Thursday, December 11, 2008

How to get into the best law firms before Christmas


"...Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down... never gonna turn around and desert you..."

Sorry I couldn't resist. For those of you who found this post weird, absurd, or simply non-sensical, let me explain...

While mindlessly surfing through Youtube looking for the latest gametrailers, I happened to stumble across a video with the caption "COD 5 (call of duty) multiplayer sneak preview"At that time, the much anticipated video game had not yet been released and so I hurriedly clicked the link... I had been eagerly awaiting this latest installment of the COD franchise ever since my friends and I became addicted to COD 4. My eyes were literally salivating for the latest screenshots of yet another reason to keep from studying when suddenly... BAM! On screen, with his wavy brown hair and white trench coat, Mah nigga, Rick Mother#%$ing Astley! Singing what was, arguably, the National Anthem of people from the 80's (yes, I am that old...)

I didn't know whether to cry in frustration or laugh at yet another reminder of a time when music actually meant something. Anyway, that's the story of my first rick roll.

I found the experience funny in an odd sort of way and I was much more surprised to find out this was actually a well known meme. A meme is a catch phrase or concept that quickly spreads from person to person via the internet (sort of like an inside joke). This may take the form of internet phrases such as BRB, WTF, STFU, GTG, LOL, LULZ, etc. or internet pranks or gags such as the rick roll.

A lot of well known rick rolls exist on Youtube particularly the one with Obama rickrolling McCain during a speech (look it up, you'll be ROTFL). Astley even appeared live during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade to rick roll audiences with a lipsync performance of his signature hit. Heck, even Barry Manilow included this single in his latest album release.

So this made me curious as to where exactly this meme originated Research led me to a forum (which I won't name here as the contents of which are well... let's just say an acquired taste) where the practice was to alter the link to a particular picture or site of interest in such a way as to instead lead to a thread or site containing an edited picture of a duck with wheels. This was known as duck rolling. The user at that point is said to have been "Duckrolled". The practice later evolved into linking a picture or site to a video of Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up". Hence, the term Rickroll.

So for those of you reading this. You've just been Rickrolled!

P.S.
Here's a chart of what kind of internet user you are based on the number of times you've been rickrolled:

0<1 - The efficient user. You only use the net for work related activities such as sending homework, writing blogs for class, researching cases etc.

1 - The moderate user. Aside from work, you take the time to do some leisure surfing to check up on the latest trends or gossip. You might even be taking time to do some intelligent reading and just happen to stumble upon my blog. (hehe)

2 or more - The power user (a.k.a. the forum shopper, the porn afficionado, the geek, the gossip girl). you can't live without the internet. You take it with you everywhere you go. You either : a.) spend most of your time blogging your every day existence b.) regularly update your Myspace, Facebook, Friendster page c.) watch too much porn d.) are a techie and want to know about the latest piece of gadgetry you can acquire.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're definitely not a blogger or social networker and you're not really much of a techie. So i guess that leaves...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

My bad...since when do you blog? I still say you fall under C.