There was a break from high seriousness on the White House Twitter feed Wednesday when a supporter was rickolled. Photo: Ron Edmonds/APTwitter and the White House may seem like a dry combination, but even with the debt ceiling coming World Conference on women close to crushing all downstairs, the leader of the free world — or at least people responsible for the White House Twitter feed – found the time to have a little fun on Wednesday.
How? By rick rolling, one of the 2.3 million Twitter users follow its feed and complain that it was not very interesting.
"Sorry to hear. Fiscal policy is important, but can be dry times. Here is something more fun, "the White House tweeted. And then it submitted a link ... Rick Astley singing never Gonna Give You Up.
David Wiggs, a self described "energy tech enthusiast and mediocre golfer Tweet " If — "this WH [White House] correspondence briefing isn't nearly so entertaining as yesterday 's" – triggered the outbreak of fun from Pennsylvania Avenue, liked it: "Hilarious", he tweeted and , "love it!"
"Rick rolling" is a prank, which began in the 4chan message board (originally called duckrolling, which link would lead to a picture of a duck on wheels); the first use should be linked the video Astley came under the guise of being a secret trailer for the game video never released then Grand Theft Auto IV.
Then spread from 4chan and took off with Twitter in 2008 as a huge number of people joined the service: the need to use shortened links to service 140 characters meant you could blur their destination – and so hold out a tantalising treats it instead turned out to be Rick Astley singing.
In 2010, it was briefly doused when the video was removed from YouTube – but the White House found the time to dig up another.
In the meantime, the deadline for the debt ceiling inched closer on Wednesday night, leading to a dramatic intervention.
(Updated to clarify the history of rickrolling.)
No comments:
Post a Comment