Editing 1981: Rickrolling Anniversary

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 8: Line 8:
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
 +
{{incomplete|Created by a Rickroller - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
 +
This comic is another one in the "feeling old" series. This one deals with the memes {{w|Rickrolling}} and "want to feel old?" (title text).
 +
In the comic, Megan and Cueball discuss the 10th anniversary of the peak of rickrolling, and after a beat panel, note that they are old.
  
−
[[Cueball]] tells [[Megan]] that by the release of this comic in April 2018 it is the 10th anniversary of the peak of {{w|rickrolling}}. Rickrolling is a {{w|bait and switch}} internet prank, in which a person is tricked into clicking on a link under some pretext, and is diverted to a music video of {{w|Rick Astley}} performing his 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up". This trend began in 2007, but reached a peak in about April 2008 when, as an April fool's day prank, {{w|Youtube}} linked all its featured videos to ''Never Gonna Give You Up''.  At nearly the same time, the {{w|New York Mets}} [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1584640/Rickrolled-New-York-Mets-fall-victim-to-Rick-Astley-online-prank.html held a public vote to choose their 8th inning sing-along], and fans organized to vote for "Never Gonna Give You Up". This coincided with a sharp [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rickroll peak in searches] for "Rick Astley" and related terms.
+
Cueball's comment in the final panel, "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ We've known each other for so long]", is the first line of the second verse of the song "{{w|Never Gonna Give You Up}}" on which rickrolling is based.
  
−
When Cueball points out how long ago this happened, Megan expresses surprise that the phenomenon was that old, then expresses a half-hearted happy anniversary wish. After a beat panel Cueball concludes "We've known each other for so long", which is both a poetic affirmation of his friendship with Megan, and [https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?t=59 a line from the song], which effectively turns this conversation into it's own version of rickrolling.
+
Rickrolling had first started in 2007, but reached a peak in about April 2008 when, as a April fool's day prank, Youtube linked all its featured videos to ''Never Gonna Give You Up'', and the New York Mets were Rickrolled by a public vote to choose a song for the 8th innings sing-song. This coincided with a sharp peak in searches for "Rick Astley" and related terms.[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rickroll]
  
−
The first reference to rickrolling in xkcd was in [[351: Trolling]] from 2007, where Astley himself was Rickrolled by [[Black Hat]]. Black Hat then later uses Astley to show his girlfriend [[Danish]] how Rick rolls in [[524: Party]], a New Year party from the end of 2008.  
+
The title text refers to the xkcd meme of giving snippets of information that make one feel old. Although comics such as [[218: Nintendo Surgeon]] in 2007 refer to facts that could make you feel old, the first comic build around factoids to make one feel old in xkcd was [[891: Movie Ages]] in April 2011. This was 7 years before the time of publishing. The Bush Kerry election was in November 2004, 6½ years before that comic.
  
−
The title text refers to another ''old'' xkcd meme of giving snippets of information to the reader [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|that make them feel old]]. Although comics such as [[218: Nintendo Surgeon]] in 2007 refer to facts that could make you feel old, the first comic directly build around factoids to make one feel old in xkcd was [[891: Movie Ages]] in April 2011. This was 7 years before the time of publishing. The {{w|United States presidential election, 2004|Bush Kerry election}} was in November 2004, 6½ years before that comic, making the title text statement that the beginning of this meme is closer to that election that today. This is the way most of these make you feel old comics are built.
+
==Transcript==
 +
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
−
==Transcript==
 
 
:[Cueball and Megan are walking.]
 
:[Cueball and Megan are walking.]
 
:Cueball: This month marks ten years since the peak of the Rickrolling phenomenon.
 
:Cueball: This month marks ten years since the peak of the Rickrolling phenomenon.
  
−
:[In a frame-less panel they keep walking.]
+
:[A frameless panel.]
 
:Megan: Seriously?
 
:Megan: Seriously?
 
:Megan: Wow. Happy anniversary, I guess.
 
:Megan: Wow. Happy anniversary, I guess.
  
−
:[They keep walking silently, beat panel.]
+
:[Beat panel.]
  
−
:[And they walk on.]
 
 
:Cueball: We've known each other for so long.
 
:Cueball: We've known each other for so long.
 
:Megan: We really have.
 
:Megan: We really have.
−
 
−
==Trivia==
 
−
*This comic is a return to the recurring theme of [[:Category:Rickrolling|Rickrolling]], which was most famous around 2008 and 2009 - also at xkcd.
 
−
*Interestingly enough the last time rickrolling was referenced in xkcd was [[1757: November 2016]], another comic centered around making people feel old.
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
Line 39: Line 37:
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
−
[[Category:Rickrolling]]
 
 
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
 
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
−
[[Category:Recursion]]
 

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)

Templates used on this page:

Retrieved from "https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1981:_Rickrolling_Anniversary"