Reactions to story from On the Fritz

• 

  The Ugly Homophobic Truth About the Rickroll

  http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4994
  32 days ago in Pam's House Blend ...always steamin'! · Authority: 1,066

  What is a Rickroll? For those of you who haven't yet encountered the Internet phenomenon known as the Rickroll, here's the Wikipedia entry: Rickroll Rickrolling is an Internet meme involving Rick Astley's music video for his song "Never Gonna Give You Up". In a Rickroll, a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes the user to the Astley video. It can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive. The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank called duckrolling, in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photoshopped picture of a duck with wheels. By May 2007, the practice had become widespread, and it eventually began to garner some coverage in the mainstream media. More... More below the fold. The Popularity of Rickrolling While the original Rick Astley video was reported to have received 17 million hits earlier this year, Rickrolling gained a huge leap in popularity on April Fool's Day 2008. I added up the hits of Rick Astley videos on YouTube and they total up to well over 25 million. In March 2008, an online entertainment reporter for the L.A. Times interviewed Rick Astley about the Rickroll fad. Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming 01:37 PM PT, Mar 25 2008 Astley talks about discovering the "Rickroll" On a frosty Canadian morning, a masked crusader tromps across a parking lot, over a snow bank and onto the sidewalk. He has a loudspeaker strapped ominously to his chest. He halts, aiming the speaker toward the building across the street. “This is a song by some dead guy,” he says. And then, music booms forth: “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.” More... "A Song By a Gay Guy" What isn't discussed in the L.A. Times and Wikipedia articles is how the Rickroll started and why it is so popular with young people -- mostly young men and boys. Rickrolling started in May 2007 [correction] when the Rick Astley song Never Gonna Give You Up was introduced on an episode of the Fox cartoon show Family Guy with the line "And now here's a song by a gay guy." Soon, bloggers were adding links to blogs and forums with the phrase "Here's a song by a gay guy..." Here are a few more examples: The Manic Savant: And Here's A Song By A Gay Guy. The Maudlin Press: Heres a song by a gay guy Democratic Underground.com: Here's a song by a gay guy silent_r_infork: Here's a song by a gay guy! Mess+Noise: Here's a song by a gay guy As evidenced in the L.A. Times web article, many people are now white-washing the phrase Here's a song by a gay guy and replacing the word gay with dead or lame or something else less offensive. However, that doesn't erase the homophobic origins of the Rickroll -- or change why young men find Rick Astley so hilarious. UPDATE: Timeline Unfortunately, I made a rather embarrassing typo in this article that I didn't catch before it was published. I originally wrote that Rickrolling began in 2003 rather than 2007. Although the supporting links that I gave are all dated May 2007 and later, this mistake has caused at least one reader to challenge my assertion that Rickrolling started with the Family Guy episode Meet the Quagmires. The Family Guy episode Meet the Quagmires aired on May 20, 2007. The original Rick Roll YouTube entry was created on May 28, 2007. Here's the May 23, 2008 blog post that I think started it all: Stewies Playground: Brian Griffin vs. Rick Astley The post reads: OH MAN! I remember this song from back in the day; one of my friends actually went and saw Rick at the local mall, she was that obssessed with him. That was before we knew about the ghey. My Personal Introduction to Rickrolling I was introducted to Rickrolling by my teenage nephew about a year or so ago. My nephew told me that he and his friends amuse themselves by sending music and video clips of Rick Astley via e-mail, and cellphone. When my nephew showed me the video of Rick Astley singing Never gonna Give You Up on YouTube, he laughed out loud uncontrolably. Then, I asked him, "Why do you think this is so funny?" Silence. Uh, oh. I'd seen that silent response before. My nephew suddenly remembered