Buzz Report: The Rickroll must die Video

Buzz Report: The Rickroll must die Video Transcript

^B00:00:00 [ Music ] ^M00:00:08

>> Hi. I'm Molly Wood and welcome to the BUZZ Report. This week, a special episode dedicated to stamping out a scourge on the Internet. But first it's the gadget of the week. The gadget of the week is the Samsung Instinct. This Sprint phone made its debut this week at the CTIA Show in Las Vegas. And let me put it this way. You know how, like, you totally want an iPhone, but you don't want to be like everybody else who gets an iPhone? But you really want the pretty and the touch screen, and you need 3G. And you'd like it to have built in GPS and total support for corporate email, and a little bit of tactile feedback when you're typing on the virtual keyboard. And you'd like it to be available on Sprint sometime around June for, like, under $300.00. Yeah. Now you have that. And now for the news. This week was April Fool's Day, which resulted in a collective feeling of boredom and annoyance at the customary collection of web pranks, insider jokes, and Google tomfoolery. This year's Dave did do us all a possible favor, though. YouTube briefly replaced all it's featured videos with links to rickroll, which if you don't what that is; it's the practice of tricking you into clicking a link that turns out to be the video for Rick Astley's, "Never Gonna Give You Up." Many speculated that by going nuclear with the rickroll on its front page, YouTube has effectively killed the meaning. Hope springs eternal. But actually, I think YouTube used the nuclear option our sheer self-defense. I mean the rickroll has become such widespread Internet annoyance that Google rightly feared that no one would ever click a YouTube link again if things were to continue in this vein. Actually, I'm not sure that Google's and YouTube's efforts are even enough. I think there's still some chance that the rickroll could continue. And let me be perfectly clear here, my friends, the rickroll is ruining America. Time is being irrevocably lost. People's lives are being ruined. We've even seen, like, death threats here at CNET.

>> I swear on the soul of my father that the next to rickroll CNET will not reach the talk line.

>> You've got workplace vandalism. ^M00:02:01 [ Camera shutter clicking ] ^M00:02:06

>> Look what it did Carolyn McCarthy of News.com. ^M00:02:09 [ Music ] ^M00:02:16

>> I shudder to think. And just look at this testimonial from one ricktim [phonetic] who was scarred for life from repeated exposure to the rickroll.

>> So I was just dreaming peacefully, and all of the sudden Rick Astley was in my dream. And he was singing. And I woke up. And I couldn't back -- get back to sleep. And it was like my own subconscious rickrolled me. [singing] Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you go. Never gonna run around and hurt you.

>> My friends, it is time to take matters into our own hands. The rickroll's time has come. It's so bad that this week we got an email on our internal mailing list that said, "Here's a Muppet rickroll." What? You cannot announce a rickroll. And don't even talk to me about that one that you launched and it takes over your browser with an endless series of pop-up windows. Rickroll virus much? The rickroll is over. And it has to die. And there's only one way to make it die. Roll it, Charlie. ^M00:03:13 [ Music ] ^M00:03:21

>> Ready to make the jump? ^M00:03:22 [ Engine ] There he goes. [ Music ] ^M00:03:39

>> That's right. The rickroll has officially jumped the shark. All future rickroll works are now declared derivative. And all ye who would roll another will be declared lame and behind the times. Die, rickroll, die. I'm Molly Wood and this has been the BUZZ Report. I'm feeling quite good about all this. Thanks for watching. ^M00:03:58 [ Music ]

>> That's right. The rickroll has officially jumped the shark. I spit a little bit. Let's go back. [ Laughing ] ^E00:04:12