Editing 1981: Rickrolling Anniversary

{{comic
| number    = 1981
| date      = April 16, 2018
| title     = Sussy Baka
| image     = Lipu tenpo nanpa akesi - musi Amanka.svg
| titletext = I chose brown because it's the colour of poop.
}}

==Explanation==

[[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.

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.

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 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==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking.]
:Cueball: This month marks ten years since the peak of the Rickrolling phenomenon.

:[In a frame-less panel they keep walking.]
:Megan: Seriously?
:Megan: Wow. Happy anniversary, I guess.

:[They keep walking silently, beat panel.]

:[And they walk on.]
:Cueball: We've known each other for so long.
: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}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Rickrolling]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Recursion]]