I actually have a soft spot for that tune – call me tacky – so the snarl this puts on my face would make Chuck Norris cry. There may be such a thing as good Techno, but this sure the fuck is not it.

Eccchhh.

1. The Rickroll created on 4chan’s /v/ board, as an extra-annoying variation of the Duckroll. Funny for exactly 5.273 seconds.

2. It Migrates to 4chan /b/. Becomes wildly popular overnight. Becomes a certified meme, and is beaten like the proverbial dead horse. The /b/tards have many hearty lulz over their new plaything while the /v/irgins roll their eyes and stroke their goatees in disdain.

3. The Rickroll is brought to SomethingAwful, where those Lords of the Internet known as “Goons” dismiss it with a wave of their ring-encrusted hands. It never catches on there, except occasionally, and only in an ironic capacity. Around the same time, it creeps into sites like YTMND and Newgrounds. However, these creepings go largely unnoticed, as the users of these sites were too busy making Chocolate Rain remixes.

4. It begins to go mainstream, as certain high-level meta sites take notice of this “hilarious Youtube phenomenon”. I believe the first meta site to do this was Reddit. It takes off.

5. Mainstreaming reaches critical mass with mentions in web-based news publications, a petition for a Wikipedia page, and finally, some real-life pieces in the old media, including some newspapers writing it up in their “Tech Beat” sections or whatever. Some show on G4 has the dubious honor of being the first to mention it on television.

6. The Rickroll officially and irrevocably jumps the shark when Carson Daly Rickrolls the audience on his allegedly “comedic” late-night talk show. Much nerd rage ensues.

7. The Rickroll is fully mainstream. Thick-haired bubbleheads on morning shows across the country do pieces on it. Rick Astley is asked about it in an interview. Low-rung meta sites like FARK and Digg catch on to it and are thoroughly entertained. The Mets become no strangers to love.

8. And finally, we now have RadioDisney Robo-bims doing covers of it cuz its, like, soooo random and junk. Lol, internet.

Sometime in the near future, in a mud hut on the African savanna, a lone bushman will connect his brand new DSL line to his $100 GreenPeace laptop. Receiving an email from his cousin in Ghana, he clicks on a link that promises a video tutorial on new farming techniques. He reacts with a mixture of puzzlement and amusement when he instead sees a washed-up 1980s pop singer gyrating on a stage. The gods must truly be crazy.

And somewhere in a Disney-owned studio, Ashley Tisdale rolls her eyes and smirks.

I attended that HS and had no idea i was 1 degree away from JF.

Who made JF the rule-making guy?

and you know, the phrase, “Okay, I give up, who is ___?” is NOT always an admission of ignorance. It can also be a passive statement of being un-tainted by knowledge of the celebrity/politician/gadfly in question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Foley

Who is John Foley?