The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:23, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• ... that a meme originating on 4chan has been used by Apple, the White House, an MLB stadium, and a Disney film?

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Factor Bikes

— Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 01:32, 29 January 2026 (UTC).[reply]

• Comment: I would like to suggest an alternate hook for WP:DYKAPRIL. I think this alt hook would pair best with this image.

  ALT1: ... that you just got Rickrolled? ArtemisiaGentileschiFan (talk) 04:19, 29 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  • I like what you're thinking, and I agree that this article would be great for April Fools Day. But I intend to bring this article all the way to FA, eventually, so I'm hoping to wait until then for this to run on the April Fools Main Page. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 18:25, 31 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    • if you're doing an april fool's hook, might as well go all the way with something like "... that you know the rules, and so do I?" ltbdl (taste) 17:19, 24 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]
      • @Vigilantcosmicpenguin: Are you planning to take this to FA, or should I just review this for WP:DYKAPRIL right now anyways (since it's at 16 slots now and the QR code would make a great topper; also it's been open more than a month now)? I think ALT1 would spoil the joke too much, so I'd recommend something as vague as possible in accordance with DYKAPRIL rules for outrageous hooks. ミラP@Miraclepine 18:54, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]
        • @Miraclepine: It will be a while before I'm ready to bring this to FA; that would be an APRIL TFA for next year. I just think a TFA prank would be funnier than a DYK prank, and it would be less effective if it happened on two consecutive April Fool's Days, which is why I advise against an April Fool's DYK. I would prefer that you review ALT0 as a regular hook—but if enough people want this article for DYKAPRIL, I would accept it. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 22:55, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]
          • To be honest, an authentic TFA prank in the spirit of the Rickroll trolling would be extremely difficult to not give away given the usual size of the TFA blurb (which most viewers are used to), whereas a DYK blurb is short enough to make the blurb vague enough to make the prank authentic. I'm reviewing the GA and ALT0 (though I started last night and forgot to note so at that time), but I'll object to having ALT1 or the "you know the rules" proposal for DYKAPRIL since they also give away the joke. ミラP@Miraclepine 13:58, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing: - A few failed verification tags, but that's about it.
• Neutral:
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Overall: Promoted to GA on nom day, size 33 kB. QR code is used in page, is PD, and works at 120px. ALT0 checks out and is verified, but I'll propose ALT0B in case this is approved for DYKAPRIL, provided Rickrolled is approved for such (the WaPo ref verifies the "popular" part by saying it has one billion views); the link is fixed so that it's in line with the prank:

• ALT0b: ... that a popular video has been used by Apple, the White House, an MLB stadium, and a Disney film?

@Vigilantcosmicpenguin: What do you think? ミラP@Miraclepine 19:42, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• @Miraclepine: ALT0b is technically not accurate as it says "video", but some of these just used the song itself. Either the original ALT0 or another similar hook would be acceptable. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 21:46, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the minor confusion - I spent a lot of time reviewing all the GA references. So, how about this: a technically-accurate ALT0c which is designed to mislead in line with DYKAPRIL, and a more airtight but less April Foolsy ALT0d.

• ALT0c: ... that a popular song has been used by Apple, the White House, an MLB stadium, and a Disney film?
• ALT0d: ... that a popular meme has been used by Apple, the White House, an MLB stadium, and a Disney film?

For verifying ALT0c: Apple uses the lyrics; White House and MLB uses the music video; Disney uses the meme but ref doesn't say in toto the song is sung, which may attract verification concerns, but I found a ref which confirms this. Regarding Apple and Disney, the lyrics (sung or not; as well as even covered) are technically part of the song, which may help with the confusion part of the meme even as it's technically accurate. Oh, and for ALT0d: all four refs say they're using the meme.

@Vigilantcosmicpenguin: Thoughts? ミラP@Miraclepine 22:08, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Miraclepine: Yep, these hooks should work. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 22:55, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Vigilantcosmicpenguin: Shouldn't the failed verification tags be fixed first before I can approve? ミラP@Miraclepine 22:57, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I see they're fixed (didn't notice this earlier since I usually don't watch reviewed DYK noms. With one minor fix done, I'll mark this as approved, especially for DYKAPRIL. ミラP@Miraclepine 13:48, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I completely oppose ALT0c, of course, as the article is not for the song. I believe ALT1 or a variation would be much better for this article than just listing companies that used it. Skyshiftertalk 17:42, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I personally would do something like

ALT2: ... that this is not a Rickroll?

Skyshiftertalk 18:09, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• I don't think ALT2 would work. WP:DYKAPRIL states that all hooks must be truthful, and this is the opposite. I also believe "this is a rickroll" would be equally funny as "this is not a rickroll"; either way, the joke is the same, as it is obvious that the link is a rickroll. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 20:32, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

An actual rickroll would be ALT3: ... that you can download Radiohead's album In Rainbows here?, although perhaps you'd want something that doesn't only tickle fans of that band.--Launchballer 08:51, 15 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I think it would be very difficult to manage an actual rickroll in a DYK hook—least of all because a cryptic link on April Fool's Day will make people expect a rickroll. It requires a statement that fits the format, has some connection to the article, and will actually get clicks. That's part of why I was hoping to (eventually) bring this to FA. My idea is that the April Fool's main page will display a completely different TFA, but all the links will lead to this instead. I believe a TFA would be a much more awesome prank as there's more certainty that people will click on it.
My ALT0 hook was intended to strike a balance between being kind of a rickroll, and still being a solid fact for a normal DYK day. The hook doesn't use the word "rickroll", so readers might be amused by the link target. But this angle would only work if it's not April Fool's Day, so it's less obvious. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 06:15, 19 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• @Vigilantcosmicpenguin, ArtemisiaGentileschiFan, Ltbdl, Miraclepine, Skyshifter, and Launchballer:, have we decided what we're doing here. The only hook I can see that is approved and hasn't been objected to is ALT0d. Are we all happy with this? Is this to run on April Fools? This nomination reaches WP:TIMEOUT in 9 days, which while a bit away, isn't forever. Ps, I've added the QR code as an image in case this gets a image slot. TarnishedPath^talk 08:14, 20 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Given Vigilantcosmicpenguin's explanation about how the hook would work, and of course that ALT0d's clickbait function works so well, I'm fine with this being run at any time possible, though I'd recommend right before April Fools' Day or (since a huge chunk of our readers is hours awake after the GMT, as I can personally testify in my capacity as a long-time East Coast resident) the first April 2 queue. ミラP@Miraclepine 14:37, 20 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• I have temporarily pulled the hook from Queue per a WT:DYK discussion. There is currently disagreement on whether the hook would be more effective with or without the QR code, especially when paired with the approved hook (I personally would prefer a non-image slot to avoid giving away the surprise, but I will defer to consensus). Note that, though the nomination turns two months old in a few days, given the circumstances as this pull was mainly due to questions on hook placement rather than an article or hook issue, this should not be timed-out. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 01:57, 26 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]
  • Upon rethinking this, I feel that the rickroll is so globally renowned that people who expect a rickroll will still click it anyways, so the concerns about giving away the surprise would be outweighed by the amount of clicks we would get; after all, DYK is primarily about views. (Also, if we don't allow humorous stuff outside of AFD, it would potentially make DYK boring by undermining the ability to come up with witty hooks that meet DYKINT.) On the other hand, allowing a QR code without context would open the floodgates for encouraging the use of external links through QR codes, so if we do run the QR code we need a new hook mentioning the meme was used in the QR code; that would also satisfy anyone concerned the QR code would give away the surprise since I feel anyone unaware of the rickroll would expect less of a bait-and-switch meme if the QR code was treated as part of the meme's existence. ALT0d is still a backup in case of a lack of consensus for the QR code. ミラP@Miraclepine 03:27, 29 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    • Okay, I got it:
    • ALT0e: ... that a popular meme has been used in a Disney film, QR codes (pictured), and scholarly literature? When you do stick around through the end credits, you’ll instead be treated to a re-enactment of the “Never Gonna Give You Up” video from singer Rick Astley that’s become synonymous with RickRolling. Yes, that’s right: the end of Ralph Breaks the Internet is a RickRoll. + Our results are clearcut: as of March 11 2022, there are 34 academic documents with a mention to Rick Astley’s video. In this paper, we exhaustively study them, one by one, to identify the intent and form of the rickrolling followed by a table of scholarly literature identified as rickrolls + Indeed, we found 1614 scans of 40 un-shortened codes and 24 shortened codes containing the URL of the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) by devices in 63 countries. The simplest code for a rickroll (with only the URL presented above) was scanned over a thousand times and was likely created by many different people who all chose to create identical codes which were scanned in a diversity of places and at differing times.
    • Thoughts? ミラP@Miraclepine 20:52, 29 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I still feel we should not run with the QR code. It just seems way too on-the-nose. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 00:26, 1 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Narutolovehinata5:, given the lack of discussion from anyone else, and in the interests of getting this moving, you could provide approval for ALT0e without providing approval for the image. TarnishedPath^talk 04:42, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@TarnishedPath: The whole point of ALT0e was to link the QR code mention with the actual QR code. If this is going to run without an image, and that is probably the best option, it would be better to run with something like either ALT0c or ALT0d. I can do that if you're okay with not going with ALT0e or anything mentioning the QR code. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 04:55, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Narutolovehinata5:, that's fine by me. TarnishedPath^talk 05:07, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Approving only ALT0c or ALT0d, without an image. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 05:42, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]