Rickroll video hits a billion views on YouTube as Internet’s most popular prank:
The Internet’s most popular prank, Rickrolling, has driven the official video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up to the prestigious 1 billion views milestone. To celebrate the achievement, singer Astley pinned a comment on the video announcing the moment, thanking fans for the “amazing, crazy, wonderful” milestone.
Never Gonna Give You Up was uploaded by Rick Astley on YouTube in late 2009. The song soon became a popular prank that reached meme status, with Internet users alleging they’d linked to one thing when, in reality, the person who clicked the link would be taken to YouTube’s copy of the music video.
This is a notable achievement and milestone. Take a look, though, at Wikipedia's List of Most-Viewed Videos.
Also at The Verge.
(Score: 3, Informative) by amamandaa on Sunday August 01 2021, @02:52PM (3 children)
As pranks go, this one is quite benign, and safe for work, safe for school, safe for (most) church environments. Relatively normal people might even enjoy this prank - once a year or so.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Tork on Sunday August 01 2021, @04:25PM (2 children)
Okay, confession time: A few years ago back when the Nintendo was teasing people with the 'Revolution', someone on a forum I lurked at posted a link to a leaked presentation video about it. Excited I clicked the link and I'm never going to give you up... This was a professional forum for people in an industry where networking plays a huge role. I told the guy off, pretty sure I even called him a jerk, all because that was a PROFESSIONAL place and I used the word professional a lot and ya know what? It's several years later and when I think about that now I was being too f'n up-tight. I don't know who all here will get this reference but I feel like I was a real Frank Burns about it. I don't know when I changed my mind on how bad my behaviour was that day but I'm pretty certain his Turkey Day Prank helped me take a fresh look at it.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @05:54PM (1 child)
For those who don't get the Frank Burns reference, here's an explanation [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @06:52PM
Meet Frank Burns - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FevVfmog4JA [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @04:23PM
Looking at YouTube top 10 watched videos https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-viewed_YouTube_videos, [wikipedia.org] our species is doomed
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @04:47PM (4 children)
What’s funny about a youtube link? It is a good song though. I also don’t get Saturday Night Live comedy which seems mostly to be propaganda with a smirk.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @05:02PM (3 children)
You should look up the word "satire." A LOT of people really don't know what that means or can recognize it when they see it.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @05:49PM
They are funny sometimes, just not most of the time.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anti-aristarchus on Monday August 02 2021, @01:02AM (1 child)
Obviously needs more cowbell.
(What is it about conservatives that they cannot do humor, other than Runaway level fart jokes and anal sex? Asking for a grandparent poster. )
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 02 2021, @05:28AM
Conservatives, in a more general sense, are people who are uncomfortable with uncertainty and feel the need to categorize the world, including other internet users, into well defined groups.
Yes, I know I souldn't feed the troll, but I couldn't resist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @04:53PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeyEGebJ1l4 [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Booga1 on Sunday August 01 2021, @06:21PM
When you receive a link from someone you trust, the chance of it being a rickroll is very small, but never zero.
Rick Astley has done more to teach people that links shouldn't be trusted than most corporate training courses.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Sunday August 01 2021, @06:46PM (8 children)
All I ever see when I open a youtube link these days is advertising instead of the supposed video. (yea, yea, hunt down a better ad blocker, that's not the point). The point is youtube has embraced rickrolling, and that is all they are about these days. Fuck em. Fuckem with a spintery wooden dick.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday August 01 2021, @07:14PM (3 children)
Ad blocker are so last decade.
Haven't you noticed? Nowadays content creators - and I don't just mean shite "influencers" and "10-best-something" channels, but also nice and interesting channels like Newmind, Veritasium or SmarterEveryDay - weave the commercial bullshit right into the content.
Some do it in a fairly subdued, predictable and easily-skippable way like Veritasium. Others are totally in-your-face and sneaky about it. Like, you're watching actual content, and slap-bam, before you have any chance to realize what's happening and hit the fast-forward button, they transition to the paid advertisement bullshit in exactly the same tone of voice, in the same setting. Sometimes they manage to trick you into thinking you're still watching the content just long enough to plug the shit they're paid to plug. Really annoying...
