You are not being rickrolled.
Technically, no. Because, 35 years after its first debut, Rick Astley has remade the music video for his mega-hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
The singer, now 56, dances against backdrops identical to those in the original film, such as the stage in a church hall, in front of a large, cloudy window, and outside in front of multiple brick structures—but with some advertising tweaks.
AAA Insurance agents in seductive white polo shirts have taken the place of the women who danced in the original video.
In one scenario, an agent writes on a whiteboard that AAA would never “give you up,” “let you down,” “run around,” “leave you,” or “say goodbye,” as the song goes.
One of the agents even performs the identical straddle jump as the male bartender in the original video. One employee observes the excitement during a Zoom conference.
After watching the footage on his phone, the Brit asks other versions of himself, “Is this still a thing?”
According to Astley, paying respect to the original “has been a great walk down memory lane.”
“The song has been so kind to me, and I’m so excited to be collaborating with another classic company that has undoubtedly lasted the test of time,” he continued.
People are tricked into clicking on a URL that leads to Astley’s music video through a trend called “Rickrolling.” This has helped the original video get more than 1.2 billion views on YouTube.
Even the rocker has fallen prey to the practice, as he told Fox News the first time it happened.
In 2021, he told the newspaper, “I’m just thinking, ‘Why is he sending me this?'”
“And then my video appears out of nowhere.” So I kept wondering, ‘What is he doing?’ I was on vacation [with my family] in Italy at the time. I was really relaxed, and I kept telling myself, ‘I don’t need this in my life right now,’ “he recounted.
He also said that he has “many times professionally ‘rickrolled’ people.”
Astley told the Associated Press in June, “Listen, let’s face it, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ has kind of become something else.” “The video and the song have gone off into the ether and become something different, for which I am eternally thankful.”
The song’s sustained success placed him on the 57-date “The Mixtape Tour 2022” earlier this year with New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue.