Rickrolled
“Rickrolling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rickrolling is an Internet meme[1][2] involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The meme is a bait and switch; a person provides a hyperlink seemingly relevant to the topic at hand, but actually leads to Astley’s video. The link can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that the user cannot determine the true destination of the link without clicking. People led to the music video are said to have been rickrolled. Rickrolling has extended beyond web links to playing the video or song disruptively in other situations, including public places,[2] such as a live appearance of Astley himself in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.[1] The meme has helped to revive Astley’s career.[3]”
In case you didn’t know what Rickrolling was, now you do. It’s inherent to understand the story.
Music is a big part of our lives around my house. Everybody has their favorites. The little ones like anything that is catchy. Our teenager loves what is popular. My wife can’t get enough country. Me? I love alternative and I use orchestra music to shut out the world while writing.
We all sing. Some of us better than others. My wife sounds like an angel when she sings. I, on the other hand, have been accused of resembling two cats fighting to the death while riding on top of an ambulance racing to an emergency. So I keep my audience to a minimum.
My little ones sing all the time. In the car, during dinner, in their sleep and especially in the shower. At ages eleven and seven they take a shower every other night because 1) they don’t sweat enough to need a shower everyday and 2) it’s a pain in the ass to get them to do it. They will dance around in their underwear in front of the mirror for twenty minutes while the water runs if you let them. Then complain when there is no hot water left.
“Why aren’t you in the shower?”
“My brother/sister was picking on/yelling at/asking me a question!”
“Can you please just get in the shower?”
“I can’t. It’s too hot/cold/warm and I can’t find my sponge/shampoo/dinglehopper!”
Eventually they get it done though. But the whole time they are in there they sing. I get it. The acoustics in the shower make everyone sound like the next American Idol. The wife and I just smile at each other while we wait for one child to finish so the other can take his/her turn.
A few nights ago, Shelley was folding laundry and I was reading a book while my son showered in our bathroom. It was uncharacteristically quiet in the beginning and I assumed he wasn’t in the mood to sing that night. He did just argue with his sister for the umpteenth time that evening. So I continued to read and really get into my book.
Then out of nowhere I hear:
“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down!”
I looked up from my book to see if the TV was on. It wasn’t. I thought it was strange but went back to reading.
“Never gonna…something, something, something… hurt you!”
I realized that I was getting Rickrolled from the shower. My eleven-year-old was singing a song that came out when I was eleven. I actually ROFL’d. Well, rolled on the bed laughing.