Sure, it’s a dead meme, but the RickRoll was one of the best ever. According to an article on Slashdot, YouTube apparently pulled the video (for some reason) yesterday, but quickly put it back up in response to popular outcry.

I’ve been RickRoll’d myself a few times, but typically never bothered to watch more than 3 or 4 seconds of the video after being lured in, despite the soft spot I have for Rick Astley ever since I heard a friend simultaneously impersonate him and Michael McDonald.

Today I actually watched almost the entire thing, and was left dumbstruck at just how plain awful it is. Back in the late ’80s, by the time this arrived on the scene, I was so steeped in MTV culture (item! did you know MTV once showed music videos on a regular basis? it’s true!) that my mind was impervious to awareness of such ridiculousness. My senses were deadened due to overexposure. But now that a couple of decades have passed, I can look back and recognize the horrors of acid washed jeans, unnecessary trench coats, poofed-up pompadours, bad dancing, incompetent lip syncing and… well… absolutely everything else the director somehow managed to cram into this 3 1/2 minutes of misery.