The downside of working at The Next Web blog and conference is that everybody thinks we are very up-to-date with everything Internet related. Sure, we know about a lot but when it comes to RickRolling or the laughing baby or any other viral entertainment we generally get ignored.
I’m sure my friends think “I’m not RickRolling Boris. He probably got RickRolled TOO much”. The result is I’m often not aware of major viral videos. To tell you the truth I have NEVER even been Rickrolled before.
That is why I’m happy that someone made this great collection of some of the major viral videos of 2008. It will take a few minutes but after that you will be able to bluff you into any viral video conversation. “Lion reunited video? Yeah, saw that one. Ante up Bert and Ernie remix? Yeah hilarious. But did you see those Beyonce impersonators? Wow.”
I’m sure you have been rickrolled enough by now and maybe even by this particular Rickroll which is clearly the mother of all Rickrolls. They say power is in repetition so here it is, one more time, for your rickrolling pleasure; the ultimate, definitive, most realistic and live Rickroll of all time featuring the REAL Rick Astley during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade:
Written on 6th August 2008
0 COMMENTS Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of The Next Web Conference. Twitter: @patrick
The commercial web is about as 5000 days old. Despite its relatively short existence it changed our life, the way we communicate and how we do business. And there’s a lot more to come.
Every once and a while something special occurs on the web and spreads like fire over the web. Dipity is a service that lets you make a timeline of anything. One of their users (BG K) created a timeline with all internet memes.
Great stuff. Do you remember ‘dancing baby‘ in October 1996? Or Rick Rolled (easy one) in 2007?
A friend of mine has an impressive stack of glossies. She’s an intelligent girl, but when it comes to magazines this doesn’t seem to matter. A few days ago I glanced through one of those journals, and my eye fell on an article about the most popular YouTube videos. The poor “web editor” had a hard time explaining why Rick Astley, the long forgotten singer of “Never Gonna Give you Up“, was on the first place. Apparently, she hadn’t heard of RickRolling.
Eighties stars are popular these days, maybe we can call this decade already “retro”. Take David Hasselhof for example. The Baywatch/ KnightRider hero is the new PR guy for Soocial, a Dutch start-up that takes care of your contacts-syncing needs. Minor detail: he has no idea that 750 people laughed about a short Soocial promo movie at the last Next Web Conference, featuring him. Some people DO hassle the Hoff.
But now, the German hero has started his own competition. In one of the most genuinely-written blog posts I have ever read, Hasselhof explains the procedure:
Anyway… I was thinking… You guys keep seeing me singing and performing but I want to see what you can do… So here it is – the first official HoffSpace competition – I want you to send in your videos of you singing or lip-syncing my songs from all over the world. I want to see great locations, great costume, great performances and great imagination… Upload them to the video section and mark them as Hoff Video Competition… I am going to think about a prize but it will be something very cool!!!
Despite his enthusiasm, I’m afraid this competition will not blow any life into the Hoff’s singing career. You see, mr. Hasselhoff misses the point here that eighties stars are only cool when other people – not yourself – start a hype. Not because the star has made great songs, no, just because he or she looks ridiculously outdated.
But don’t worry David, the whole Soocial-thing is a good start for a second career. Most eighties stars haven’t got a write-up on TechCrunch yet. Before you know it, your “Looking for freedom” has been watched 25 million times and you give shows all over the world. Just call Rick whenever you loose your faith.
Written on 15th December 2008
2 COMMENTS 
Written on 6th August 2008
Written on 9th June 2008
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