Originally Posted by polish_aristocrat

The song "Never Gonna Give You Up" 's campy music video became the basis for an Internet phenomenon known as "rickrolling". It originated on 4chan and took its name from an earlier phenomenon known as "duckrolling", in which someone would post a blind link to a page allegedly relevant to a discussion that upon viewing would prove to be a non sequitur - specifically, an image of a duck on wheels. Similarly, in a rickroll a poster provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes any one who clicks it to the Rick Astley video. This phenomenon spread from 4chan to other sites, eventually becoming widespread enough to attract some coverage in the mainstream media.[4][5] As a result of the phenomenon, the two most-viewed copies of the music video on YouTube have received over 10 million hits as of February 16, 2008.