Original RickRoll Video Blocked by YouTube

It appears that the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, has blocked access to a seven years old RickRoll video, preventing users from hearing the still-popular “Never Gonna Give You Up” line. The video itself was uploaded by user ‘cotter548’ and was simply titled “RickRoll’D” and had nearly 71 million views, having YouTube blocking it in several countries, including the US.

YouTube did not comment immediately on the reason for blocking the video, which takes us to another similar but brief incident in 2012. Astley himself did not comment on the service’s action as well, but given that he did not write the song himself, he is thought not to have anything to do with the video’s removal. RCA is said to have released the track, which was co-written by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman.

The track itself is said to have spent 23 weeks on the Hot 100 list back in 1987 and 1988, having it be the top song played during that period. The meme entitled ‘Rickrolling’ started to surface ten years later when Internet users started pranking their friends by sending a link of something that looked interesting and relevant, having it open to Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” shimmy.

It then quickly went viral and recipients over the years are stated to have included the Church of Scientology, the MTV Europe Music Awards, the new York Mets, MIT and various radio listeners. It is said that even the White House ‘roll’d’ a bored town hall attendee in 2011, having Astley himself popping out of an obnoxious float to Rickroll the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade in 2008.

Thank you Billboard for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of Billboard