This Rickrolling thing has really jumped the shark

Michael Arrington complains that "Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, posted a video of her cats on her official YouTube page and then promptly RickRolls viewers at the 37 second mark." Click through to see the video if you dare.

What I thought was especially telling was that after the Rickrolling starts, a message pops up. "Don't know why you're seeing Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' right now? Google 'Rick roll.'" Yes, explaining a joke that is 20 months old really makes this seem cutting edge.

Arrington concludes:

This is the person who becomes President of the United States of America if the right two people go down.

I’m moving to Canada.

And in response to a dissenter on Twitter:

@robinwauters it makes you smile because you live in Belgium. We have real problems to solve. She's suppos ed to be solving them.

Ouch.

Politicians are in a tough spot, I suppose, trying to seem relevant especially after the runaway popularity and pop culture diffusion of Barack Obama's candidacy, while still seeming in touch with the reliable contingent of older voters. Rickrolling people seems like exactly the wrong way to do it. But I strongly doubt Pelosi touched this project more than perhaps to approve it; probably some overzealous interns were the ones to film the cats, select the clip, etc. Pelosi is busy trying to consolidate the speaker's power instead. Reassured?