It's not working with me though. I have such a deep hatred of commercials than I subconsciously make a mental note of the advertiser's name so I never ever buy anything from them if humanly possible. In fact, the more you try to shove it down my throat, the more I'll avoid buying.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been reverse-brainwashed into doing precisely the opposite of what advertisement is supposed to drive me to do by decades of constant, maddening mindless commercial crap.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @07:43PM
You're both severely autistic.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday August 02 2021, @05:33AM
This. Annoy me with your ad, and I will consciously avoid your product. I was taught this behavior BY annoying ads.
Conversely, if you make a pleasant, interesting, and honest ad, and don't deluge me with it, I might give you a second look.
Unfortunately, most ads nowadays are loud, stupid, overplayed, and obnoxious. So what am I to think about the company who paid for that ad? Apparently, nothing good.
I do appreciate one guy I watch, who switches to a sardonic voice and says, "and now I have to sell you something" before he launches into the ad. Fast-forward is not so difficult.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 02 2021, @08:00PM
I agree that the world should bend over backwards to give you what you want, when you want it, and all for free. Those channels exist solely to provide YOU information and entertainment and HOW DARE THEY try to have an ad revenue angle to it!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @08:07PM
Don't just click the link. Copy and paste it in the address bar and then edit it before hitting return.
Change the /watch?v= to /embed/.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday August 02 2021, @05:27AM (2 children)
I have that problem now on my main box, using SeaMonkey (which I prefer for everyday browsing). YT plays nothing but ads, all are unskippable, and it never does get to the main video. Adblocker did not help. The only way I can watch a YT vid is if it's embedded (or by editing the link to fake being embedded). The ads even follow me to Hooktube and Invidio.us, which used to strip them.
Then it started getting bad on the box now used for video, with Chrome. The final straw was a 30 minute unskippable infomercial when the video I wanted to see was like 5 minutes. And then after a video played, if I left the page up, after a while it would start playing infinite ads. Can you say "disproportionate" ??!
Plus a lot of the ads had become loud and stupid and too obnoxious to put up with. (Which isn't necessary. There's a camera store that made such a good ad, that over a million people followed it back to their own channel and played the ad again! If all ads were like that, who would mind ads?)
Now Chrome has two different YT-specific adblockers (conveniently found on the Chrome store) plus UBlock, and finally I have peace again.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 02 2021, @08:28PM (1 child)
One ad at the beginning of a video was alright. Fifteen seconds of annoyance was tolerable.
Two ads at the beginning is obnoxious.
Two ads at the beginning and another at the end of the video is beyond annoying because things keep playing audio when it should just stop. Autoplay is disabled for a reason.
Three ads at the beginning of a 2 minute video? WTF? Closed, did not watch.
One ad in the middle of a video that's less than 10 minutes is annoying.
Three ads in the middle of a 12 minute video is unwatchable. I just close the video if a second ad shows up in less than 10 minutes.
Any combination of the above: unwatchable.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 03 2021, @01:40AM
I generally agree with you. I have no problem with ads, but I've progressed the same as you. I don't know enough of how that all works and how much control the content creators have over the number of ads and their placement. I'm assuming that they control it, not the ads that are shown, but whether there are ads in mid video, or the time interval between them. I'm assuming it is a time interval thing because I've seen videos where you get an ad at the end, come back for 15 seconds of closing, then the finishing ads. The ads at the end are pretty new to me, and they are very annoying. I've dropped a couple of channels because of the mid video ads, when they are showing up every two minutes, but I've so far tolerated the end video ads.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @07:24PM (4 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @08:41PM
So, you would rather be goatseed than be rickrolled? Now we see how you swing.
(Score: 1) by crm114 on Sunday August 01 2021, @09:15PM
Depends.
Most LOVED from the one sending the video.
Most HATED from the one receiving the video.
Everyone wins!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 02 2021, @03:31AM
Pffft
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday August 02 2021, @08:41AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Funny) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday August 01 2021, @09:57PM (1 child)
Could you post a link? :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @11:13PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW6W5eiVlPg [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 02 2021, @05:47PM
Rick Astley has earned $2 million from all your clicks
https://screenrant.com/viral-youtube-videos-rick-astley-baby-shark-how-much-money/ [screenrant.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 02 2021, @05:49PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT3mCybbhf0 [youtube.com]