As a well-informed follower of pop culture (after all, you're reading AfterElton), you're probably familiar with the Rickroll, where a link to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video is sprung on an unsuspecting clicker. You might get an e-mail promising footage of the Nuke kisses taken out of the Valentine's and Christmas episodes of As the World Turns and instead you get a Stock Aitken Waterman single stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

The internet prank reached new levels of prominence recently when YouTube redirected all the videos featured on its front page to the Rickroll video for April Fool's Day. Even The Soup got into the action last weekend, playing a clip from the video after setting the audience up for a LA Ink clip.

Now, a contributor at Pam's House Blend is saying that the origin of the Rickroll is based on homophobic humor. According to the entry, the meme started after a Family Guy episode introduced the song with the words, "Here's a song by a gay guy." Family Guy fans repeated the introduction until it morphed into the Rickroll video. He explains his first encounter with the Rickroll:

I was introducted to Rickrolling by my teenage nephew about a year or so ago. My nephew told me that he and his friends amuse themselves by sending music and video clips of Rick Astley via e-mail, and cellphone.

When my nephew showed me the video of Rick Astley singing Never gonna Give You Up on YouTube, he laughed out loud uncontrolably. Then, I asked him, "Why do you think this is so funny?"

Silence.

Uh, oh. I'd seen that silent response before. My nephew suddenly remembered that his favorite uncle is gay. He was at a loss for words as to how to explain why he finds Rick Astley to be funny.

I had to press him for the truth, "Is it because he looks gay?"

"Uh, it isn't that he looks so gay, Uncle Fritz. It is because, uh, his voice doesn't fit the way he looks."

"Gay?"

Silence.

He suggests a counter-meme, the Bananaramaroll, which would trade Astley's tune with Bananarama's "I Heard a Rumor". The idea of Bananarama going viral makes me pretty happy, particularly since the video has some memorable choreography, hunky guys and has Siobhan, Sara and Keren looking like this:

Still, that makes me look at the Rickroll in a different light. The point of a joke is in the eye of the beholder and while I laugh at the Rickroll for the bland catchiness of "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Astley's hypnotic, cheeseball dance moves, I can see how some people probably do see the joke as "He's so gay." Not because Astley is openly gay (as far as I know he isn't) but because they don't find him sufficiently manly. What do you think? Is there a homophobia at the root of the joke?

(And as a side note, after looking for the images for this post I'll be spending the rest of the day submerged in a world of Stock Aitken Waterman, I can't help it.