I was at my older son's elementary school graduation ceremony. In this ceremony, they fill up the gym with the whole school's students, teachers, plus all the graduating students' parents; so I would say there were several hundred if not a thousand people in attendance. After the graduating students received their certificates, as is custom, a slideshow with photos of every class in the school, taken throughout the school year that highlights the school year, gets played on a projection screen.

My son had the pleasure of making this slideshow along with 2 other boys in his class. They spent a lot of time and worked very hard on the slideshow, and I noticed small details such as interesting unique animations in all title pages that introduced each class. As the slideshow continued to play, and as I was starting to feel quite proud of my son's work, I started to catch a couple quick quarter second or half second flashes of Rick Astley, flashing in between photo transitions. I enjoyed the humor the boys introduced in their work and thought that it was a nice touch to subtly Rick Roll the whole school without making it obvious.

As the slideshow kept playing, Rick Astley seem to have stopped showing up. Just as I thought they decided to keep it low key, and just as I thought the Rick Rolling was over, Rick Astley showed up in full screen, dancing with music and all for a good 5 to 7 seconds. On the bottom half of the screen, a line of large red text was saying "You've been Rick Rolled." I guess not subtle after all.

I don't know if their teacher gave the approval on the Rick Roll, or they just added it in at the last minute, because I recall my son having a conference call with his partners making last minute changes to the slideshow last night. Either way, this is their last day of elementary school, so it's not like they could get punished for it or anything. Their teacher also seem to have a good sense of humor, so it might even be her idea. I'll ask my son about it when he gets home from school.

Apparently, Rick Rolling is still a thing in 2025. And when it happened, the kids screamed and cheered; the parents were smiling and laughing; I had a huge grin on my face.

Boys will be boys.