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Comment by emerged | Hacker News Reader

am I the only one who has literally never thought Rick rolling was even slightly funny? It’s so bizarre to me every time it comes up and everyone reacts like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen.

Same with the image of whatever football guy with the T-shirt over his head or whatever.

Edit: Imagine downvoting this LOL. Get a life

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I think the amusement value is less about the intrinsic humour in the linking to the video, and more about the cultural context.

Yeah I don’t “get it”

There are trillions of memes with cultural context that are actually funny, and aren’t replacing a supposed piece of content with nothingness.

it is a meme for "made you look." "Made you look" is seldom "funny," but it _is_ a thing. Folks have fun with ever increasingly obscure ways for "made you look" in this context.

And thank goodness we got away from the shock sites that were the original "made you look".

That's absolutely it. Insofar as it's funny, it is so because of the lengths taken to achieve the "made you look". It's the same reason why putting an Austin Seven on the roof of the Senate House in Cambridge* is funny, which is to say it isn't funny in any way you can explain, but is clearly hilarious for the pure whimsy.

*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-2160459...

Intellectual challenges where one would expect them to exist.

"Mystery as Santa hats appear on college chapel statues" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-5938698...

Because when you see the "Rick roll" video you know it's a joke. If it's some other random video it'll take awhile to get the joke.

That's why the joke is popular almost 15 years after it started.

I’m glad people enjoy it but man when you don’t enjoy it, it’s just flat out annoying.

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