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Rickroll Hidden In Load Handler
Frontend Post #3911, on Nov 9, 2021 in TG

Rickroll Hidden In Load Handler

Why is this Frontend meme funny?

Level 1: Note In The Code

It is like opening a serious-looking instruction manual and finding a sticky note that tricks you into watching a silly video. The machine instructions are boring, but the hidden note is the prank.

Level 2: Load Event Bait

JavaScript is the programming language commonly used to make web pages interactive. An event listener tells the browser, "when this event happens, run this function." In the screenshot, the code listens for the "load" event and then calls load.

The funny part is that the function does not really do anything. It contains comments, including one asking who made this program? and another comment with a hidden link. Comments are ignored by the program, so they do not affect how the page runs. They are there for humans reading the code.

A rickroll is an internet prank where someone is tricked into opening a specific music video instead of what they expected. So this is developer humor mixed with meme culture: the code looks like a technical clue, but the actual destination is a familiar joke.

Level 3: Comment-Driven Payload

The visible JavaScript is almost aggressively ordinary:

function load() {
    // who made this program?
}

window.addEventListener("load", load, false);

The trick is that the real joke is in the omitted second comment line: it contains a link whose video ID is the classic rickroll destination. The post caption asks, "Guess where this links leads to," and the answer is not a production incident, a dependency graph, or a browser bug. It is internet culture hiding in a code comment, because apparently even source files need ambush comedy.

That contrast is the whole meme. window.addEventListener("load", load, false) registers a function to run when the browser window finishes loading. It is normal frontend event-handling code. The load function itself does nothing useful except contain comments. In a serious code review, this would be dead air: a function with no behavior and a comment that does not explain the system. In meme logic, though, the absence of behavior is misdirection. The payload is social, not executable.

Experienced developers have seen this exact species of artifact in real repositories: TODOs that outlived the original author, jokes in comments, mysterious links, passive-aggressive notes, and little fragments of team culture preserved between otherwise boring lines. Comments are supposed to clarify intent, but they also become the office bulletin board of a codebase. Sometimes that means architectural context. Sometimes it means the maintainers hid a pop-culture trap behind a harmless question like who made this program?

The joke also works because developers are trained to inspect suspicious code. A link inside a comment is not executed by JavaScript, but it still invites curiosity. The meme weaponizes that curiosity. The browser event listener is the decoy; the comment is where the developer gets pranked.

Description

A dark-themed code editor screenshot shows JavaScript with line numbers. The code defines `function load() {` and inside it has two comments: `// who made this program?` and `// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ`, then closes the function and registers `window.addEventListener("load", load, false);`. The caption asks "Guess where this links leads to," and the YouTube ID is the well-known Rick Astley rickroll link, making the hidden comment a developer-flavored internet prank embedded in otherwise ordinary browser event code.

Comments

33
Anonymous ★ Top Pick The real payload runs in the comments, which is still cleaner than most ad-tech bootstrap code.
  1. Anonymous ★ Top Pick

    The real payload runs in the comments, which is still cleaner than most ad-tech bootstrap code.

  2. @Danich 4y

    We're no strangers to love

    1. @feskow 4y

      You now the rules and so do I

  3. @p4vook 4y

    I'll distinguish it from thousand others

  4. @PatiHox 4y

    Is it github copilot rick rolling? :O

  5. @bishopphd 4y

    i am not making this up, this is real

    1. @sylfn 4y

      first screenshot: 3.141592658 -- last digit is not 8

      1. @bishopphd 4y

        yea... that too :D

      2. @feskow 4y

        Did you learn pi to this digit too?

        1. @sylfn 4y

          3 14 15 92 6 5 35 one digit more

          1. @feskow 4y

            3 14 15 926 535 897

            1. @sylfn 4y

              I think that these approximations to pi are good enough to be used instead of real value sqrt(10) or sqrt(9.9) cbrt(30) sqrt(g) 22/7 3

              1. @feskow 4y

                > 3 No

                1. @QutePoet 4y

                  If it's September then rotate the calendar.

                  1. @sylfn 4y

                    it's 9th month, November

                    1. @QutePoet 4y

                      However, please rotate the calendar!

                      1. @rezinno 4y

                        Maybe "flip the calendar over" or "turn it upside down"? You are asking the guy покрутить the calendar

                        1. @freeapp2014 4y

                          It’s more like повернуть

                          1. @rezinno 4y

                            You turn a page, but not rotate a page. Same here, obviously

                            1. @sylfn 4y

                              "go to next page"

                    2. @dugeru42 4y

                      be careful, he suffered from contagious russian mem "3rd of september"

                  2. @pod1425 4y

                    I rotated, and now it is September, but sideways

              2. Deleted Account 4y

                4

            2. @RiedleroD 4y

              man, that's one more than I know

        2. @p4vook 4y

          3.14152653589793

      3. Deleted Account 4y

        3.14159265358979323

  6. @Varty_G 4y

    You don't have to be a genius to recognise this link

  7. @Agent1378 4y

    Wgxcq? We know this one. It's darude sandstorm

  8. @p4vook 4y

    In war times

  9. @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 4y

    XcQ gone let me down

  10. @pod1425 4y

    This is rickroll. Not that difficult to memorise one link

    1. @sylfn 4y

      and next time you see link that goes to "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (non-rickroll link)"

  11. @dugeru42 4y

    oh shit it is already here

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