I always wondered who was the very first person to pull the rickroll
The first known instance of a rickroll occurred in May 2007 on /v/,
4chan's
video game board, where a link to the Rick Astley video was claimed to be a mirror of the first trailer for
Grand Theft Auto IV (which was unavailable due to heavy traffic). The joke was confined to 4chan for a very brief period.[SUP]
[6][/SUP]
By May 2008,[SUP]
[7][/SUP] the practice had spread beyond 4chan and became an Internet phenomenon, eventually attracting coverage in the mainstream media.[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[8][/SUP][SUP]
[9][/SUP] An April 2008 poll by
SurveyUSA estimated that at least 18 million American adults had been rickrolled.[SUP]
[10][/SUP] In September 2009,
Wired magazine published a guide to modern hoaxes which listed rickrolling as one of the better known beginner-level hoaxes, alongside the
fake e-mail chain letter.[SUP]
[11][/SUP]
The original video on
YouTube used for rickrolling was removed for terms of use violations in February 2010[SUP]
[12][/SUP] but was reposted within a day.[SUP]
[13][/SUP]
YouTube acknowledges the first rickroll as an important event in its history. - OMG Facts