Rick Astley: A Remastered Video of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Freaks Fans Out
A 4K version of the ’80s Rick Astley hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up” is freaking people out. The iconic original video, which came out in 1987, features the then-21-year-old, red-headed Rick Astley in a warehouse belting the jam out in his signature deep voice. The 4K version showcases just how low-budget looking it is, causing varying reactions online.
This new video isn’t an official remaster from Astley or his record label. It was made by YouTube user Revideo using AI-powered tools Topaz Video Enhance AI, which — as Uproxx reports — upscales video resolution without losing visual clarity, and RIFE (Real-Time Intermediate Flow Estimation for Video Frame Interpolation), which generates new video frames that go between existing ones to increase the video’s framerate.
The video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” started a phenomenon called “Rickrolling”, which is a bait-and-switch prank involving posting a hyperlink that is supposedly relevant to the topic at hand in an online discussion, but re-directs the viewer to the music video of “Never Gonna Give You Up”.
Here as some of the mixed reviews:
therapist: 60fps 4k rick astley isn’t real, he can’t hurt you
— jin 🍓🐰 (@ddalgitokki29) February 18, 2021
60fps 4k rick astley:pic.twitter.com/UoNHaPUrAL
when i saw rick astley trending i thought something bad happened, instead it’s just twitter rickrolling itself in 4k pic.twitter.com/d25dpaZNtI
— infinity (@infinity_mcyt) February 18, 2021
We need to talk about how the dancer playing the bartender in the Rick Astley video goes on a JOURNEY....#rickastley Never Gonna Give You Up 4k 60FPS pic.twitter.com/j3UhYPAIxL
— Rachel Griffiths As Everybody (@CraigStevenHil2) February 18, 2021
4K Rick Astley is crisper than McDonalds Sprite. IT LOOKS SO GOOD!!!pic.twitter.com/UQImEre8c7
— Sir Pauer (@SirPauer) February 18, 2021
My kids reacting to Rick Astley in high def is like when I realized the 1950s were actually in color
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 18, 2021
