Rickrolling may be as old as the inventor of the internet Al Gore himself, but some jokes refuse to die. Luckily, the music video for Rick Astley’s 1987 debut hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” has been remastered in UHD, allowing wily pranksters to rickroll people in magnificent 4K resolution.
As reported by CNET (via engadget), YouTube user Revideo uploaded the gloriously remastered gem on January 31 of this year with little initial fanfare. Using Topaz Video Enhance, an AI-driven video upscaling program, Revideo was able to upgrade the 34-year-old clip to bleeding edge resolution and bump the framerate up to 60 frames per second with an open-source program called Flowframes. The end result is like standing in front of the same chain-link fence as Astley as he croons out the adult contemporary hit that launched his career.
Being someone who enjoys both comedy and joy, I appreciate a well-executed rickroll, except for that time I really needed a specific clip from 2008's The Incredible Hulk and could only find a rickroll version (this says a lot about both rickrolling and 2008's The Incredible Hulk). I also genuinely enjoy the song, and the storyline of the music video fascinates me to this day. It appears as though Rick and his friends are taking a break from their jobs as the catering staff of a popular wedding venue to cut loose in the empty reception hall and its adjoining parking lot, and that has been my head canon for the past three decades. My only wish is that this 4K remaster gets a special edition Blu-ray release featuring an audio commentary track by Astley that is itself a rickroll. You can check out the video below.