April Fools Day and Astley

I know at least some of our readers were amused by my attempt to "rickroll" our audience. Rickrolling has truly taken off, and I thought some of you might find this amusing:

On April 1, 2008 (April Fool's Day), all YouTube Featured Videos hyperlinked to the Rickroll. The prank began with international YouTube portals before affecting the main site. In addition, LiveJournal announced on the same day that they would be adding a new member to their Advisory Board, linking members to the journal "rickastley", which contains a Rickroll. Also, on the same day, Isohunt had the Rick Astley video instead of their normal frontpage, as did LyricWiki.org. Popular gaming website Kongregate also claimed to have finally launched its upcoming card game Kongai, only to leave its players not with the game, but being rickrolled. Also on the same day, the Mahalo Daily video podcast hosted by Veronica Belmont produced a Rickroll purporting to be an interview with Steve Jobs. Media search engine SeeqPod included an mp3 of "Never Gonna Give You Up" as the top hit for all searches.

In reaction to the recent "rickrolling" phenomenon, Astley says he finds it "hilarious" and
he also said that he will not try to capitalize on the rickroll phenomenon with a new recording or remix of his own, but that he'd be happy to have other artists remix it. Overall, Astley is fine with the phenomenon, although he finds it a little "bizarre" and only hopes that his daughter receives no embarrassment over it.