Okay. I know that I vowed to stay away from the Internet today, but while watching the legendary Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Internet came to me.

When Cartoon Network's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float took center stage, viewers were baffled by a surprise musical guest, Rick Astley, performing the "rickrolling phenom" Never Gonna Give You Up. They rickrolled the parade! Seriously! Did I dream that? Sure, it was kinda funny to laugh along with, but did unknowing folks like my parents know what was going on at all?

Seriously, can we call it a trend death yet?


(What's a Rickroll? Check out Rocketboom's in depth investigation or the Rickrolling Wikipedia page)

Who's Nailin' Paylin?, Hustler's dirty ode to the GOP's VP nominee, is predictably awful. Not that we were expecting a Steven Spielberg flick, but the shoddy dialog, nonsensical graphics (yes, graphics), and ridiculous "plot" make even a porno look stupid.

And yet, we must say, we're big fans of a cameo made by a very "Internet Famous" friend of yours and mine.

Be warned, the video (after the jump) is mildly NSFW, but so worth it.

Lately Rickrolling's been feeling older than Andy Rooney, but the internet, in its vast and limitless glory, has stepped up and given us all another reason to send '80s music videos to our friends.

Below is a 'literal version' of A-Ha's 'Take on Me,' which means the song lyrics are changed to match what's going on in the classic half-cartoon video. It's a cool concept that's executed well, and guess what, it's spreading around the webz faster than the global economic crisis. Enjoy.

Stupid dine and ditchers! Makes me want to crumple somethin!

• via:// Kottke
• link:// Dust Films

There are certain things that are just inexplicably big on the Internet. Kittens, burgers, Star Wars, grannies... the list goes on and on. Write a blog post with anything involving bacon and the post is forwarded around like viral wildfire. Got a cute kitten photo to share? Instant Cute Overload.

Obviously, a website dedicated to any one of these things would be a surefire hit. For example, Cupcakes Take the Cake is a popular site in the cupcakeosphere.

What if ALL of these things that are hot on the web were contained in one single website? Well that, my friends, would be the ULTIMATE URL -- and today's t-shirt idea.

Seriously! What gives? Every week or two, we find ourselves saying 'Okay. This is our last Rickroll post' -- and have even declared the death of the omnipresent meme -- but yet the joke continues to roll on.

Besides Rick Astley's glorious mug donning our 'Meme Team' t-shirt (ahembuyoneahem), there have been at least two memorable brushes with 'Never Gonna Give You Up' this week.

First off, I received a message yesterday that informed me that

youtube removed the rick roll video :(

Horrified, I clicked! And I'm sure that you can guess what happened next.

Today I read that a race for a Rickroll of monumental proportions is currently heating up as Astley has been nominated for a 2008 MTV Europe Music Award for being the "BEST ACT EVER." The award's winner will be decided by online voting so, naturally, the internet is voting their collective hearts out in order for our fine prince to take home the much deserved prize.

He's gotta win, right? We saw what happened last time online voting decided something in regards to Rick Astley...

• link:// The Guardian
• link:// Reddit
• link:// Know Your Meme: The Rickroll
• related:// Memes Get Remembered but Rickrolls Never Die
• related:// All things Rickroll on Urleque

If you missed it yesterday, this week Urlesque (in a Think Ups partnership with Neighborhoodies) is releasing one T-shirt for sale per day -- with all proceeds going to help bring technology to kids all over the globe.

Today we're proud to introduce you to today's design... The Meme Team. The gang's all here!

• Tay Zonday / "Chocolate Rain"
• Dramatic Chipmunk Prarie Dog
• Chris "Leave Britney Alone" Crocker
  
• Rick Astley / Rick Roll
  
• Cheezburger -- The Original LOLcat

Buy a shirt or hoodie -- in the color combo of your choice -- at Neighborhoodies. The Meme Team's always got your back.

• link:// Today's Design: The Meme Team
• related:// Yesterday's Design and More Info About the T-shirts: Choose LOL

Finally, a Greatest Hits collection of meme samples because nothing's gonna get us on the dance floor faster than when a DJ drops the audio of Angry German kid over some phat bass. Other all-stars to listen for on the Meme Breaks 1.0 scratch record: Rickroll, 'Don't Tase Me Bro' and Dramatic Chipmunk.

Now check out 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' over Black Star instrumentals:


Like what you hear? Want to download the samples? Head to F.A.T. Lab where the file's available for free. We can't wait to pepper our party mix with a little Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

• link:// Free Art & Technology Lab
• related:// Inbox Victory
• related:// Internet Meme Timeline
• related:// Angry German Kid

We've sworn off Rickrolling more times than Bill Clinton's sworn off Hooters' wings and waitresses, but when push comes to shove we just can't quit it. In today's installment, the same creative genius that brought you the Barack Roll springs his baby on the Republican National Convention. Let's just say the bizarre built-in blue/green screen behind John McCain's acceptance speech must've been a gift to the video editing process. The facial reactions are spliced perfectly to convey the confused befuddlement of a Republican being Rickrolled for the first time. Enjoy...
Don't miss McCain's 96 year-old mother Roberta looking a bit bewildered, possibly pondering:

• a.) "Who is this Sarah Palin lady?"

