--- title: New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley description: The internet got a new hero yesterday when a Reddit user managed to Rick Roll Rick Astley himself. canonical: https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-06-18T14:30:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:02.265Z og:title: New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley og:description: 'I salute you!' A folk hero is born og:url: https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley twitter:description: 'I salute you!' A folk hero is born twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME The Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition The Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors. The Brief brings TIME's perspective to the day's most important stories, helping readers understand not just what is happening, but why it matters. It combines original reporting and analysis with the best of TIME, spanning politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. 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With the 2023 Women's World Cup set to kick off in Australia and New Zealand in July, the U.S. Women's National Team's Megan Rapinoe predicts it to become a massive cultural moment around the world._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 18, 2020 2:30 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 18, 2020 2:30 PM UTC The internet got a new folk hero yesterday when a Reddit user managed to [Rick Roll](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1974961%5F1974925%5F1970486,00.html) Rick Astley himself. The fun began when the internet’s favorite ’80s pop star stopped by Reddit, where he posts under the name u/ReallyRickAstley, to share an old photo he dug up while spending time at home during coronavirus-related lockdowns. The image was a photo of the young pop star riding around on a bicycle backstage in Las Vegas on his very first tour. After posting the flashback picture, Astley, who is a bit of a Reddit regular and legend thanks to a few famous [interactions with fans](https://www.reddit.com/r/GoldReplies/comments/56eh09/rick%5Fastley%5Fduring%5Fhis%5Fama/) on the site, stuck around to chat with fans and answer questions. While most fans were thrilled to see the singer engaging on the site, and plenty of fans were posting his famous lyrics, it was one user, known as u/theMalleableDuck, who won the day. The user claimed [they had met Astley backstage when they were 12](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/haucpf/ive%5Ffound%5Fa%5Ffew%5Ffunny%5Fmemories%5Fduring%5Flockdown/fv505w1/) and posted a link presumably to a photo of the two of them kicking it at a concert. That was not it at all though. When Astley clicked on the link, what he got was [Rick rolled](https://time.com/4007453/foo-fighters-rickroll-westboro-baptist-church/). --- ### More from TIME --- As most people who have spent time on the internet know, [Rick rolling](https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/) is when a link to some relevant site or information is swapped with a link to Astley’s 1987 single, [“Never Gonna Give You Up”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ). So when he clicked on the Reddit link, he immediately heard his own dulcet tones singing, “You’re no stranger to love”, the opening line of the song. The trick was so seamlessly perfect that Astley had no choice but to applaud it by posting a clap emoji, and then called out the clever user in his sign off post, saying, “u/theMalleableDuck I salute you!” It was the least he could do for a newly-minted internet legend. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/"},"headline":"New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley","datePublished":"2020-06-18T14:30:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:02.265Z","description":"The internet got a new hero yesterday","url":"https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Brief","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/","name":"New Internet Legend Manages to Rick Roll Rick Astley"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Megan Rapinoe Says Upcoming Women's World Cup Will Be a \"Massive Cultural Moment","description":"With the 2023 Women's World Cup set to kick off in Australia and New Zealand in July, the U.S. Women's National Team's Megan Rapinoe predicts it to become a massive cultural moment around the world.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/q0rgmQxw/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-06-28T17:28:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/q0rgmQxw.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/","duration":"PT1M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5855001/rick-roll-rick-astley/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```