Rick Astley isn't dead (unofficial)

255762 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:25:00 GMT

Reports circling this morning saying that Rick Asltey, the king of Rickrolling, has died, are apparently fake. Thank the gods of Rickroll. Oh the perils of user generated content.

The reports first appeared on the CNN's user generated content website CNNi, before generating a few news reports. Including this one on the Maylasia Star that claimed he had died in his hotel in Berlin.

1980s pop icon Rick Astley, 43, found dead in Berlin hotel room
Malaysia Star - ‎1 hour ago‎
BERLIN: Known for his 1980s pop hit Never Gonna Give You Up, 43-year-old Rick Astley has been pronounced dead Tuesday. His body was found at the Angleterre Hotel...

The CNNi iReport said an ambulance responded to an emergency and Astley was found unconscious in his hotel bedroom and was unable to be resuscitated. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

There were also reports on this Indian website Ihatky.In, but oddly nowhere else.The Inquisitor and Twitter is emphatic and Twitter is awash with talk of another fake celebrity death. Rick Astley is the number one trending topic on Twitter outstripping even Michael Jackson for which I think people are thankful for.

The Inquistor says that unlike previous fake celebrity deaths, the use of CNN’s iReport gives this a little more legitimacy up front, at least if you don’t know how iReport works.

The site wrote: "iReport is open to all submissions without pre-publication review: I could submit a story saying Rick Astley is dead at the hands of an advanced civilization of alien music lovers and it would be published until such time CNN pulled it it. Rick Astley is not dead, Rick Astley has not died, Rick Astley was not attacked by aliens either."

Rick rolls on. Quite literally. Next.

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Rick Astley isn't dead (unofficial)