Fear Not, The End Of Rickrolling Is Not Upon Us

It looked like the folks at Sony and YouTube had Rickrolled the act of Rickrolling itself on Tuesday (Feb. 23), prompting the internets to emit a collective gasp of "WAAAAAAAAT" (in kittypigeon and without the H), but this no longer appears to be the case.

Neowin.net reported the "original" Rickroll video, which had been viewed over 30 million times, had been removed due to a terms of use violation and the user who'd uploaded it had their account suspended.

But YouTube told the website on Wednesday (Feb. 24) that the whole thing had been a mistake.

Tony Henderson, Rick Astley's manager, told the website he was disappointed the video had been taken down.

"I have not told Rick yet as he is driving to the French Alps to practice his rolling (sorry i meant skiing) I don't think anyone should or indeed can, stop people having fun on the net, there are more urgent concerns on the internet that need sorting," he said in an email.

Of course, there's a pretty good chance this generation would have no idea who Astley was without the Rickrolling meme itself.

Rickrolling became as stale as a week old baguette about two years ago, so just in case you've never heard of it, it basically involves one user encouraging someone else to check out a particular site, which they claim is something else. Upon clicking the link, the user discovers they're instead watching Astley's video for "Never Gonna Give You Up," which prompts the sharer to declare, "You just got Rickrolled!"

Never fear, internets: you can keep Rickrolling people for the foreseeable future.

Here are some other (mostly music-related) memes we hope never die:

The Hamster Dance
Sure, the song (and especially the "Hamster Dance Song" released after it to cash in on its popularity) is fucking annoying, but if you were a child of the '90s, this was an integral part of your discovery of this magical new thing called "internet" and just how powerful it was.

Chuck Norris
Must we explain?

Kanye Interrupt/I'll Let You Finish
It was so awesome we even used it in a story.

More Cowbell
Everything needs more cowbell. Except maybe Christopher Walken.