Rick Roll Afterimage Optical Illusion

I found this top quality Afterimage illusion and started to write an article about it. The image was titled “rick roll illusion”, so I titled the article accordingly. The afterimage looked like the negative image of Bob Dylan, but Rick Roll is someone I never heard of. So I did a little research and was surprised by the results I received. Apparently, Rick-rolling is a prank and Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up” written and produced by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman known as Stock Aitken Waterman.

The meme is a classic bait and switch: a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video. The URL can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that the user cannot determine the true source of the link without clicking (and thus satisfying their curiosity). A person who falls for the prank is said to be “rickrolled”. The practice began as a variant of an earlier prank called duckrolling, in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photoshopped picture of a duck with wheels.

Concerning the illusion, it works in the same way as Jesus Afterimage. You just have to stare at the little plus sign in the middle for about a minute, and then quickly look at the white surface. The effect will be stronger if you blink your eyes repeatedly.

48 Replies to “Rick Roll Afterimage Optical Illusion”

  1. Hey! I really like this one, any idea how one would go about creating an image of their own face like this?

  2. OK – Vurdlak, you totally missed an opportunity here man. Every single link in your thread should point to the youtube rick roll video. Im frankly quite surprised that you didnt even try to sneak one in there.

  3. I see Elvis.

    No I see it….although, for a rick roll to work-you’re not supposed to let the “audience” know that they’re being Rickrolled…just put “Bob Dylan Afterimage” down for the title, leave out the explanation—then see if people get it.

    Then you could have the “answer” at the bottom of the page or hidden in a comment!

  4. 1st?
    really nice illusion. love the after image. my friend had the one with jesus as his background.

    if you have an apple computer, if you do ctrl – alt/option – apple – 8 you get the negative and the after image.

  5. This is amazing! I can see a framed black and white picture of i think Ricky Astley! it’s been 3 minutes since I stopped staring at the cross and i still see the image!!! Great! But how is it possible? Maja

  6. The link is the following…
    http://www.retrohack.org/err/diagnose.php

    It is easy to use in places such as DeviantArt, because the link can’t be seen, or you can use it in a picture link, so the link’s name can’t be seen

    Expect to be busy for five minutes or so if you ever fall for the prank…and keep your temper, peoplez!^^

  7. WTF! when i was blinking and looking at “rick roll” his eyes were going back and forth between me and the left of him! is that supposed to happen?!?!?!?!?

  8. YES!!!!!! THANKYOU ANONYMOUS NO.34!!!
    QUICK, EVERYBODY GO TO THE SITE ANONYMOUS 34 WAS TALKING ABOUT! IT’S GREAT!!!

  9. omg! for you to see it how this is efficient i looked at it for only ten seconds and when i blinked i could see perfectly his face!!

  10. omg! for you to see it how this is efficient i looked at it for only ten seconds and when i blinked i could see perfectly his face!!!

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