How to Avoid Being Rickrolled

Last Updated: August 10, 2021

Being rickrolled is annoying and can get frustrating, however, you can avoid it with these avoidance tactics. This wikiHow article will teach you how to avoid being rickrolled. (A rickroll is when you see something and it shows Rick Astley singing his song Never Gonna Give You Up instead of what you wanted.)

Steps

1
Know what to look for. If a video/site is a little too good/interesting to be true, then it's most likely going to be a rickroll or some other Internet prank. (Video ex: How to get a nuke with one kill on mw2 or Jurassic Park 4 Official Trailer.)
2
Take a good look at the URL. If, say you wanted to go to the Amazon website, make sure the URL says "www.amazon.com". If it says something slightly different, like "www.amaz0n.com", then it's probably a fake website. Even if it's not a rickroll, it can be something worse, like a scam website.
- If the URL ends in ".edu", you're in the clear-- this ending means that it's an academic website. Similarly, websites ending in ".gov" are from the government. These sites are highly unlikely to have rickrolls on them.
3
Stop it and read the comments if it's a video. People may say: "I can't believe this!" but sometimes the creator has multiple accounts and will say it's not a rickroll. In that case, check the date that these accounts were created. A large number of dislikes can point out rickroll too. Comments and dislikes disabled altogether are also an obvious sign of rickroll.
- If the dislikes aren't disabled, but the comments are, take a closer look. If you see a button marked "Try YouTube Kids", then you're probably safe-- this means that the video's comments are disabled because the video is for kids (or was wrongly marked as for kids by the AI). If the video is about something controversial like politics, that could also justify the comments being disabled. If neither of these apply, though...
4
Look under the like/dislike bar. Often YouTube will insert an advertisement to buy the song, so you can pause the video before it starts the song.
5
Try using search engines that suggest the sites to avoid sites where you get rickrolled. These will send you to the right sites (Ex: Bing.com.)
6
Remember rickrolls usually happen on interesting stuff. If you are very interested in a video/site it may be a rickroll, but this is uncommon.
7
Download an automatic pause plugin. When you open a YouTube video, it automatically starts playing. There are plugins for all browsers that automatically pause the video when you open the page. That way you can check the comments before to make sure it's not a rickroll.
8
Don't get too frustrated. If you get rickrolled, never let yourself get too mad, as this will only make it worse. Of course, we can't really control how we feel, but we can choose not to dwell on things that we dislike. For instance, if what you thought was an informative video turns out to be a rickroll, you might think, "Well, that's annoying-- I guess I'll have to search on Wikipedia instead of YouTube", rather than leaving an angry comment.
9
Learn to like the song. If you're going to get rickrolled, you might as well enjoy it. If, however, you can never like the song no matter how hard you try to teach yourself to, don't sweat it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's a negative opinion. Also, if you hate being rickrolled despite liking the song, that's OK too. After all, nobody wants to be promised something and then get something different.

Community Q&A

Question

What is the average time of a rickroll?

Community Answer

It is usually the entirety of the song.
Question

Can i rickroll other people?

meow point1

Community Answer

You can, but it's not a polite thing to do. The reason it's impolite is because they were hoping for something different.
Question

What does it mean getting rickrolled?

Bruce

Community Answer

This is an internet meme where you click on a link and it takes you to a video of Rick Ashley's "Never gonna give you up" song. For example, a link can say "Click here to see how to get to college free!" but it takes you to a video.
Question

Why do people rick roll?

Bruce

Community Answer

It is just for fun! Its a harmless prank. However, when rickrolling someone, try not to get their hopes up too much.
Question

What if I wanted to intentionally and actively look for rickrolls?

Bruce

Community Answer

Then you wouldn't really be rickrolled. The point of rickrolls is to surprise the victim and also to play a little prank on them.
Question

Does it count if I got rickrolled when I heard the music, but paused it? Or, does it have to do the whole song?

Bruce

Community Answer

It does count if you were surprised to hear it. Moreover, you shouldn't make this like an Olympics game, this is just a fun little internet meme and let's keep it that way.

Warnings

Never tell other people that you're trying to avoid being rickrolled. They might use it against you.

Thanks!
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If you follow these instructions, but it happens anyway, this might make it more frustrating since your plans didn't work. If that happens, though, watch a different video to take your mind off it.

Thanks!
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