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Chocolate Rain meets Rickrolling = death by YouTube

Xeni Jardin at 8:27 am Sun, Apr 13, 2008

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Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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  • chumprock

    Obligatory “Welcome to last year” comment.

    /b/

  • Belac

    And yet, this is not /b/, and I for one have not seen this video, and it amuses me.

  • zen

    It’s true. He did Rick Astley because /b/ asked him.
    He said he won’t do Bel-Air though. Joey Bishop.

  • Xeni Jardin

    @whiners: When someone discovers a diamond in the earth, the discovery may seem new, but the stone is many thousands of years old. So, too. is the way of Boing Boing. We do not promise to post things that are 5 minutes old, we promise to post things that are awesome. Plus you’re just pissed off because I made you look/listen, and you know I’m never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

  • MartyMcBenji

    his wardrobe is fantastic.

  • KFraser

    It’s like a train wreck….

  • hedztalez

    I went to high school with “Tay Zonday.” We weren’t exactly friends, even though we were both part of a subset of kids who weren’t exactly accepted at any other high school. He left the second semester of sophomore year for starting some controversy that almost got 4 kids undeservedly kicked out of the school. The next time I saw him was all over the internet.

    At first it was funny, and I was happy that he found a way to make his natural awkwardness work for him. But now that people keep emailing me links and I keep seeing posts about his “work” online it has gotten a bit tired.

    Smart guy though. I do not doubt that he orchestrated the whole meme with planning and purpose.

  • Faustus

    @Agent 86, yes, yes they are. I think most of the users on /b/ are just meme bots, occaisonally updated with new insults and images. If they’re not then they’re just really good at failing the turing test…

    @#18 yeah that’s kind of the point…and then you get old meme is old is old etc. on /b/ you’d use images as well as text, people used to use an image of the two old muppets with ‘old meme’ text, but that’s old now :p

    @Xeni, nice roll there. It reminds me of one time when I got in with a bad croud at school when I was younger, I started doing all kinds of drugs and just generally being a dick, then one day I was arrested for spray painting some rubbish tag and the police took me back to my house, to talk to my parents, my mom got scared and told me ‘you’re moving with your auntie and uncle in bel-air’, I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought ‘Now forget it’ – ‘Yo homes to Bel Air’. I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie ‘Yo homes smell ya later’. I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.

  • vonnegutlives

    @Xeni

    Best whiner rebuttal ever.

  • JG

    Xeni always makes me cry…..(sniff!)

    Why can’t we all just get along little doggy….

    ###

  • Apashiol

    I want to see him do the dance!

  • Takuan

    what is the magic number?

  • JFlex

    Well put, Xeni. There’s a certain irony when people use one of the most tired e-complaints when complaining about tired e-material.

  • sswaan

    I wonder if this guy has ever tried out for American Idol…

    Oh, and…I’ve done the obligatory searches; I now understand at least what rick-rolling is, what chocolate rain is, but I’m still confused about the following: /b/ and CP. I hate to be an internet ignoramus, but can anyone enlighten me, so that I can get back to work?

  • Spoon

    @#19 posted by sswaan

    Hopefully you’re not searching for CP at work, or looking at /b/ as neither are work safe.

    /b/ is the 3rd circle of interweb hell, it’s a message board on a website that is not to be named.

    CP is either Child Porn or Captain Picard depending on it’s usage e.g: “CP is awesome” clearly refers to Captain Picard and “CP is filthy” obviously refers to Child Pornography.

  • luke

    but I’m still confused about the following: /b/ and CP. I hate to be an internet ignoramus, but can anyone enlighten me, so that I can get back to work?

    /b/ = board on http://4chan.org. Members sometimes known as btards. Be warned, like the beaches of a small island nation with no sanitation this is a section of the internet that seems to gather garbage. http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/B/

    CP = Child Porn.

  • Agent 86

    @Faustus

    I thought loads of CP, racism and insults were standard responses for any post on /b/?

    @sswaan
    About:
    http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/4chan#.2Fb.2F_-_Random

    Actual:
    http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html

    and finally, my favorite roll
    http://www.filedropper.com/rickroll

  • drivenbyboredom

    I have watched this probably 20 times since I saw it a few days ago. I keep Rick ROlling people with it, but everyones reaction is just “what?”.

  • sswaan

    Ah, for the moments an hour ago when I was blissfully ignorant…

    Still, thanks all for en-light(?)-ening me.

    Oh, and work=phd exams studying=at home. However, I will not follow those links. The last thing I need right now is an introduction to intarweb hell. I already had to install Leechblock to prevent me from spending too much time here–where it’s Wonderful.

  • morehumanthanhuman

    Thank you Xeni for preventing this endangered meme from going extinct like some many other memes.

    DO YOUR DUTY SAVE A MEME TODAY!

