"Rick-Rolling" Oregon lawmakers a hit on YouTube
PORTLAND, Ore | Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:04am EDT
(Reuters) - Oregon state lawmakers, capitalizing on a long-running Internet meme, have created a YouTube sensation by slipping the lyrics from a song by 1980s pop star Rick Astley into floor speeches.
Videotapes of the speeches by a dozen Republicans and Democrats were cobbled together with Astley's 1987 hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up," and released on April Fool's Day -- already logging some 782,000 views.
The video was apparently inspired by an Internet prank, at least several years old, that involves providing a hyperlink that dupes the viewer into watching Astley's video.
"It seemed non-time-consuming, funny and positive," Portland Democrat Jefferson Smith said. "Our country is facing some real partisan toxin. Any break from that seems not terrible."
Other members of the Oregon state House of Representatives went along.
"It was fun," Sara Gelser, a Democrat from Corvallis said, adding that "for five minutes I was cool" to her kids.
"No bills were harmed in the making of this video. Indeed, every bill discussed in the video passed," the video says.
Participants were also quick to point out that no public money was used.
(Reporting by Teresa Carson; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jerry Norton)
Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)
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