that his favorite uncle is gay. He was at a loss for words as to how to explain why he finds Rick Astley to be funny. I had to press him for the truth, "Is it because he looks gay?" "Uh, it isn't that he looks so gay, Uncle Fritz. It is because, uh, his voice doesn't fit the way he looks." "Gay?" Silence. Many of us have been in the uncomfortable position of confronting the adolescent homophobia of the young men in our family. Often, they don't make the connection between the bigotry they encounter in school and in social situations with their peers and their gay and lesbian loved ones until they realize that they've hurt them. An Internet phenomenon Borne of Homophobia As this Internet phenomenon gains public attention, the reason for its popularity will continue to be ignored by the media. To break it down to the most simple terms possible, the Rickroll is popular because immature young men like to laugh at males who they perceive to be gay. For the record, Rick Astley is not gay. He was thin, pretty, and had an enormous voice. Unfortunately, he did not conform to the standard macho image that straight people demand of male performers (compare him to Clay Aiken today) and his brief success eventually faded. What Can We Do? I would like to speed up the process of making the Rickroll a faded memory. The best way to do that is to create a new Internet fad that will supplant the Rickroll. This new Internet fad will not stem from homophobia. It will instead be a subtle protest against homophobia. Introducing The Bananaramaroll In order to hasten the demise of the Rickroll, I have created the Bananaramaroll. Check it out on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xmQnJGAIDZQ My goal is to have this clip of Bananarama's I Heard a Rumour achieve over 25 million hits on YouTube. It will stand as a counterpoint to bigotry and homophobia. How You Can Help Start spreading the URL. If you have a blog or a MySpace page, simply start including the link in your posts. Here's an example. A couple of weeks ago, South Park ran an episode in which the kids got high from cat urine. I knew that thousands of people would be searching the web for information on this subject. So, I created a blog article called, Cat Urine High. My article about getting high on cat urine received about 30,000 hits! Last night, I added a link to the Bananaramaroll and it has already received 76 hits. Imagine how many I would have received if I'd included the link from the beginning. If you have a blog, create a link with the title, George Bush Comes Out of The Closet, Sally Kern's Secret Lesbian Lover, or The Truth About the Homosexual Agenda -- you know, something that will grab attention -- and include a link to the Bananaramaroll. http://youtube.com/watch?v=xmQnJGAIDZQ Even if the Bananaramaroll doesn't achieve the same level of popularity as the Rickroll, it will serve to saturate the Internet with another distraction. And, at least gay people won't be the butt of the joke. Why Bananarama's I Heard A Rumour? There are several reasons why I chose Bananarama's I Heard A Rumour as a counterpoint to the Rickroll. First, it was written and produced by the team of Stock/Aitken/Waterman, the same trio who wrote and produced Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. The two songs have a similar sound and provenance. Second, the lyrics of I Heard A Rumour are about the frailties of friendship and trust: I HEARD A RUMOUR Bananarama Who needs friends who never show I'll tell you what you wanna know I could have saved a broken heart If I'd found out long ago I'm just thinking about Those lonely nights When I waited for your call 'Til I found out All my friends were right, ooh, ooh I didn't know you at all I heard a rumour Ooh, ooh, I heard a rumour They say you got a broken heart I heard a rumour Ooh, ooh, yes I did, boy I heard a rumour, ooh Now it seems they're telling me You've changed your wicked ways But should I give you a second chance Baby, I'm too afraid So you realize what hurt you made And the love you threw away How can I forgive or soon forget It's never gonna be the same Third, the video is fabulously campy! The costumes, hot leather-clad male dancers, and Bananarama themselves make this the perfect video to use in a battle against homophobia. Fourth, the word Bananaramaroll is funny.
• 

