons
including not wanting to embarrass his
teenage daughter by melting the meme for
extra exposure he also stated I'm not
being an ageist but it's almost a young
person's thing I think the artists
themselves trying to remix this is
almost a bit sad no I'm too old for that
but that is not to say the
did not profit from rickrolling while we
often read on many an interesting facts
website more concerned with clicks than
getting information correct that Astley
only made $12 thanks to the mean this is
not exactly accurate while Astley has
alluded to making very little off of his
side of the YouTube revenue generated
from the music video with two dates the
unauthorized version on YouTube almost
having half a billion views he does
explicitly state that he's greatly
profited from the fad including seeing a
significant boost in sales of his
records following the phenomenon of
rickrolling further his first solo album
following the rickrolling meme 50
released in 2016 was also by far his
most successful album since his glory
days which were a couple of decades
before indeed this album actually
managed to hit number one on the UK
albums chart and ultimately went
platinum this is despite his initial
expectations that nobody would even
notice that he released an album more
directly in 2009 while he was actively
staying out of the spotlight during most
of the rickrolling memes peak popularity
he did make one exception Asli himself
performed the world's first live rick
roll at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving
Parade with the opening salvo of never
gonna give you up abruptly interrupting
another song as Ashley waltzed around
lip-syncing the lyrics of this event he
states they paid me loads of money and
my friends who live in America said I
should do it because everyone watches it
I took the family to New York for a week
it's good to be able to do things like
that because as you get older you
realize life's short and you have to
make the most of it I appreciate how
lucky I am continuing on that line of
thinking and more or less summing up his
thoughts on his early career
Ashley states I've learned to appreciate
my old songs I quit for about 15 years
didn't sing many of them ever and I've
learned to realize how lucky I was to
have them I know that sounds a bit corny
if I see an artist and they're being a
bit shitty I'm kind of like just
remember we were the lucky ones we were
all extremely lucky he also notes Fame
in his older years is much nicer than at
his peak allowing him to tour when and
how he wants instead of having to do
whatever the recording studio wanted him
to do all the time and despite his boost
in popularity thanks to Rick rolling and
the success of his album 50 he states I
don't feel famous anymore to some degree
I am when I'm onstage in front of
thousands of people singing never gonna
give you up but in my day to day life
no one really cares I don't get
recognized until I'm on stage and then I
can walk off and forget about it it's
great you gotta dictate it would be nice
to play Wembley Arena on my own but it's
a fair trade being able to do what I do
and also lead a quiet life you know what
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let's do some bonus facts ever wonder
where the word meme actually comes from
well wonder no more meme was actually
coined by evolutionary biologist Richard
Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish
Gene in it he states the following we
need a name for the new replicator a
noun that conveys the idea rather unit
of cultural transmission or a unit of
imitation the mean that comes from a
suitable Greek root of it
I want a mono syllable that sounds a bit
like Gene I hope my classicist friends
will forgive me if I abbreviate my meme
to mean if it is any consolation it
could be thought of as being relayed
to memory or to the French word mem it
should be pronounced to rhyme with cream
and now for other bonus fact the French
word men that he references means same
or alike though the meaning changes
somewhat depending on how it is used
the Greek word the meme he derives meme
from comes from the ancient Greek word
meaning that which is imitated something
imitated something copied and now for
another bonus fact when asked by Rolling
Stone about the making of arguably one
of the most famous music videos in
history Astley states there really
wasn't much to it at the time noting we
made it the week we went to number one
in the UK no one sat me down and said
we're thinking of you wearing this I
literally just turned up with my clothes
I hadn't even made any money it wasn't
like I was shopping in the coolest shops
in London me doing whatever I was doing
and they're never gonna give you up
video and together forever wisp pure
fear and now for another bonus fact went
further queried about whatever happens
to the famous raincoat in the video
Astley stated that he no longer has it
to quote him somebody stole it off me in
Northern Ireland's we played a radio
broadcast outside and it goes swamped
there were a couple of policemen
murdered or winds just a bit mad
everyone was grabbing hold of me before
I knew it it just went off me so I
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