    BTW, here is a great rickroll remix, actually worth listening too:
    http://www.myspace.com/rickrollerz

  • Takuan

    rickrolling is the modern equivalent of the shaggy dog story.

    what is the element in primate humour that creates the shaggy dog?

  • jmullan

    I think that what Xeni is saying is that Tay Zonday is the blood diamond of the internet.

  • darrell

    This is superior to the Tay Zonday version in all ways:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZr3JWYdy8

  • starcadia

    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the chocolate rain. Time to die.

  • Sandling

    Rules 1 and 2 have been violated. We’re all gonna get v&!

  • Chocolatey Shatner

    Oh, Xeni: you are all the flavors of awesome. You almost make me wish I was straight :)

  • Takuan

    how many times does a thing have to be repeated to qualify as a “meme”?

  • Takuan

    (@#29; I too, have entertained inappropriate thoughts regarding the platinum,alien temptress/high priestess of cool geekporn.)

  • Registrado

    Aah! Kill it! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

    (That’s a meme, too.)

  • EncarnacionFlor

    Um, I was probably watching that at the same that Ms. Jardin posted it, so kick, replies, et c.

    However, I would maintain that this is the best Rickroll-Tayroll out there:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=777I2GXqvpE

    Consider it your final course of immunization.

  • mightymouse1584

    it feels like i just voluntarily rick-rolled myself

  • agoodsandwich

    Strange, now Rick Astley’s voice seems high-pitched.

  • Xenu

    Welcome to /b/oing /b/oing.

    You laugh you lose! This is my final form. inb4 rickroll.

    (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

  • palindrome

    @27 /me bows to your skill. You shall have more life.

    From the Youtube comments:

    “Am I the only one jacking off to this?”

  • zen

    @48 – Haha that Muppets version is my fave too.

    And here’s your video – You just got EVERYTHING’d

    I am quite fond of this remix too. Kinda catchy.

  • Wingo

    @41 – You magnificent bastard. The text ‘roll. This is a great technique – one I must try out for myself.

    At some point I saw a video that was the Rickroll, the Bel Air and Chocolate Rain all rolled into one. I can’t seem to find it again though.

    So for now, check out this totally unrelated, yet hilarious Muppets Bloopers video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KANI2dpXLw

  • Chocolatey Shatner

    Takuan, I am not entertaining inappropriate thoughts about Xeni… unless you count my theory that she is actually a space-elf.

    Actually, upon further reflection, she does not make me wish I was straight, but only because I think we could have way more fun without the whole awkward sexual tension thing going on. Unless she is attracted to bears, a prospect I find highly unlikely. But I guess you never know with space-elves…

  • pentomino

    It’s Rickrollympics! How far can we push this before it gets old? Forever, I say. I like the BalkiRoll myself (look it up). The rickmob was nice but the synchronization problems were apparent even in the crappy phonecam videos.

    Believe it or not, there are people who don’t know about Rickroll yet. I have a musician friend who was doing a show last week, and someone in the audience yelled “Rickroll” as if instead of “Free Bird”. He was confused. I chose to explain it to him by way of an LJ post the next day, though I’m quite the poor prankster so I can’t be sure he clicked the link. My ruse was that someone unbeknownst to him phonecammed his show.

    The only thing that can kill it is if Tom Cruise re-enacts the video.

  • Takuan

    bloody mammals! Why does it always have to be sex, sex, sex with you people? I was referring to having her personally review my calculations on the timing of the next equinoctial spawning cycle vis a vis the roe netting!

  • Xodarap

    @36 Wow, banned. Epic fail.

  • IronyElemental

    Chocolate Rain…
    I don’t want to hear that song again…

  • bobkat

    @27 – BEST COMMENT EVER.

    lulz, for real.

  • Jake0748

    Wow, he LITERALLY has a frog in his throat.

  • Faustus

    OLD MEME IS OLD

    Also, in before moderation…this is just moaning, but it’s also an appropriate response to old memes. If you’re not convinced post a link to this video on /b/ where the ‘rolling’ meme originate, or don’t, because what you’ll get is loads of CP, racism and insults back.

  • elguapostrikes

    jazzy

  • Gainclone

    Rick Astley is rolling in his grave… in a perfect world…

    I kid of course.

    Throw in a barrel roll, add a couple of epic maneuver, dip the whole thing in chocolate rain, and you’ve got yourself a fish biscuit. How’d you do that?

  • agoodsandwich

    That’s it. The internet is over now. Time to go home.

  • Wareq

    He did this last year.

  • Chocolatey Shatner

    I don’t see what the big deal is, really: it’s not a horrible song and Rick Astley is cute… and still is. Oh, and Takuan: having her review your cycle calculations? Fresh! We normally reserve that sort of thing for the wedding night…

  • Antinous

    it’s also an appropriate response to old memes

    The appropriate response is to go back to spending your lonely days and nights trolling the web for fresh memes to fill the abyss inside you. Xeni can’t repair your soul. All she can do is post things that many of us find entertaining.