Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/14/oregon_astley/
Oregon legislators salute Rick Astley
'Never gonna give you up', promises House of Representatives
Posted in Bootnotes, 14th April 2011 09:28 GMT
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Oregon legislators have proved they're down with the kids by slipping the lyrics to Rick Astley's immortal Never Gonna Give You Up into otherwise deadly serious House of Representatives [1] business.
The rickrolling-inspired vid was posted on 1 April, and went viral earlier this week. It was the brainchild of Portland Democrat Jefferson Smith, who conspired with fellow House members to insert Astley into a month-long legislative session.
He told [2] Reuters: "It seemed non-time-consuming, funny and positive. Our country is facing some real partisan toxin. Any break from that seems not terrible."
Fellow Democrat Lew Frederick explained [3] to AP: "You just never knew when someone was going to bring it up. When they did, there was always sort of a mild chuckle among the folks who knew what was going on."
Republican Vicki Berger provided the vital "ooh". She said: "We do really work hard. But that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun and say 'ooh' on the floor."
Vic Gilliam, another Republican conspirator, concluded: "It was silly, but it was a great thing to sit back and laugh at ourselves and let other people laugh as well." ®