Alright, nerds, just so we're clear, that was more than 15 years ago. Assuming this is current, which it probably isn't, that "53yo" dad was in his late 30s at the time, could very much have been posting about it when it happened. Given the current average age for having kids, "bumblebeebats" was probably wearing diapers by the time the Internet got to the point of entirely abstracting it to shapes. There is a longer period of time between loss.jpg and now than between the first rickroll and loss.jpg.

If it makes you feel any better, all of this is hurting me just as bad as it's hurting you.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's wild to me that ctl+alt+del is relevant today at all. I used to read webcomics in high school all the time, CAD included. Loss was definitely eye opening, it was a real moment of "wasn't this comic about video games?" But then it was forgotten about for so long. It's a marvel to me that random moment in such a dated comic got meme'd on this hard.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Aren't all (or almost all) memes famous randomly though? No one expected a sort of doofy photo of a teen to be famous for years for having bad luck, for example.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Very true! I guess I just never expected a random webcomic I stopped reading years ago to ever be relevant again haha.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It looks to be past-this-year-april-recent since the icon next to the username was a thing tumblr did for April Fools this year.

(Sorry old man)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

Even better. There's a solid chance Bumble wasn't even born when loss.jpg happened.

What a life.

[–] VubDapple 68 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It's a parent kind of fun to appropriate youth slang and use it wrong so that the kids find it cringy.

[–] radicalautonomy 4 points 4 months ago

This is the only reason I still teach teenagers after 17 years, and I will not expound further.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Rickroll: (v) to troll the youth using memes

Makes sense!

[–] [email protected] 53 points 4 months ago (1 children)

~~:.|:;~~

[–] [email protected] 72 points 4 months ago (1 children)

𓀥 𓁆 𓀕

𓁆 𓀟 𓀣 𓁀

[–] SLVRDRGN 16 points 4 months ago

Wow, so it is indeed hieroglyph.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 months ago (1 children)

"Under 30"? I'm 32 and I read Ctrl Alt Del in my sophomore year of high school. I was probably on the younger end of people reading it at the time it came out.

I swear the Internet is trying to make me feel ancient 💀

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Imagine actually having seen any Ctrl Alt Del comics other than Loss, can't be me

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I read a bunch of webcomics, and I currently read a bunch of manga, mahwa, manhua, web novels, and yes, still some webcomics. I have some favorites, but some aren't that good and are just junk food.

Ctrl Alt Del was never a favorite, nor something I'd check all the time, but every once in a while I'd click through it and read some of it. I probably read it similarly often as Penny Arcade, which didn't really appeal duper heavily to me either.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes this is close to my route as well. 90’s and 2000’s webcomics (Penny Arcade, Megatokyo, Looking For Group, Ctrl Alt Delete) and sprite comics (Bob and George), then to Manga Scanlations, Anime fan subs then Manwha, and the occasional Manhua. Currently destroying my neurons by wading through Isekai manga and Regression Manwha power or revenge fantasy nonsense.

But thinking back, those were fun days. The fun continues of course, just have to keep panning for new gold with new authors.

[–] SkyezOpen 2 points 4 months ago

I imagine they were funny like dane cook was funny.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago

It's more plausible that a 53 year old knows what a Rick roll is than for his kid to not know that

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 32 points 4 months ago (2 children)

He knows what a rick-roll is. Sus.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's been around 15 years and Astley did it as part of the Macy Day parade. It's the furthest thing from obscure.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I guess it would depend on where one's from then. I don't, as a northern European, have any clue what the Macy Day parade is. One needs to be a chronically online person to know what a rick roll is in my country, and I would call that phenomenon massively widespread in our online culture (well, back in the day). Someone being "very much not online" and at the same time being aware of Rick rolling is an oxymoron to me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's fair. It's well known in America as it's a big event for a big American holiday that's primarily watched by older, less online people and bored kids at a family members house which is why I bought it up. Local news was talking about the whole phenomenon because if it. But out of that American context you're right that it wouldn't be as meaningful.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't think you need to be chronically online in Australia to know about it either, and we don't watch the parade. We do share a language, and more importantly, most popular music with y'all though.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Most people here would definitely know the song. The song itself has become incredibly popular, of course. But the phenomenon of trolling someone with a rick-roll would be too obscure for someone described as "very-much-not-online".

So that's the context I made my comment in. Internet culture is huge here, but it lives on the internet. But hey, in no way am I the decider on what is normal elsewhere.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

That's all really fair. But I also just assumed he was parroting what the mother had called it, and that she was just blissfully unaware that she'd mixed the memes.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You're right he's old, he probably knows a Rick-roll as the new and improved Goatse.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Ackshually, the Rickroll is the new and improved Duckroll.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The problem I had was "very-much-not-online" and knowing what a rick-roll is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Wait, I assumed the mum, blissfully unaware of her own ignorance, taught him loss but called it a rick-roll?

[–] cmbabul 27 points 4 months ago

At this point I just assume the whole internet is actually Loss in some way or the other

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (1 children)

dude has loss memorised😭

[–] AdolfSchmitler 8 points 4 months ago

Don't we all?

[–] HollowNaught 21 points 4 months ago

He's not wrong tho

[–] SLVRDRGN 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Posted 1h ago, 20 years ago.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

I fuckin wish you people were ready to admit it hasn't been funny for twenty years

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

I'm 56 and has to have the context explained to me when I saw it pop out of the meme-o-sphere.

[–] Psythik 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Since when does Rick Rolling have a symbol?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

the symbol isn't referring to the rickroll, but the symbol for loss.jpg