The practice of rickrolling began around the early 2000s on the image board 4chan. The first recorded instance of rickrolling involved a link that claimed to be a trailer for the game "Grand Theft Auto IV" but instead directed users to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video. This bait-and-switch tactic quickly gained popularity and became a widespread prank on the internet.
The term "rickrolling" is a combination of Rick Astley's first name and the concept of "rolling," which originated from a similar phenomenon called "duckrolling" on 4chan. The wordplay evolved when the director of 4chan changed instances of the word "egg" to "duck," leading to the creation of "duckroll." This term referred to a humorous image of a duck with wheels, which was used to bait users into clicking misleading links.
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