Is Nickelbacking the New Rickrolling?

 By 
Christine Erickson
 on 
Is Nickelbacking the New Rickrolling?
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For years, Rickrolling has been an important part of viral web culture -- so much so that there was outrage when it was almost banned by accident.

Over the weekend, I fell victim to a new Internet prank we're calling "Nickelbacking." Let us give you a demonstration. (NOTE: If you're in the office, plug your headphones in, or turn the volume down.)

While researching Tumblr tricks for power users, I stumbled upon Secret Tumblr Tricks. Go ahead and click on that link.

That's right, it's a Nickelbackroll.

If this takes off -- and it does seem to be spreading virally on Tumblr -- the opening bars of "Photograph" could become as horribly familiar as those of "Never Going to Give You Up."

Attempting the same trick on my own Tumblr URL -- that is, getting it to point to the video -- led to getting locked out of the network for "suspicious activity" and having to reset my password. (Sorry, Tumblr support team. It was in the name of Nickelback.)

Fair warning: it's safe to say that the stunt required a little bit of hacking.

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