If you know what Rickrolling is, you can skip this first part. But if you don’t spend all your time in front of the computer: Rickrolling is an Internet phenomenon in which a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” is linked to as a prank. For example:

Ohmigod, Britney and Paris just drunk-drove into each other and then got out of their cars and started making out right in the middle of the street. Then Lindsay Lohan ran up naked and started hitting them over the head with a baseball bat. There’s video and everything, check it out!

So you click the link, but instead of the awesome thing you’ve been promised, you get:

You’ve just been Rickrolled! This has become a widespread practice. Why? If you have to ask, you’ll never know. It’s the Internet.

The LA Times tracked down Astley to ask him about it, and he seems pleasantly surprised about the whole thing. He realizes he’s being mocked, but he’s okay with it. One thing about his response kind of annoyed me, though:

…with all the renewed attention to his work and his — albeit 20-year-old — image, does Astley have any plans to cash in on Rickrolling, maybe with his own YouTube remix?

“I don’t really know whether I want to be doing that,” he said. “I’m not being an ageist, but it’s almost a young person’s thing, that.”

“I think the artist themselves trying to remix it is almost a bit sad,” he said. “No, I’m too old for that.”

Astley, who will be touring the U.K. in May with a group of other ’80’s acts, including Bananarama, and Nick Heyward, Heaven 17, Paul Young and ABC, sums up his thoughts on his unexpected virtual fame with characteristic good humor:

“Listen, I just think it’s bizarre and funny. My main consideration is that my daughter doesn’t get embarrassed about it.”

If you don’t want to embarrass your daughter by rehashing the past, why are you touring with Bananarama?

(Okay, so it’s not the worst offense ever on Deceiver. Slow news day. Plus, I just enjoy hating that video.)