You’ve been Rickrolled.
As the country starts the campaign period for the national candidates of the 2022 polls, some Filipinos attempted to make light of the situation by sharing a poster featuring a famous English singer.
A Reddit user on Monday uploaded a mock poster of Rick Astley “running” for a senatorial position. He belongs to the “Rickroll party-list.”
“At dahil campaign period na bukas, I decided to make a Rick Astley poster lolz,” the user wrote.
The post has received several awards from other Redditors such as the “Platinum Award,” the “Wholesome Award” and the “Silver Award.”
It has also earned witty comments.
“KayRickRollTayo,” a Filipino quipped.
“He will never give you up yo!” commented another Redditor, referencing lyrics from Rick’s famous 34-years-old song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
“Kay Rick, Together Forever and Never to Part! (Tapos Giving Up on Love pag naging corrupt na),” a different Filipino quipped, referencing another one of his popular hits.
Others shared links to Rick’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video in the comments section.
“At ito ang kaniyang talumpati,” a Reddit user commented.
“Wow, very good speech. Definitely not a rick roll,” another online user quipped in response to the link.
This was not the first time that a Rick Astley meme was resurfaced for election campaigns.
In 2018, a Reddit user shared a screenshot of a Facebook post featuring the singer running as a “barangay chairman.”
Reports said that the Rick Astley meme, which includes clicking a website link disguising to be his music video, started in 2006 from an early meme called “duckrolling.”
A moderator of the 4chan imageboard website created a word filter replacing the word “egg” with “duck” as a sort of gag.
In one thread, the word “eggroll” became “duckroll.” An online user also posted an edited image of a duck with wheels, calling it a “duckroll.”
The image became popular and it became a target of a hyperlink with an interesting title. The user who clicks the link is described to have been “duckrolled.”
When the trailer of the “Grand Theft Auto IV” video game was released before, some online users posted copies of it on different websites, including 4chan.
The link to the trailer in the imageboard website turned out to be Rick’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” video.
The scheme of disguising a video or online content and directing it to Rick’s music video eventually became an internet prank, replacing “duckrolling” with “rickrolling.”