It was over ICQ, IRC or msn messenger back when all I had was dialup. A lot of modern internet culture seems to be appropriated from the kind of old web ne’er-do-wells I hung out with on IRC back in the day. Didn’t think to keep records tbh. The original ‘rickroll’ was goatse or lemon party (nsfw, tbh I would not google those if you don’t know what they are).
I do remember getting Rick rolled with Never gonna give you up by a counter strike clan team member over ventrilo back in 2005. It must be 2004-05 because the clan I was in disbanded after Oct. 2005.
Is linking a Rick roll a meme? I thought memes were reused images with text, guessing the definition is shifting. I saw someone calling numa numa a meme the other day.