In case you haven’t been victimized by the cruelest Internet prank in history, you got your chance today at YouTube.

The phenomenon known as “Rickrolling” is when someone posts a link that is ostensibly about something like Britney Spears, Google, or Julius Caesar, and ends up sending you to a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s unforgettable hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Today, all of the featured videos on the front page of YouTube send users to that very video, in an April Fool’s Day prank that while being funny, could potentially send millions to the bottle.

The phenomenon has spread to the public as well, with Project Chanology publicly Rickrolling the Church of Scientology in their infamous protests against the church’s attempt to rid YouTube of a video casting Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology in a negative light.

Astley himself has promised not to try to cash in on the phenomenon, but says he encourages other people to remix the track as much as they like. He finds the phenomenon “bizzare,” and only hopes it doesn’t lead to his daughter being embarrassed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pmand is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.