  The Ugly Homophobic Truth About the Rickroll

  http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4994
  33 days ago in Pam's House Blend ...always steamin'! · Authority: 119

  What is a Rickroll? For those of you who haven't yet encountered the Internet phenomenon known as the Rickroll, here's the Wikipedia entry: Rickroll Rickrolling is an Internet meme involving Rick Astley's music video for his song "Never Gonna Give You Up". In a Rickroll, a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes the user to the Astley video. It can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive. The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank called duckrolling, in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photoshopped picture of a duck with wheels. By May 2007, the practice had become widespread, and it eventually began to garner some coverage in the mainstream media. More... More below the fold. The Popularity of Rickrolling While the original Rick Astley video was reported to have received 17 million hits earlier this year, Rickrolling gained a huge leap in popularity on April Fool's Day 2008. I added up the hits of Rick Astley videos on YouTube and they total up to well over 25 million. In March 2008, an online entertainment reporter for the L.A. Times interviewed Rick Astley about the Rickroll fad. Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming 01:37 PM PT, Mar 25 2008 Astley talks about discovering the "Rickroll" On a frosty Canadian morning, a masked crusader tromps across a parking lot, over a snow bank and onto the sidewalk. He has a loudspeaker strapped ominously to his chest. He halts, aiming the speaker toward the building across the street. “This is a song by some dead guy,” he says. And then, music booms forth: “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.” More... "A Song By a Gay Guy" What isn't discussed in the L.A. Times and Wikipedia articles is how the Rickroll started and why it is so popular with young people -- mostly young men and boys. Rickrolling started in May 2007 [correction] when the Rick Astley song Never Gonna Give You Up was introduced on an episode of the Fox cartoon show Family Guy with the line "And now here's a song by a gay guy." Soon, bloggers were adding links to blogs and forums with the phrase "Here's a song by a gay guy..." Here are a few more examples: The Manic Savant: And Here's A Song By A Gay Guy. The Maudlin Press: Heres a song by a gay guy Democratic Underground.com: Here's a song by a gay guy silent_r_infork: Here's a song by a gay guy! Mess+Noise: Here's a song by a gay guy As evidenced in the L.A. Times web article, many people are now white-washing the phrase Here's a song by a gay guy and replacing the word gay with dead or lame or something else less offensive. However, that doesn't erase the homophobic origins of the Rickroll -- or change why young men find Rick Astley so hilarious. UPDATE: Timeline Unfortunately, I made a rather embarrassing typo in this article that I didn't catch before it was published. I originally wrote that Rickrolling began in 2003 rather than 2007. Although the supporting links that I gave are all dated May 2007 and later, this mistake has caused at least one reader to challenge my assertion that Rickrolling started with the Family Guy episode Meet the Quagmires. The Family Guy episode Meet the Quagmires aired on May 20, 2007. The original Rick Roll YouTube entry was created on May 28, 2007. Here's the May 23, 2008 blog post that I think started it all: Stewies Playground: Brian Griffin vs. Rick Astley The post reads: OH MAN! I remember this song from back in the day; one of my friends actually went and saw Rick at the local mall, she was that obssessed with him. That was before we knew about the ghey. My Personal Introduction to Rickrolling I was introducted to Rickrolling by my teenage nephew about a year or so ago. My nephew told me that he and his friends amuse themselves by sending music and video clips of Rick Astley via e-mail, and cellphone. When my nephew showed me the video of Rick Astley singing Never gonna Give You Up on YouTube, he laughed out loud uncontrolably. Then, I asked him, "Why do you think this is so funny?" Silence. Uh, oh. I'd seen that silent response before. My nephew suddenly remembered that his favorite uncle is gay. He was at a loss for words as to how to explain why he finds Rick Astley to be funny. I had to press him for the truth, "Is it because he looks gay?" "Uh, it isn't that he looks so gay, Uncle Fritz. It is because, uh, his voice doesn't fit the way he looks." "Gay?" Silence. Many of us have been in the uncomfortable position of confronting the adolescent homophobia of the young men in our family. Often, they don't make the connection between the bigotry they encounter in school and in social situations with their peers and their gay and lesbian loved ones until they realize that they've hurt them. An Internet phenomenon Borne of Homophobia As this Internet phenomenon gains public attention, the reason for its popularity will continue to be ignored by the media. To break it down to the most simple terms possible, the Rickroll is popular because immature young men like to laugh at males who they perceive to be gay. For the record, Rick Astley is not gay. He was thin, pretty, and had an enormous voice. Unfortunately, he did not conform to the standard macho image that straight people demand of male performers (compare him to Clay Aiken today) and his brief success eventually faded. What Can We Do? I would like to speed up the process of making the Rickroll a faded memory. The best way to do that is to create a new Internet fad that will supplant the Rickroll. This new Internet fad will not stem from homophobia. It will instead be a subtle protest against homophobia. Introducing The Bananaramaroll In order to hasten the demise of the Rickroll, I have created the Bananaramaroll. Check it out on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xmQnJGAIDZQ My goal is to have this clip of Bananarama's I Heard a Rumour achieve over 25 million hits on YouTube. It will stand as a counterpoint to bigotry and homophobia. How You Can Help Start spreading the URL. If you have a blog or a MySpace page, simply start including the link in your posts. Here's an example. A couple of weeks ago, South Park ran an episode in which the kids got high from cat urine. I knew that thousands of people would be searching the web for information on this subject. So, I created a blog article called, Cat Urine High. My article about getting high on cat urine received about 30,000 hits! Last night, I added a link to the Bananaramaroll and it has already received 76 hits. Imagine how many I would have received if I'd included the link from the beginning. If you have a blog, create a link with the title, George Bush Comes Out of The Closet, Sally Kern's Secret Lesbian Lover, or The Truth About the Homosexual Agenda -- you know, something that will grab attention -- and include a link to the Bananaramaroll. http://youtube.com/watch?v=xmQnJGAIDZQ Even if the Bananaramaroll doesn't achieve the same level of popularity as the Rickroll, it will serve to saturate the Internet with another distraction. And, at least gay people won't be the butt of the joke. Why Bananarama's I Heard A Rumour? There are several reasons why I chose Bananarama's I Heard A Rumour as a counterpoint to the Rickroll. First, it was written and produced by the team of Stock/Aitken/Waterman, the same trio who wrote and produced Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. The two songs have a similar sound and provenance. Second, the lyrics of I Heard A Rumour are about the frailties of friendship and trust: I HEARD A RUMOUR Bananarama Who needs friends who never show I'll tell you what you wanna know I could have saved a broken heart If I'd found out long ago I'm just thinking about Those lonely nights When I waited for your call 'Til I found out All my friends were right, ooh, ooh I didn't know you at all I heard a rumour Ooh, ooh, I heard a rumour They say you got a broken heart I heard a rumour Ooh, ooh, yes I did, boy I heard a rumour, ooh Now it seems they're telling me You've changed your wicked ways But should I give you a second chance Baby, I'm too afraid So you realize what hurt you made And the love you threw away How can I forgive or soon forget It's never gonna be the same Third, the video is fabulously campy! The costumes, hot leather-clad male dancers, and Bananarama themselves make this the perfect video to use in a battle against homophobia. Fourth, the word Bananaramaroll is funny.

Advertise on Technorati

Advertise on Technorati