Rickrolling is an Internet meme that involves the music video
for
the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". The meme is
a
bait and switch: a person provides a hyperlink that they claim
is
relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the
user
to the Astley video.
The link can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that
the
user cannot determine the true destination of the link
without
clicking. When a person clicks on the link and is led to the
web
page, he or she is said to have been "rickrolled".
Rickrolling has extended beyond web links to playing the
video
or song disruptively in other situations, including public
places;
this culminated when Astley and the song made a surprise
appearance
in the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a televised event
with
tens of millions of viewers.