• b.) "Where am I and why won't they let me watch Matlock?"

• c.) "Why is Rick Astley playing? Haven't heard this dude since the Reagan years!"

• via:// The Margins of Error

New life has been breathed into the Rick Roll nightmare, which will...n o t... d i e. [Ed. Note: This is the LAST Rick Roll post -- swear.] It's the most resilient meme in the seven-month history of memes. After a nuclear holocaust, only Twinkies, cockroaches and Rick Astley's dance moves will be left. Behold the latest Obama-inspired permutation, then grok the split screen version! Astley for VP?

• Via:// The Margins of Error
• Related:// Memes Get Remembered, But Rickrolls Never Die

Unlike any and all Sandlot tribute videos, rickrolling has reached the trend-death stage of the memecycle (though YouTube swears they didn't drop the ax). On Monday night, Daily Show Senior Military Analyst John Oliver may have presided over its unofficial funeral when he rickrolled Jon Stewart mid-segment and nobody really laughed. Wait for it...
Stewart was either completely over it or had absolutely no idea what Oliver was talking about. Either way, the days when toiling over the optimal disguise for a hilarious Rick Astley video link seem like a distant memory. Goodbye, sweet prince.

• related:// New Rolltube Redefines "Slow Death"
• related:// We Give Up: Here's Another Rick Roll Variation

Those lovable deviants over at the Free Art and Technology Lab (F.A.T. Lab for the crew) caused a timely stir around April Fools' Day a couple months ago with Rolltube, a Firefox extension that mercilessly changes any YouTube video to a Rick Roll. The extension was unfortunately torpedoed by YouTube's new software for automatically identifying copyrighted material, but the scrappy FATsters are back with a killer counterpunch - a new version of Rolltube that avoids detection by playing a Rick Roll at half the speed of the originial. See the extension in action below, or behold the slo-mo-roll in full-length, agonizing glory here.

Note that it's the Friday before a holiday weekend, and as such it is your urlbound duty to grace your coworkers' computers with Rolltube. Then check out another of our favorite Rick Roll variations here, and/or start working backwards to reach the true essence of the meme. Go forth, netizen!

Who knew that internet memes were so time-line-ready? The chrononauts at Dipity continue to amaze with their online time-line toolset, which has already been used to organize many of the web's biggest memes. But it's their latest offering, TimeTube, which builds timelines of YouTube keywords in a matter of seconds, that we find truly jaw-dropping. Check out the site to see the progression of any YouTube meme that strikes your fancy in amazing scrollable, clickable, watchable glory. We particularly love the Rick Roll time-line above that NewTeeVee recently discovered, what with all of the griping about the meme's death. Only time will tell whether the RR's time-line will continue on, but it is interesting to see how the phenomenon took shape (in a self-torturing kind of way).

Everybody's been Rick Rolled, but you been Sushi Rolled yet? Maybe a better name would be Dim Summed: David Lee Roth Loves Dim Sum

As far as I can tell, you're promised a video of a celebrity paired with delicious Dim Sum. The mere excitement of living vicariously through somebody famous, somebody who gets to gorge on all the delicious Dim Sum he/she wants, is pretty tempting. Only, instead of seeing, say, James Brown lick his fat lips after a fatty meal, you get an extreme close-up of a fried dumpling. You see that dumpling distorted beyond recognition for all of two seconds. The end.


This is one of the worse outrages you will ever have to suffer, for the following reasons:

1. Dim Sum translates literally to 'dot-hearts,' or 'mini-treats that touch your heart.' By zooming in for a money shot, you are blaspheming against Dim Sum's very nature. Dim Sum s'posed to be small and cute.

2. You get suckered into wanting to live vicariously through a boring-ass celebrity. One of the defining features of getting Dim Summed is the kind of celebrity you're taunted with. David Lee Roth? Smokey Robinson? Keith Richards? Blondie? Jesus??? These aren't your celebrities. They're your parents' celebrities. You clicked on your mom's obsolete heart throb. How embarrassing.

3. WTF? RIght? You can understand something like Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Most of us got the irony in that. But this--this is so irreverent it's brilliant. Or stupid. It could just be insanely stupid.

Actually, seeing as how all the videos come from a single youtuber named yummycasper, this is probably just an instance of viral marketing -- viral marketing that's seconds away from starting a Web-wide craze!